Hey Siri, I need directions Directions to Where? Home You'll need to unlock your iPhone first.
Maddening, since my phone is also smart enough to know I am DRIVING. Seems counter to all the things we are told about using our phones while driving, since I need to lift my phone out of its holder and take my attention OFF THE ROAD to unlock my phone.
Works for me, just tried it. You probably don’t have “Allow Siri When Locked” on. Also, just say “Hey, Siri take me home”.
Why would you need to lift your phone off a holder? You should have it oriented so you can easily unlock it with Face ID and you wouldn’t even need to touch it.
Siri says more about the astonishing lack of vision in Apple's management than any other product. Siri could have been the answer to problem of how to access the vast number of options and features in the operating system and apps without wading through many levels of menus and screens. Siri could have been a way to easily converse with your devices to get your work done. It could have run from your home hub while you are at home to keep everything you say private. It could have been the solution Apple was looking for to make everything fully accessible to the deaf and anyone else who could not look at or touch a screen such as people who are driving. Siri could have been the center of your home control making it easy to adjust the thermostat, brew your morning coffee or turn off the lights.
Siri is none of those things because of Apple management's total lack of imagination and need for absolute control over everything. This is why Siri's voice recognition has to phone back to Apple's own servers exposing everything you say potential security threats. This is why there is no open standard for home control that Apple's products can use. It is why you can't access vital hardware and software features of your iPhone with a simple voice command. The creative, surprising, amazing Apple vision died with Steve Jobs. What's left is a greedy husk of a company that is only interested in short term profit.
What’s weird is you can literally do many of the things you say it doesn’t do.
One of the most annoying limitations of Siri for me though it it does not integrate with the Notes App. I can set a Reminder, but I don’t use Reminders. I’d love to be able to tap my AW and say Make a QuickNote, Eggs, Cheese, Spark Plugs, and have it create it.
Here’s an article from a decade ago on how to use Siri with Notes. I’m sure there are more recent ones with more features described, but it’s weird that you never bothered to like, look this up as Siri has been integrated with Notes since the iPhone 4s came out.
On the other hand, whenever I whisper "Alexa, cancel my alarm" when I get up prior to my alarm going off and Alexa whispers back "Alarm cancelled," it seems somewhat magical, or magical compared to Siri who would blast back a response at the current (non whisper) volume which would solicit scorn from my previously sleeping but now rudely awakened wife.
These are the kinds of awesome touches and attention to detail Apple used to add to their devices, and are one of the reasons many of us have been fans of Apple for many, many years. But that provides no tangible increase in profitability so now Cook "optimises" that kind of thing out. Siri's sass went the same way.
4. "Hey Siri......" (waiting for acknowledgement)...."open my....." [interrupts "Mmmhmmm?].
User error: You’re not supposed to wait for acknowledgment, just continue speaking and it’ll work much more reliably.
Ignorance error. For some devices, especially over Bluetooth, you have to wait for the bonk bonk acknowledgement, because it takes a while for the phone/BT device to switch from A2DP mode to headset mode.
On the other hand, whenever I whisper "Alexa, cancel my alarm" when I get up prior to my alarm going off and Alexa whispers back "Alarm cancelled," it seems somewhat magical, or magical compared to Siri who would blast back a response at the current (non whisper) volume which would solicit scorn from my previously sleeping but now rudely awakened wife.
These are the kinds of awesome touches and attention to detail Apple used to add to their devices, and are one of the reasons many of us have been fans of Apple for many, many years. But that provides no tangible increase in profitability so now Cook "optimises" that kind of thing out. Siri's sass went the same way.
So bizarre that people actually think Cook has anything to do with user interface design.
4. "Hey Siri......" (waiting for acknowledgement)...."open my....." [interrupts "Mmmhmmm?].
User error: You’re not supposed to wait for acknowledgment, just continue speaking and it’ll work much more reliably.
Ignorance error. For some devices, especially over Bluetooth, you have to wait for the bonk bonk acknowledgement, because it takes a while for the phone/BT device to switch from A2DP mode to headset mode.
Not sure what that has to do with anything; that's not how Siri works at all. The only reason you get "mmm hmm" from Siri is if you unnecessarily pause before your query.
I use Siri every day for the things it's good at, which are many.
"Hey Siri, what's news" to my HomePod mini, plays the most recently hourly NPR news podcast, while I make coffee. "Hey Siri, add coffee to Shopping list" adds that to my "Shopping" list in Reminders "Hey Siri, remove coffee from Shopping list" removes it when I've grabbed it at the store "Hey Siri, read my Shopping list" to hear what's remaining on the list "Hey Siri, remind me to water the plants when I get to work" creates a geofenced reminder when I arrive at my office "Hey Siri, take me home" to immediately get directions to my home address "Hey Siri, turn on Light Mode" to my Mac when I'm working outside in bright sunlight "Hey Siri, remind me about this" — This being a mail message, web page in Safari, so forth – adds link to message or URL to article in Reminders "Hey Siri, remind me about this (at a time/place) — same but at a specific place or time "Hey Siri, play TuneIn" — triggers Shortcut to launch TuneIn Radio and most recently played channel "Hey Siri, log my weight" "Shortcuts says how much do you weigh?" "198" "Done." — adds my weight to the Health app "Hey Siri, what's on my Calendar tomorrow?" – lists all events tomorrow "Hey Siri, what am I listening to?" — Shazam
Timers, messaging or replying to messages, doing math, checking weather (Hey Siri, is it going to rain today?) calling, random questions ... it's enormously useful.
It boggles the mind that people literally disable this service because they haven't figured out how to use it well. From previous threads in this forum, it's pretty clear that a lot of people either haven't spent the time to learn how to use Siri efficiently or correctly and get frustrated when it doesn't work the way they imagine it should work.
I think it is Siri I have in my car as "CarPlay" as reading and responding to messages while driving. That works very good. On my phone or computer I use Siri close to never, My smarthome works on Google and Alexa as more device choices and -I think the HomePod is not really nice looking, and that is an important thing to my home decor as I things needs to look nice. Google and Alexa can be hidden away as they are quite ugly too.
I don’t use “Hey Siri”. I use the button on my AW or iPhone to call it up. That saves a lot of confusion. My SO OTOH will often ask “Siri, What time do the Twins play today?” And get two, sometimes three devices all answering at once. Siri will also drop a non sequetor into the middle of a conversation. We didn’t say Hey Siri, but it thought we did and it tries to reply.
I find what Siri does, it does well. It will set a timer for me without fail. It will call up a game time with no problem. On the other hand I have never had any luck with requests that involve if/then logic. “Remind me to do X when I get home” has never elicited any response worth mention. So I just don’t do that.
This sounds like a home WiFi/Bluetooth issue. All Siri listening devices talk to each other via WiFi or Bluetooth. One device claims ownership of the "Hey Seri..." command and informs the others, "I've got this!". If they cannot communicate properly, then multiple will answer. Look for 2.4GHz (WiFi/BlueTooth) interference in your home environment.
Regarding "Notes" vs. Lists - the Reminder app is also a "List" app (although not advertised that way, and sometimes not so clear.)
Create a list in the Reminders app named "Shopping List" or whatever. Then you can say, "Hey Siri, add bla bla to my Shopping list".
Siri says more about the astonishing lack of vision in Apple's management than any other product. Siri could have been the answer to problem of how to access the vast number of options and features in the operating system and apps without wading through many levels of menus and screens. Siri could have been a way to easily converse with your devices to get your work done. It could have run from your home hub while you are at home to keep everything you say private. It could have been the solution Apple was looking for to make everything fully accessible to the deaf and anyone else who could not look at or touch a screen such as people who are driving. Siri could have been the center of your home control making it easy to adjust the thermostat, brew your morning coffee or turn off the lights.
Siri is none of those things because of Apple management's total lack of imagination and need for absolute control over everything. This is why Siri's voice recognition has to phone back to Apple's own servers exposing everything you say potential security threats. This is why there is no open standard for home control that Apple's products can use. It is why you can't access vital hardware and software features of your iPhone with a simple voice command. The creative, surprising, amazing Apple vision died with Steve Jobs. What's left is a greedy husk of a company that is only interested in short term profit.
With iOS 15, Apple does do some on device processing as it allows for better privacy, security, less bandwidth and less server usage/dependance. Voice processing is a very complex process, with all the languages and dialects out there. Tell me, what competitor, uses on device processing? Do you expect the $25 smart speaker to have on device processing? As has been discussed many times before, Siri isn't as advanced because Apple cared about privacy and didn't vacuum up all the voice sales they could, like their competitor. Then you have the people who don't learn how to use it, get frustrated and turn it off..... which leads to Siri not learning more. The open standard for home control, is Thread that Apple does want to use. Only interested in short term profit? Right because donating to causes, running classes, Apple Arcade, Apple News, Apple TV are all short term profits.
I have hey Siri turn off for most of my stuff. I hit a button, and most stuff is done correctly.
Siri says more about the astonishing lack of vision in Apple's management than any other product. Siri could have been the answer to problem of how to access the vast number of options and features in the operating system and apps without wading through many levels of menus and screens. Siri could have been a way to easily converse with your devices to get your work done. It could have run from your home hub while you are at home to keep everything you say private. It could have been the solution Apple was looking for to make everything fully accessible to the deaf and anyone else who could not look at or touch a screen such as people who are driving. Siri could have been the center of your home control making it easy to adjust the thermostat, brew your morning coffee or turn off the lights.
Siri is none of those things because of Apple management's total lack of imagination and need for absolute control over everything. This is why Siri's voice recognition has to phone back to Apple's own servers exposing everything you say potential security threats. This is why there is no open standard for home control that Apple's products can use. It is why you can't access vital hardware and software features of your iPhone with a simple voice command. The creative, surprising, amazing Apple vision died with Steve Jobs. What's left is a greedy husk of a company that is only interested in short term profit.
With iOS 15, Apple does do some on device processing as it allows for better privacy, security, less bandwidth and less server usage/dependance. Voice processing is a very complex process, with all the languages and dialects out there.
Apple says that all audio is processed on device. From the iOS 15 page on apple.com:
“Audio of your request never leaves your device” and “Siri adds on-device speech recognition, so the audio of your requests is processed on your iPhone or iPad by default.9 And on-device processing also means Siri can perform many tasks without an internet connection”
I have very few issues with Siri and use it every day for all sorts of things. However, I have no doubt that others have issues where I have none. I have seen screenshots of Siri failing to correctly answer a query but when I ask the exact same question I get the desired result. It’s a little bizarre.
That said, it’s total BS that Siri is markedly worse than other voice assistants. I’m between homes right now and living with a friend that has an Echo and an Echo Show (I don’t get wanting to see ads all day long but I guess some people like it). The Echo Show is in their kitchen.
The other day she said, “Alexa, what is the hourly weather at 1:00?”
Alexa, “The weather at 9:00 is…”
This started my friend making repeated requests for the same info at least two more times, telling and then yelling “ALEXA STOP!” as it continued to give the incorrect info. It finally worked on her fourth try. It also starts talking at random much more than my HomePod ever did, it’s multiple times a day, sometimes when nobody is talking at all. She sets timers with it a few times a day but it rarely hears her say “Alexa stop” on her first try and then she raises her voice. That’s from fewer than 10’ away.
We are still at the beginning stages of voice assistants, even 10 years in. There’s no clear winner in the field and things will only get better with time.
On the other hand, whenever I whisper "Alexa, cancel my alarm" when I get up prior to my alarm going off and Alexa whispers back "Alarm cancelled," it seems somewhat magical, or magical compared to Siri who would blast back a response at the current (non whisper) volume which would solicit scorn from my previously sleeping but now rudely awakened wife.
These are the kinds of awesome touches and attention to detail Apple used to add to their devices, and are one of the reasons many of us have been fans of Apple for many, many years. But that provides no tangible increase in profitability so now Cook "optimises" that kind of thing out. Siri's sass went the same way.
So bizarre that people actually think Cook has anything to do with user interface design.
Not directly, but then it's unlikely he has anything directly to do with many aspects of the company. Doesn't mean his drive for more profit isn't the reason there are more bugs and less refinement nowadays. Spending less time on things like Siri's sass and finishing touches means developers spend time on other things that are deemed more profitable.
4. "Hey Siri......" (waiting for acknowledgement)...."open my....." [interrupts "Mmmhmmm?].
User error: You’re not supposed to wait for acknowledgment, just continue speaking and it’ll work much more reliably.
Ignorance error. For some devices, especially over Bluetooth, you have to wait for the bonk bonk acknowledgement, because it takes a while for the phone/BT device to switch from A2DP mode to headset mode.
Not sure what that has to do with anything; that's not how Siri works at all. The only reason you get "mmm hmm" from Siri is if you unnecessarily pause before your query.
Well except it is. Just because you are ignorant of something doesn't mean your idea of how it works is right. That is exactly how Siri works with A2DP devices. The pause is required because that's the time needed to switch to headset mode. Why is it when I say "Hey siri play highway to hell" through my car's microphone, all it hears is "Hey siri" and "hell"?
Siri says more about the astonishing lack of vision in Apple's management than any other product. Siri could have been the answer to problem of how to access the vast number of options and features in the operating system and apps without wading through many levels of menus and screens. Siri could have been a way to easily converse with your devices to get your work done. It could have run from your home hub while you are at home to keep everything you say private. It could have been the solution Apple was looking for to make everything fully accessible to the deaf and anyone else who could not look at or touch a screen such as people who are driving. Siri could have been the center of your home control making it easy to adjust the thermostat, brew your morning coffee or turn off the lights.
Siri is none of those things because of Apple management's total lack of imagination and need for absolute control over everything. This is why Siri's voice recognition has to phone back to Apple's own servers exposing everything you say potential security threats. This is why there is no open standard for home control that Apple's products can use. It is why you can't access vital hardware and software features of your iPhone with a simple voice command. The creative, surprising, amazing Apple vision died with Steve Jobs. What's left is a greedy husk of a company that is only interested in short term profit.
With iOS 15, Apple does do some on device processing as it allows for better privacy, security, less bandwidth and less server usage/dependance. Voice processing is a very complex process, with all the languages and dialects out there. Tell me, what competitor, uses on device processing? Do you expect the $25 smart speaker to have on device processing? As has been discussed many times before, Siri isn't as advanced because Apple cared about privacy and didn't vacuum up all the voice sales they could, like their competitor. Then you have the people who don't learn how to use it, get frustrated and turn it off..... which leads to Siri not learning more. The open standard for home control, is Thread that Apple does want to use. Only interested in short term profit? Right because donating to causes, running classes, Apple Arcade, Apple News, Apple TV are all short term profits.
I have hey Siri turn off for most of my stuff. I hit a button, and most stuff is done correctly.
Well Mac OS 9 had on-device voice processing, as did the iPhone 1/3G/3Gs. So you're saying only now has the A15 caught up with the 150MHz PPC603 CPU in Macs from 1996? Oh and you must have missed the news where it turned out Apple was surreptitiously sending voice recordings to be reviewed without customer's permission. What's that about privacy again?
Thank you. I knew at least part of Siri processing is done on device, I just didn't remember that all of it was done on device.
All of it is not done on-device. Until recently, only the conversion from voice to text was done on device (with the odd bit of audio being sent to Apple for review as they saw fit) - with the interpretation of what you meant done on Apple's servers. Now more of the interpretation is done on-device, but not all.
elijahg said: Well except it is. Just because you are ignorant of something doesn't mean your idea of how it works is right. That is exactly how Siri works with A2DP devices. The pause is required because that's the time needed to switch to headset mode. Why is it when I say "Hey siri play highway to hell" through my car's microphone, all it hears is "Hey siri" and "hell"?
Do you have "Hey Siri" turned on, on your phone? Is your phone usually within listening distance when you want to invoke Siri?
Then "Hey Siri" should "just work". In both of our vehicles (2014 Nissan Leaf & 2012 Toyota Prius) & a rental 2021 Nissan Kicks, my iPhone is paired with the car. If my phone is on the console, in the passenger seat, etc. (so it can hear "Hey Sir"), I can just say "Hey siri play highway to hell", and the iPhone picks it up perfectly well, and does the command after switching to the car audio. The Nissan Kicks renal did have CarPlay, and I used it sometimes (had to plug phone in), and with or without using CarPlay, "Hey Siri" just worked as long as the iPhone could hear me.
This didn't always work (it used to work as you explained), and I'm not sure when it started working. It might have been iOS 14. If your OS is up to date, you might want to give it a try.
Siri says more about the astonishing lack of vision in Apple's management than any other product. Siri could have been the answer to problem of how to access the vast number of options and features in the operating system and apps without wading through many levels of menus and screens. Siri could have been a way to easily converse with your devices to get your work done. It could have run from your home hub while you are at home to keep everything you say private. It could have been the solution Apple was looking for to make everything fully accessible to the deaf and anyone else who could not look at or touch a screen such as people who are driving. Siri could have been the center of your home control making it easy to adjust the thermostat, brew your morning coffee or turn off the lights.
Siri is none of those things because of Apple management's total lack of imagination and need for absolute control over everything. This is why Siri's voice recognition has to phone back to Apple's own servers exposing everything you say potential security threats. This is why there is no open standard for home control that Apple's products can use. It is why you can't access vital hardware and software features of your iPhone with a simple voice command. The creative, surprising, amazing Apple vision died with Steve Jobs. What's left is a greedy husk of a company that is only interested in short term profit.
With iOS 15, Apple does do some on device processing as it allows for better privacy, security, less bandwidth and less server usage/dependance. Voice processing is a very complex process, with all the languages and dialects out there. Tell me, what competitor, uses on device processing? Do you expect the $25 smart speaker to have on device processing? As has been discussed many times before, Siri isn't as advanced because Apple cared about privacy and didn't vacuum up all the voice sales they could, like their competitor. Then you have the people who don't learn how to use it, get frustrated and turn it off..... which leads to Siri not learning more. The open standard for home control, is Thread that Apple does want to use. Only interested in short term profit? Right because donating to causes, running classes, Apple Arcade, Apple News, Apple TV are all short term profits.
I have hey Siri turn off for most of my stuff. I hit a button, and most stuff is done correctly.
Well Mac OS 9 had on-device voice processing, as did the iPhone 1/3G/3Gs. So you're saying only now has the A15 caught up with the 150MHz PPC603 CPU in Macs from 1996? Oh and you must have missed the news where it turned out Apple was surreptitiously sending voice recordings to be reviewed without customer's permission. What's that about privacy again?
You should get your fact straight about that. It was in the agreement youread (right?) when you enabled Siri. It was on by default.
As it should have been from the beginning, it is now opt-in & you are asked when/if you enable Siri.
Comments
Why would you need to lift your phone off a holder? You should have it oriented so you can easily unlock it with Face ID and you wouldn’t even need to touch it.
https://www.dummies.com/consumer-electronics/smartphones/iphone/how-to-use-siri-notes/
Not sure what that has to do with anything; that's not how Siri works at all. The only reason you get "mmm hmm" from Siri is if you unnecessarily pause before your query.
"Hey Siri, what's news" to my HomePod mini, plays the most recently hourly NPR news podcast, while I make coffee.
"Hey Siri, add coffee to Shopping list" adds that to my "Shopping" list in Reminders
"Hey Siri, remove coffee from Shopping list" removes it when I've grabbed it at the store
"Hey Siri, read my Shopping list" to hear what's remaining on the list
"Hey Siri, remind me to water the plants when I get to work" creates a geofenced reminder when I arrive at my office
"Hey Siri, take me home" to immediately get directions to my home address
"Hey Siri, turn on Light Mode" to my Mac when I'm working outside in bright sunlight
"Hey Siri, remind me about this" — This being a mail message, web page in Safari, so forth – adds link to message or URL to article in Reminders
"Hey Siri, remind me about this (at a time/place) — same but at a specific place or time
"Hey Siri, play TuneIn" — triggers Shortcut to launch TuneIn Radio and most recently played channel
"Hey Siri, log my weight" "Shortcuts says how much do you weigh?" "198" "Done." — adds my weight to the Health app
"Hey Siri, what's on my Calendar tomorrow?" – lists all events tomorrow
"Hey Siri, what am I listening to?" — Shazam
Timers, messaging or replying to messages, doing math, checking weather (Hey Siri, is it going to rain today?) calling, random questions ... it's enormously useful.
It boggles the mind that people literally disable this service because they haven't figured out how to use it well. From previous threads in this forum, it's pretty clear that a lot of people either haven't spent the time to learn how to use Siri efficiently or correctly and get frustrated when it doesn't work the way they imagine it should work.
I think it is Siri I have in my car as "CarPlay" as reading and responding to messages while driving. That works very good.
On my phone or computer I use Siri close to never,
My smarthome works on Google and Alexa as more device choices and -I think the HomePod is not really nice looking, and that is an important thing to my home decor as I things needs to look nice. Google and Alexa can be hidden away as they are quite ugly too.
Regarding "Notes" vs. Lists - the Reminder app is also a "List" app (although not advertised that way, and sometimes not so clear.)
Create a list in the Reminders app named "Shopping List" or whatever. Then you can say, "Hey Siri, add bla bla to my Shopping list".
I have hey Siri turn off for most of my stuff. I hit a button, and most stuff is done correctly.
“Audio of your request never leaves your device”
and
“Siri adds on-device speech recognition, so the audio of your requests is processed on your iPhone or iPad by default.9 And on-device processing also means Siri can perform many tasks without an internet connection”
I have very few issues with Siri and use it every day for all sorts of things. However, I have no doubt that others have issues where I have none. I have seen screenshots of Siri failing to correctly answer a query but when I ask the exact same question I get the desired result. It’s a little bizarre.
This started my friend making repeated requests for the same info at least two more times, telling and then yelling “ALEXA STOP!” as it continued to give the incorrect info. It finally worked on her fourth try. It also starts talking at random much more than my HomePod ever did, it’s multiple times a day, sometimes when nobody is talking at all. She sets timers with it a few times a day but it rarely hears her say “Alexa stop” on her first try and then she raises her voice. That’s from fewer than 10’ away.
Well except it is. Just because you are ignorant of something doesn't mean your idea of how it works is right. That is exactly how Siri works with A2DP devices. The pause is required because that's the time needed to switch to headset mode. Why is it when I say "Hey siri play highway to hell" through my car's microphone, all it hears is "Hey siri" and "hell"?
Then "Hey Siri" should "just work". In both of our vehicles (2014 Nissan Leaf & 2012 Toyota Prius) & a rental 2021 Nissan Kicks, my iPhone is paired with the car. If my phone is on the console, in the passenger seat, etc. (so it can hear "Hey Sir"), I can just say "Hey siri play highway to hell", and the iPhone picks it up perfectly well, and does the command after switching to the car audio. The Nissan Kicks renal did have CarPlay, and I used it sometimes (had to plug phone in), and with or without using CarPlay, "Hey Siri" just worked as long as the iPhone could hear me.
This didn't always work (it used to work as you explained), and I'm not sure when it started working. It might have been iOS 14. If your OS is up to date, you might want to give it a try.
As it should have been from the beginning, it is now opt-in & you are asked when/if you enable Siri.