Siri on HomePod can't tell you what time it is right now

AppleInsider

The HomePod is having an issue understanding the simple query "What time is it?" right now. Apple will probably fix it soon.

You can't ask Siri what time it is on HomePod for the moment

Users of Siri know that there are many basic queries that could be asked, which result in straightforward results. One common query is to ask Siri the time, which is helpful if the user can't see a clock nearby.

However, social media users started to report on Tuesday that asking Siri for the time was coming up with a completely different answer on HomePod. In many cases, Siri seems to believe that users want to know about a web result.

Rooting for Apple on this AI stuff but my current HomePod status is

"Siri, what time is it?"

"I've found some web results. I can show them to you if you ask again on your iPhone"

-- Billiam (@lostincode)

May 2, 2024

The claims were confirmed by AppleInsider editorial members, who were repeatedly told by Siri the wrong result. Siri frequently offered the opening line to the Wikipedia page for "What Time Is It? (song)" instead of the actual time.

"'What Time is It?' is the opening musical number and first single from the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical 2,'" Siri said many times, For others, it skipped the listing and said that more search results were available via iPhone.

Siri on iPhone, the iPad, and Mac are unaffected by the issue, and deliver the local time as usual.

The problem seems to be an issue that Apple has to deal with on its servers, rather than one on the HomePod itself. It is probable that Apple will quickly fix the issue in the near future, without needing to roll out an update.



Read on AppleInsider

Appleish

"Siri. Tell me something I've never, ever done with my HomePods."

AppleZulu

That's usually a good query to test internet connectivity. 

Siri changing responses to or otherwise fumbling previously reliable queries can sometimes be an indication of back-end system upgrades underway. I think it was yesterday that my usual verbiage for a request to play my local public radio station yielded unexpected and suboptimal responses. So maybe something's up.

mike1

Worked for me just now at 2:45 EST

mikethemartian

Even a broken mechanical clock works twice a day.

bsimpsen

Siri is always dropping the ball on something. For months now, her weather reports are oblivious to the day's forecast high temps. I'll ask her about the weather in the morning and she'll give the current temperature, then claim it will trend down to the day's low, which has sometimes already occurred. For years, she was able to turn on two things simultaneously in HomeKit, then had a stroke and was reduced to single item commands. Recent therapy seems to have restored her ability to turn on both lights in our bedroom with one command.

Never a dull moment?

charlesn

I was going to pile on with more examples and jokes about Siri stupidity, but at this point, I just can't--it feels like making fun of a special needs student. Sure, you can go there... but do you really want to? I would simply point out that Apple has been trying to fix Siri for fourteen YEARS and here's where we are. No matter how "wow" the AI announcements are at WWDC, the real test, as it is with Siri, is how well any of it actually works. Consider me highly skeptical until that's answered. 

22july2013

Every day around noon I ask Siri for the date, and it hasn't been able to answer that question either, for about the last 24 hours. But I managed to reword my question in an odd way once and got the date. I can't remember the wording.

iOS_Guy80

Works in New York at 4:14 pm.

dewme

Hey Siri ... Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

pslice

I just asked Siri that question and my HomePod and Siri answered the correct time. This seems to be a made up issue. 

macgui

pslice said:

I just asked Siri that question and my HomePod and Siri answered the correct time. This seems to be a made up issue. 

Based on your ONE data point.  Don't quit your day job.

elijahg

They broke being able to ask for the news months ago and it's still broken. "Sorry you don't have any unplayed episodes of <provider> news." It's insane that the iPhone 2G in 2007 would answer basic queries and play music based on voice, with no internet. But 2024's HomePods? Nope, need the internet for everything which means it breaks constantly. It's really shit.

elijahg

charlesn said:

I was going to pile on with more examples and jokes about Siri stupidity, but at this point, I just can't--it feels like making fun of a special needs student. Sure, you can go there... but do you really want to? I would simply point out that Apple has been trying to fix Siri for fourteen YEARS and here's where we are. No matter how "wow" the AI announcements are at WWDC, the real test, as it is with Siri, is how well any of it actually works. Consider me highly skeptical until that's answered. 

I find it so weird that Siri is an obvious embarrassment and yet Cook et al still bleat on about how you can use Siri for this, that and the other. It's a joke. I *only* use it on my HomePods, and that's because there's no other way of interacting with them aside from Airplay. It's off on everything else.

exgeniustrainer

Odd, it works for me. 

40domi

pslice said:

I just asked Siri that question and my HomePod and Siri answered the correct time. This seems to be a made up issue. 

It's not made up, there was a glitch earlier today, however it's been fixed now

40domi

Just a glitch, all working fine now.
Siri is great, you just need to know her limitations and more importantly how to phrase the questions.

chasm

A. Just checked at 4:57 PT, it gave me the correct time. Obviously some short-term glitch, based on the other reports above.

B. Siri answers me perfectly for everything I ask of it. That said, 99 percent is basic commands like time, today’s weather, monetary conversion, “remind me…”, “I have an appointment at,” and stuff like that. That’s what I use a voice assistant for.

I’m not a game show, and I’m not trying to stump the players. Also, I’m stage-trained so my diction is very good. Maybe some of you need to a) use standard grammatical form in [your language], and b) take the marbles out of your mouths.

ManuFR

And for two month now, when you ask the AppleTV remote to close or open the shades in French, it replies that the volume of the media content is now set to zero (and it doesn't set it to zero) while it works with the iPhone. The lack of uniformity of the answer is a real problem with all the Siri version across Apple devices.

mike1

bsimpsen said:

Siri is always dropping the ball on something. For months now, her weather reports are oblivious to the day's forecast high temps. I'll ask her about the weather in the morning and she'll give the current temperature, then claim it will trend down to the day's low, which has sometimes already occurred. For years, she was able to turn on two things simultaneously in HomeKit, then had a stroke and was reduced to single item commands. Recent therapy seems to have restored her ability to turn on both lights in our bedroom with one command.

Never a dull moment?

A lot is in how you name things.

I have a bedroom with a lamp and an overhead light connected to HomeKit. If I want just the lamp to turn on, I have to ask Siri to turn on the bedroom lamp. If I say turn on the bedroom lights, all the lights in the bedroom turn on.

elijahg

mike1 said:

bsimpsen said:

Siri is always dropping the ball on something. For months now, her weather reports are oblivious to the day's forecast high temps. I'll ask her about the weather in the morning and she'll give the current temperature, then claim it will trend down to the day's low, which has sometimes already occurred. For years, she was able to turn on two things simultaneously in HomeKit, then had a stroke and was reduced to single item commands. Recent therapy seems to have restored her ability to turn on both lights in our bedroom with one command.

Never a dull moment?

A lot is in how you name things.

I have a bedroom with a lamp and an overhead light connected to HomeKit. If I want just the lamp to turn on, I have to ask Siri to turn on the bedroom lamp. If I say turn on the bedroom lights, all the lights in the bedroom turn on.

That actually makes sense though. What doesn't make sense is how sometimes I ask Siri to add something like "tomato sauce" to my shopping list and it will say "I have added those two things". Say it again, and it will sometimes add it as one item. Similarly with something like thyme, it adds "time" to the shopping list. I don't know anyone who would put time on their shopping list. OpenAI would understand which to use from the context. Siri doesn't *understand* what you say, it just picks out keywords. You can use that to your advantage, by saying things like "Siri add a cake shopping list" which should make Siri create a cake shopping list, but because it ignores the prepositions most of the time, it does the wrong thing.