Apple's Siri renovation is probably going to take longer than expected

AppleInsider

It's been widely reported that Apple's Siri advancements promised for 2025 would arrive in April with iOS 18.4 but a new report casts some doubt on that timeline.

Siri is gaining a new animation around the edge of iPhone screens

Apple has yet to officially announce when the advancements were coming, beyond a 2025 timeframe. The features were announced at WWDC 2024 and were said to be coming to iOS 18.

But, according to a new report by Bloomberg on Friday, Apple's work has hit some snags. Some features that were said to be planned for iOS 18.4 are said to have been pushed back to May, or even later.

Reportedly, testing of the improvements internally aren't going well. The features may be technically included in iOS 18.5, but disabled until Apple throws the switch to turn them on at some point after release.

That means features like Personal Context Understanding, In-App Actions, and Onscreen Awareness will wait to launch.

After the improvements, Siri will gain the ability to better interpret commands, and take multiple steps. So after asking about a sports team, a user can just say "when do they play next?" and then have Siri add that event to their calendar.

This aspect of the improvement round leans on app intents. This is the ability of developers to present users with specific features of their apps, to be used directly by Siri.

More improvements for Siri and Apple Intelligence are expected to be announced for iOS 19 at WWDC 2025 in early June.



Read on AppleInsider

charlesn

I am shocked... SHOCKED, I say! Who woulda thunk that after 15 years of Siri idiocy under Apple, Apple wasn't going to be able to fix it in 10 months? The WWDC announcement last year always seemed suspect--it was like we were being told that Siri, essentially held back in about third grade for the past decade and a half, was suddenly going to have a PhD by next April. Sounds like maybe not. 

hammeroftruth

charlesn said:

I am shocked... SHOCKED, I say! Who woulda thunk that after 15 years of Siri idiocy under Apple, Apple wasn't going to be able to fix it in 10 months? The WWDC announcement last year always seemed suspect--it was like we were being told that Siri, essentially held back in about third grade for the past decade and a half, was suddenly going to have a PhD by next April. Sounds like maybe not. 

You would be even more shocked that Apple has been working on this for at least 3 years and not 10 months. 

cheesefreeze

I’ve said it several times on this forum that I find the rollout of such a massive change for iOS 18.4 to be highly implausible. The QA alone is a massive undertaking. This system hooks in several areas of the operating system and has several region specific requirements. Even with a localized rollout it’s just nuts to expect this at 18.4.

archinator

What’s worse is that they marketed the iPhone 16 with a bunch of these unreleased features. It makes the 16 feel like a waste of money.

ios_guy80

archinator said:

What’s worse is that they marketed the iPhone 16 with a bunch of these unreleased features. It makes the 16 feel like a waste of money.

iPhone 16 was marketed with the ability to work with Apple Intelligence and the features that would be made available in future iOS updates.

chasm

Siri already does the few things I ask it to do (mostly add things to my calendar or reminders or play this online radio station) just fine. I look forward to the improvements, but apart from some occasional "wording the request correctly" issues on my part -- for example, there's one radio station I like where I must add the phrase "on TuneIn" before she's able to play it -- I don't use it for much, and what I do use it for works fine.

fred257

Google assistant works flawlessly.  Siri is a complete mess in comparison 

mikethemartian

But they got it to glow.

charlesn

hammeroftruth said:

charlesn said:

I am shocked... SHOCKED, I say! Who woulda thunk that after 15 years of Siri idiocy under Apple, Apple wasn't going to be able to fix it in 10 months? The WWDC announcement last year always seemed suspect--it was like we were being told that Siri, essentially held back in about third grade for the past decade and a half, was suddenly going to have a PhD by next April. Sounds like maybe not. 

You would be even more shocked that Apple has been working on this for at least 3 years and not 10 months. 

It's truly mind-boggling. Apple had a huge, years-long jump on the rest of the industry when it acquired Siri, Inc. in 2010. Alexa didn't debut until four years later, and its speed and capabilities left Siri in the dust, where Siri has remained ever since. Google Assistant wasn't until 2016, but it, too, has surpassed Siri. I'm all in on Apple everything except when it comes to a voice assistant, where I still rely on Echo Dots throughout my home. Alexa works with just about everything that can be voice-controlled while Siri works with a WHOLE lot less. Very hard to understand how or why Apple allowed this to happen. 

dewme

charlesn said:

hammeroftruth said:

charlesn said:

I am shocked... SHOCKED, I say! Who woulda thunk that after 15 years of Siri idiocy under Apple, Apple wasn't going to be able to fix it in 10 months? The WWDC announcement last year always seemed suspect--it was like we were being told that Siri, essentially held back in about third grade for the past decade and a half, was suddenly going to have a PhD by next April. Sounds like maybe not. 

You would be even more shocked that Apple has been working on this for at least 3 years and not 10 months. 

It's truly mind-boggling. Apple had a huge, years-long jump on the rest of the industry when it acquired Siri, Inc. in 2010. Alexa didn't debut until four years later, and its speed and capabilities left Siri in the dust, where Siri has remained ever since. Google Assistant wasn't until 2016, but it, too, has surpassed Siri. I'm all in on Apple everything except when it comes to a voice assistant, where I still rely on Echo Dots throughout my home. Alexa works with just about everything that can be voice-controlled while Siri works with a WHOLE lot less. Very hard to understand how or why Apple allowed this to happen. 

I don't disagree with what you are saying. About the only explanation that I can come up with to rationalize Apple's pokey progress is that Amazon had a very strong motivation to use their voice assistant to help them increase sales. Apple's motivation was probably more around making the iPhone and eventually other devices more attractive to buyers by helping users with search, information retrieval, and automation. It was also a novelty when it first arrived. 

Retrospectively, neither Apple nor Amazon really achieved what they set out to do, in my opinion.

Apple failed to move Siri along fast enough and failed to improve its accuracy and effectiveness for its intended purpose. Amazon's Alexa very quickly zoomed past Siri on nearly every measurable metric. At the same time, Amazon distilled its device aspirations down to simpler and less complex devices that never tried to compete directly with Apple and its iPhones and iPads. Amazon could ship devices that were "good enough" but nowhere near the stellar appearance, functionality, build quality, usability, and most importantly, unwavering respect for the privacy of its users that Apple maintained. Apple insisted on preserving its reputation and product quality of its core hardware and software, which probably didn't include Siri to the same extent as other features. At the same time,  Amazon likely had very slim to no margins on a lot of its "smart" speakers, especially the Dot. 

Amazon wanted Alexa to stimulate its legions of shoppers to buy more stuff on Amazon. In that respect it failed from an ROI standpoint. But at least they reached a point where Alexa was very good and demonstrated general usefulness. The game is not over by any means and it's likely that Amazon will find a way to leverage their investment going forward. They will have to continue to invest in Alexa because the AI landscape is evolving relatively quickly. Fart skills weren't the pinnacle of Alexa's capability. 

Apple wanted Siri to improve the customer experience on its slowly expanding portfolio of products that Siri supported. It's really hard to say whether it made a meaningful difference in device sales. Based on my usage patterns, I use Siri quite rarely and mostly for simple things like music requests and voice texting while driving. Just like Amazon, Apple will have to make some serious investments to bring Siri to a higher level of relevance.

If Apple cannot make Siri a cornerstone feature of Apple Intelligence I believe the acceptance of Apple Intelligence will be significantly muted. The iPhone and smartphones in general are now the personal computers for the masses. Memojis, Genmojis, or MojiMojis, or whatever moji de jour you prefer, are fun AI toys, but reaching the point where humans and computers can interact using the most common and immediate form of interaction and communication, vision and speech, has to work as flawlessly as possible to achieve the level of human-machine connectedness that AI promises.

canukstorm

charlesn said:

hammeroftruth said:

charlesn said:

I am shocked... SHOCKED, I say! Who woulda thunk that after 15 years of Siri idiocy under Apple, Apple wasn't going to be able to fix it in 10 months? The WWDC announcement last year always seemed suspect--it was like we were being told that Siri, essentially held back in about third grade for the past decade and a half, was suddenly going to have a PhD by next April. Sounds like maybe not. 

You would be even more shocked that Apple has been working on this for at least 3 years and not 10 months. 

It's truly mind-boggling. Apple had a huge, years-long jump on the rest of the industry when it acquired Siri, Inc. in 2010. Alexa didn't debut until four years later, and its speed and capabilities left Siri in the dust, where Siri has remained ever since. Google Assistant wasn't until 2016, but it, too, has surpassed Siri. I'm all in on Apple everything except when it comes to a voice assistant, where I still rely on Echo Dots throughout my home. Alexa works with just about everything that can be voice-controlled while Siri works with a WHOLE lot less. Very hard to understand how or why Apple allowed this to happen. 

"Very hard to understand how or why Apple allowed this to happen." => My hunch is this is what happens when you put maximizing shareholder as a priority over focusing on user experience and delighting the customer.

canukstorm

dewme said:

charlesn said:

hammeroftruth said:

charlesn said:

I am shocked... SHOCKED, I say! Who woulda thunk that after 15 years of Siri idiocy under Apple, Apple wasn't going to be able to fix it in 10 months? The WWDC announcement last year always seemed suspect--it was like we were being told that Siri, essentially held back in about third grade for the past decade and a half, was suddenly going to have a PhD by next April. Sounds like maybe not. 

You would be even more shocked that Apple has been working on this for at least 3 years and not 10 months. 

It's truly mind-boggling. Apple had a huge, years-long jump on the rest of the industry when it acquired Siri, Inc. in 2010. Alexa didn't debut until four years later, and its speed and capabilities left Siri in the dust, where Siri has remained ever since. Google Assistant wasn't until 2016, but it, too, has surpassed Siri. I'm all in on Apple everything except when it comes to a voice assistant, where I still rely on Echo Dots throughout my home. Alexa works with just about everything that can be voice-controlled while Siri works with a WHOLE lot less. Very hard to understand how or why Apple allowed this to happen. 

I don't disagree with what you are saying. About the only explanation that I can come up with to rationalize Apple's pokey progress is that Amazon had a very strong motivation to use their voice assistant to help them increase sales. Apple's motivation was probably more around making the iPhone and eventually other devices more attractive to buyers by helping users with search, information retrieval, and automation. It was also a novelty when it first arrived. 

Retrospectively, neither Apple nor Amazon really achieved what they set out to do, in my opinion.

Apple failed to move Siri along fast enough and failed to improve its accuracy and effectiveness for its intended purpose. Amazon's Alexa very quickly zoomed past Siri on nearly every measurable metric. At the same time, Amazon distilled its device aspirations down to simpler and less complex devices that never tried to compete directly with Apple and its iPhones and iPads. Amazon could ship devices that were "good enough" but nowhere near the stellar appearance, functionality, build quality, usability, and most importantly, unwavering respect for the privacy of its users that Apple maintained. Apple insisted on preserving its reputation and product quality of its core hardware and software, which probably didn't include Siri to the same extent as other features. At the same time,  Amazon likely had very slim to no margins on a lot of its "smart" speakers, especially the Dot. 

Amazon wanted Alexa to stimulate its legions of shoppers to buy more stuff on Amazon. In that respect it failed from an ROI standpoint. But at least they reached a point where Alexa was very good and demonstrated general usefulness. The game is not over by any means and it's likely that Amazon will find a way to leverage their investment going forward. They will have to continue to invest in Alexa because the AI landscape is evolving relatively quickly. Fart skills weren't the pinnacle of Alexa's capability. 

Apple wanted Siri to improve the customer experience on its slowly expanding portfolio of products that Siri supported. It's really hard to say whether it made a meaningful difference in device sales. Based on my usage patterns, I use Siri quite rarely and mostly for simple things like music requests and voice texting while driving. Just like Amazon, Apple will have to make some serious investments to bring Siri to a higher level of relevance.

If Apple cannot make Siri a cornerstone feature of Apple Intelligence I believe the acceptance of Apple Intelligence will be significantly muted. The iPhone and smartphones in general are now the personal computers for the masses. Memojis, Genmojis, or MojiMojis, or whatever moji de jour you prefer, are fun AI toys, but reaching the point where humans and computers can interact using the most common and immediate form of interaction and communication, vision and speech, has to work as flawlessly as possible to achieve the level of human-machine connectedness that AI promises.

"f Apple cannot make Siri a cornerstone feature of Apple Intelligence I believe the acceptance of Apple Intelligence will be significantly muted." =>  Exactly and this the problem for Apple.  You don't get a second chance at a first impression and so far, the initial impressions of Apple Intelligence are lackluster.

chasm

iOS_Guy80 said:

iPhone 16 was marketed with the ability to work with Apple Intelligence and the features that would be made available in future iOS updates.

And it does. I use some part of it nearly every day, particularly the writing tools.

Apple Intelligence is in a nascent form right now, but will continue to grow and expand over the coming years -- like pretty much every bit of software Apple has ever released.

zimmermann

I bought myself a XC40 Volvo electric. A revelation how cars have evolved these last years. Google CarPlay works very well, and the Google assistant is very good at interpreting mij commands. And, as an Apple fanboy, I insert the cable and run AppleCar. And Siri. Oh boy, how terrible. It’s frustrating to the max. 

applezulu

Or maybe it just takes a lot longer to roll out something as complex as artificial intelligence if you want to get it right. For Apple’s business model, getting it right probably looks significantly different than for Apple’s competitors. 

While their services and subscriptions likely aren’t true loss-leaders, their existence serves to drive sales of Apple hardware. For Apple’s competitors, the reverse is true. What little hardware they make is meant to drive customers to their software platforms, and their software platforms exist to drive users to their true customers, companies in the business of sales and advertising. 

Those other digital assistants are essentially sales reps. A sales rep that’s a “smooth operator” should make you worried, not satisfied. Others here say Alexa and Google assistants are smoother than Siri and I believe them. I haven’t used them much myself, however, because I don’t trust them. “Better at what, exactly,” is the question in the forefront of my mind. 

Half-baked artificial intelligence has been dumped on an unsuspecting public amidst a cavalcade of hype for a couple of years now, and much or most of it has been pretty terrible both in execution and in the moral and legal corners cut for its development. 

So yeah, stuff’s on the market already, and Apple is once again “behind.” If past is precedent, Apple will eventually leapfrog its competitors, because they’re taking the time to develop something that serves their customers -the people who buy their hardware- instead of designing something that fools their users into becoming more compliant products for sales and advertising companies. 

entropys

canukstorm said:

charlesn said:

hammeroftruth said:

charlesn said:

I am shocked... SHOCKED, I say! Who woulda thunk that after 15 years of Siri idiocy under Apple, Apple wasn't going to be able to fix it in 10 months? The WWDC announcement last year always seemed suspect--it was like we were being told that Siri, essentially held back in about third grade for the past decade and a half, was suddenly going to have a PhD by next April. Sounds like maybe not. 

You would be even more shocked that Apple has been working on this for at least 3 years and not 10 months. 

It's truly mind-boggling. Apple had a huge, years-long jump on the rest of the industry when it acquired Siri, Inc. in 2010. Alexa didn't debut until four years later, and its speed and capabilities left Siri in the dust, where Siri has remained ever since. Google Assistant wasn't until 2016, but it, too, has surpassed Siri. I'm all in on Apple everything except when it comes to a voice assistant, where I still rely on Echo Dots throughout my home. Alexa works with just about everything that can be voice-controlled while Siri works with a WHOLE lot less. Very hard to understand how or why Apple allowed this to happen. 

"Very hard to understand how or why Apple allowed this to happen." => My hunch is this is what happens when you put maximizing shareholder as a priority over focusing on user experience and delighting the customer.

Saint Jobs talking about Beleaguered Apple Computer:
What happened at Apple, to be honest, over the years was the goal used to be to make the best computers in the world. And that was goal one. Goal two, we got from Hewlett-Packard actually which was "we have to make a profit". Because if we don't make a profit we can't do goal one. So, yeah, I mean we enjoyed making a profit, but the purpose of making a profit was so we can make the best computers in the world. Along the way somewhere those two got reversed. The goal is to make a lot of money and well, if we have to make some good computers well ok we'll do that... 'cause we can make a lot of money doing that. And, it's very subtle. It's very subtle at first, but it turns out it's everything. That one little subtle flip... takes 5 years to see it, but that one little subtle flip in 5 years means everything.

gatorguy

AppleZulu said:

So yeah, stuff’s on the market already, and Apple is once again “behind.” If past is precedent, Apple will eventually leapfrog its competitors, because they’re taking the time to develop something that serves their customers -the people who buy their hardware- instead of designing something that fools their users into becoming more compliant products for sales and advertising companies. 

..,.except that Apple is slowly moving deeper into targeted advertising and services, both dependent on user tracking, yet still at a faster pace than introducing truly new products. 

edited February 19