Rumor: Siri to get iMessage integration, adapt to user habits in 'iOS 11'

Posted:
in iPhone
Apple is planning a slate of Siri updates for "iOS 11" which should include things like more adaptive AI and integration with iMessage and iCloud, according to a rumor stemming from an Israeli site.

A mockup of Siri integration with the iOS Messages app.
A mockup of Siri integration with the iOS Messages app.


The voice assistant should be able to learn a person's usage habits and offer different actions based on context, The Verifier claimed. The lack of contextual awareness has been one of the chief criticisms of Siri, especially in comparison with Google Assistant and Samsung's Bixby.

Google's AI, for instance, can not only pull data from the Web and a variety of services but accept follow-up questions that avoid the need to spell out a full command. Asking "who is the President of the U.S.," for instance, can be followed by "how old is he."

The iMessage integration will reportedly let Siri act based on conversations. Talking about eating sushi might prompt it to suggest restaurants, offer to book a reservation, or even arrange ridesharing. These claims may be at least partially based on recent patent filings.

iCloud integration will allegedly be used to "identify the connections" between devices, and offer relevant actions on each. Apple is in fact said to be planning deeper use of Siri in tvOS and watchOS, for example expanding the number of commands an Apple TV understands.

Apple should show off its new technology at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June when "iOS 11" will be announced, The Verifier said, cautioning that the company could postpone Siri features until later releases. Changes will also reportedly make their way into the next version of macOS.

The Verifier is a relatively unknown site without an established track record. Recently it claimed that "iOS 11" will also support group video calls in FaceTime, finally catching up with rivals like Google and Microsoft.
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22
    simply258simply258 Posts: 133member
    I hope so, after iOS 10 it's hard to imagine how they would innovate beyond the stickers and effects.
    williamhr00fus1
  • Reply 2 of 22

    The voice assistant should be able to learn a person's usage habits and offer different actions based on context, The Verifier claimed. The lack of contextual awareness has been one of the chief criticisms of Siri, especially in comparison with Google Assistant and Samsung's Bixby.

    Google's AI, for instance, can not only pull data from the Web and a variety of services but accept follow-up questions that avoid the need to spell out a full command. Asking "who is the President of the U.S.," for instance, can be followed by "how old is he."
    So, doesn't it count when I ask Siri "Who is the President of the United States" and Siri gives me data from Wolfram Alpha, and then I say "How old is he" and Siri responds with "Donald Trump is 70 years old"?

    How is that any different than the example of Google's AI that is in the article? (Has anyone used Bixby?)

    I recently saw a video (thought it was posts here but may have been DF) of someone using an Android phone and an  iPhone and asking the same questions and follow-ups (occasionally, when appropriate) and basically finding that the two are on par with each other. 

    I see a lot of "Siri sucks" articles and comments but I think the reality is much different. 
    StrangeDayssmiffy31
  • Reply 3 of 22
    bdfortinbdfortin Posts: 2unconfirmed, member
    "The lack of contextual awareness has been one of the chief criticisms of Siri, especially in comparison with Google Assistant and Samsung's Bixby." Siri has been context-aware since iOS 9. Why do so many people and publications keep forgetting this?
  • Reply 4 of 22
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member
    This article is wrong -- you can ask siri who the president is and then ask "how old is he" for a contextually aware reply. Dunno why they couldn't test this simple thing before publishing it.  
    bdfortin
  • Reply 5 of 22
    evilutionevilution Posts: 1,399member
    SIRI was the first one to have contextually aware replies.
    bdfortin
  • Reply 6 of 22
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    bdfortin said:
    "The lack of contextual awareness has been one of the chief criticisms of Siri, especially in comparison with Google Assistant and Samsung's Bixby." Siri has been context-aware since iOS 9. Why do so many people and publications keep forgetting this?
    Maybe it's just me, but I've found Siri so unhelpful and unreliable that I've given up on it for everything except for the weather and the occasional setting of reminders.
    cornchip
  • Reply 7 of 22
    bdfortin said:
    "The lack of contextual awareness has been one of the chief criticisms of Siri, especially in comparison with Google Assistant and Samsung's Bixby." Siri has been context-aware since iOS 9. Why do so many people and publications keep forgetting this?
    Maybe because it is, but it simply doesn't work. Siri has trouble using context to do anything meaningful (e.g. "find a thai restaurant near me" - Siri replies with one - "call them" - Siri - "who's them?" - me: grrr). Also it's gotten worse in some aspects since say, 2012.
    patchythepirate
  • Reply 8 of 22
    r00fus1 said:
    bdfortin said:
    "The lack of contextual awareness has been one of the chief criticisms of Siri, especially in comparison with Google Assistant and Samsung's Bixby." Siri has been context-aware since iOS 9. Why do so many people and publications keep forgetting this?
    Maybe because it is, but it simply doesn't work. Siri has trouble using context to do anything meaningful (e.g. "find a thai restaurant near me" - Siri replies with one - "call them" - Siri - "who's them?" - me: grrr). Also it's gotten worse in some aspects since say, 2012.
    I just tried "find a pizza restaurant near me", Siri listed the closest one at half a mile away. I said, "call it" and the number was immediately being dialed. 

    Then I tried, "find a bar near me" and was presented a list of 15. I said, "call one", the same list was presented with "which one would you like to call?"  
    cornchipbdfortin
  • Reply 9 of 22
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    I thought Siri already had sequential inference? I know Rene Richie has talked about it on podcasts before.
    edited March 2017 cornchipbdfortin
  • Reply 10 of 22
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    r00fus1 said:
    bdfortin said:
    "The lack of contextual awareness has been one of the chief criticisms of Siri, especially in comparison with Google Assistant and Samsung's Bixby." Siri has been context-aware since iOS 9. Why do so many people and publications keep forgetting this?
    Maybe because it is, but it simply doesn't work. Siri has trouble using context to do anything meaningful (e.g. "find a thai restaurant near me" - Siri replies with one - "call them" - Siri - "who's them?" - me: grrr). Also it's gotten worse in some aspects since say, 2012.
    Just tried it on my phone with all variants, and I talk FAST

    Speaking at 100 miles per hour and with english with a french accent
    I say one of the variants here:

    give me an italian restaurant near her
    give me a thai restaurant near here
    give me a greek restaurant near here
    give me a french restaurant near here

    Found in less than one second the nearest ones from each case, tells me the name and location on the map, rating and how much it cost (moderate, expensive, etc.)
    asks me if I want directions or to call them
    I say: give me the directions
    and starts doing it.

    Tried same thing with give me nearest X restaurant, same results.

    Not sure what your doing but it is literally impossible for me for this request to fail (and I've tried all variants).

    From my own perspective, voice recognition is much better now than 4 years ago, much much better.

    This was done with no noise around and raising phone at 6 inch from my mouth.

    Will try it in a noisy place to see if it decreases efficiency (it probably should).


    bdfortin
  • Reply 11 of 22
    Apple need to do something with Siri. It's sorely lacking compared to google assistant. It doesn't understand me and when it does it stil fails to answer the questions right. Apple can do better than that. 
  • Reply 12 of 22
    kevin keekevin kee Posts: 1,289member
    r00fus1 said:
    bdfortin said:
    "The lack of contextual awareness has been one of the chief criticisms of Siri, especially in comparison with Google Assistant and Samsung's Bixby." Siri has been context-aware since iOS 9. Why do so many people and publications keep forgetting this?
    Maybe because it is, but it simply doesn't work. Siri has trouble using context to do anything meaningful (e.g. "find a thai restaurant near me" - Siri replies with one - "call them" - Siri - "who's them?" - me: grrr). Also it's gotten worse in some aspects since say, 2012.
    I would ask 'who's them' too if you were asking me the same question. Because really, it doesn't make sense. Logically you should ask "call the first one" or "call the nearest one" following the first question, not "call them"... did you mean by "call them" calling all of them? Just curious. Contextual. contextual.


    StrangeDays
  • Reply 13 of 22
    This article is wrong -- you can ask siri who the president is and then ask "how old is he" for a contextually aware reply. Dunno why they couldn't test this simple thing before publishing it.  
    But if you were to continue and it " does he have kids" Siri wouldn't be able to answer. 
  • Reply 14 of 22
    This article is wrong -- you can ask siri who the president is and then ask "how old is he" for a contextually aware reply. Dunno why they couldn't test this simple thing before publishing it.  
    But if you were to continue and it " does he have kids" Siri wouldn't be able to answer. 
    Wrong. I just did it. 

    1) Who is the president of the United States, received Wolfram Alpha info, same as above. 

    2) How old is he? Siri replies Donald Trump is 70 years old and shows info from Wikipedia

    3) Does he have kids? Siri replies "The children of Donald Trump are Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump and 3 others"  and again lists info from Wolfram Alpha. 

    Did you even try this before posting? It takes less than a minute to verify. 
    wonkothesanesmiffy31StrangeDays
  • Reply 15 of 22
    kevin keekevin kee Posts: 1,289member
    Why do I have a feeling people just love trolling Siri after she failed the first time round just because people asked her a wrong question?
    StrangeDays
  • Reply 16 of 22
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member
    bdfortin said:
    "The lack of contextual awareness has been one of the chief criticisms of Siri, especially in comparison with Google Assistant and Samsung's Bixby." Siri has been context-aware since iOS 9. Why do so many people and publications keep forgetting this?
    Maybe it's just me, but I've found Siri so unhelpful and unreliable that I've given up on it for everything except for the weather and the occasional setting of reminders.
    I think it is. I use it everyday for all kinds of things. 

    bdfortin
  • Reply 17 of 22
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member
    r00fus1 said:
    bdfortin said:
    "The lack of contextual awareness has been one of the chief criticisms of Siri, especially in comparison with Google Assistant and Samsung's Bixby." Siri has been context-aware since iOS 9. Why do so many people and publications keep forgetting this?
    Maybe because it is, but it simply doesn't work. Siri has trouble using context to do anything meaningful (e.g. "find a thai restaurant near me" - Siri replies with one - "call them" - Siri - "who's them?" - me: grrr). Also it's gotten worse in some aspects since say, 2012.
    Interesting. I just did you question and got a response each time and even seemed to get annoyed after asking the same questions 4 times  each time it worked fine. If you just ask for the nearest say call them she will just call that one  

     
    edited March 2017
  • Reply 18 of 22
    LunnziesLunnzies Posts: 7unconfirmed, member
    Siri was introduced as "Contextually Aware". I Still remember the iPhone event it was announced at. Was amazing! But for what ever reason. Siri has gotten less and less useful over time. It's really confusing. I swear to you all now that it just refused to do some things it could do, for months on end. One day, I emailed Tim Cook, I never got a reply but the next week, it was working again. It has since stopped working again. They must have some serous bugs in the code or something because Siri has become so unreliable now. Siri is hit and miss. It needs to be hit.
  • Reply 19 of 22
    wonkothesanewonkothesane Posts: 1,717member
    I just tried repeating some of the contextual queries with Siri in German: finding an Italian restaurant near me, then asking to make a call. And asking for the nearest bar and then "get me there".  Both worked. 

    What sometimes may be forgotten is that competitors mai lu for with English. Siri works with many more languages than them. Which means it has to "understand" syntax, semantics, grammar, context for all of them.

    I think Siri is not so bad considering this. 
  • Reply 20 of 22
    mattinozmattinoz Posts: 2,299member
    Interesting will Siri have direct access to iCloud data and basically I'll have my own private Siri instance. Or will they create a Siri database for each user in iCloud similar to spotlight that apps inject suitable search terms in. Making it possible to delete Siri stored references without deleting source data and also allow data sharing between devices.

    Really curious to how they expand but keep privacy.

    Also really hope Siri learns say named timers better still a series of timers. 
Sign In or Register to comment.