The infuriations of Siri

Apple General
#1

I have been trying to migrate to Siri recently so that I can use hands free in my car and so in general I don’t have the temptation to have my hands on my phone all the time, but I’m not winning the war.

The first problem came with my name (I don’t have a common name) and trying to teach Siri how to pronounce my name. it simply doesn’t have a natural pronunciation even after I say “teach Siri how to pronounce…”

The next issue I faced with Siri was telling it who my family members were so that I could put in their address details in and use Maps, and call them where necessary. Even after “my fathers name is” it simply wouldn’t connect to the contact to add my fathers name to my contact details.

The next issue was trying to add common places I visit to my contacts then realising that Apple’s contacts doesn’t let you add restaurants, libraries, and other common places as “go to” destinations without saying home or other.

Then there is the issue that it simply doesn’t understand what you’re saying especially with background noises. Lets say you have Phillips Hue Lights and you want to turn the lights down while you’re listening to music, the background noise simply means that Siri wont understand what you are saying.

Listening to music, and then say “Hey Siri, dim my loungeroom lights.” You will find it next to impossible to get Siri to recognise your voice

At this point, I’ve realised that Siri simply isn’t properly implemented in such a way to augment my life in any reasonable fashion. I’m done with that idea for now. If I want augmented reality I think I’ll stick to playing Pokemon Go.

Siri could be useful in augmenting my life and making it easier to use my Phone and Mac on the go, but as it is, Siri is utterly useless to me, and to most people who have battled to make it useful in their lives.

#2

I had similar issues, I simply stopped using Siri because it was more trouble repeating myself multiple times in order to get Siri to understand what I’d said.

OTOH I can ring the Foxtel phone voice ordering system and it understands me perfectly.

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#3

It seems like I’m going to go the same way. I don’t mind being the odd one out talking to my phone, but it just seems like its not going to work.

#4

FWIW, I disable Siri as I hate accidentally triggering it (plus I agree it’s not very useful), but do occasionally use the dictation function especially on the Apple watch.

#5

How do you accidentally trigger Siri?

#6

I’m not quite sure either to be honest, other than holding the home button for too long or by it interpreting “Hey Siri” from someone else. However, you can fix the “Hey Siri” issues by tuning it to your voice print in your system settings.

Being straightforward, I really want to like Siri, but he/she/it, isn’t really at a level where its useful, and it doesn’t seem to want to learn either unlike other systems. I tried to teach it “Hey Siri, go to my favorite Indian restaurant.” Apple’s contact list doesn’t allow you to add anything other than “home,” “work,” or “other” though and that’s the first inherent flaw.

The more annoying thing is that there is no humanly possible way to get it to recognise the name of said restaurant even if you act like a phonetically challenged person and try to mimic the way Siri pronounces it, Siri just isn’t compatible with life.

The last issue is “I am an Australian English voice” Apple has no clue what an Australian or for that matter a South African English voice sounds like so I set it to a British English voice, and while its better the pronunciation is still abysmal.

#7

Pressing the home button too hard unintentionally or accidentally causing the loud beeping tones. Happens at the most inconvenient times.

#8

Couldn’t agree more. The minute you have to repeat yourself any time savings are gone. I’m a chronic mumbler, so I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to use it :smile:

#9

I’m glad it’s not just me then. I’ve only tried it a handful of times, but I find it basically useless. By the time you work out which synonym it understands for the instruction you’re trying to execute it’s too late and too irritating.

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#10

I use Siri heaps in the car. There are certain things I don’t bother trying to do.

I use her to call people all the time, and to read me and reply to messages.

I never try to get her to schedule an appointment, as she rarely gets that right!

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#11

I had never used Siri except to play, in the early days. REcently activated her on the ipad, and have found she fires off at times when I am on the other side of the room watching TV. Clearly there are some things on TV she responds to. She’s gone again.

#12

I use Siri all the time - great for setting my alarms at night (“Hey Siri, wake me up at 7am”), reminding me about stuff (“Hey Siri, remind me when I leave work to go to the supermarket”). I rarely have problems with her not understanding me, nor do I activate her accidentally. Sure she could be better, but for what I need, I find her just fine :heart:

#13

I wonder if your accent more US (or generic) sounding than mine, I’ve been told I have a fairly strong Australian accent by some of my overseas friends (I grew up in a rural area).

#14

If you add the relationships in your iPhone contacts rather than explicitly telling Siri that might help.

I have the same problem with Siri. It’s NLP just isn’t useful.

This morning while getting ready for work:

“Hey Siri, what times my haircut this morning?”
“It’s 6:30am, you woke me up Angus”
“What times my first appointment this morning?”
“It’s 6:30am, you woke me up Angus”
“Oh FFS!”

In the car it’s mostly fine (recognises mum, dad, work and friends reasonably well), but initiating Siri via Hey Siri doesn’t always work, sometimes triggers my Watch instead or sometimes works but doesn’t connect to Bluetooth straighaway or connects halfway through my next voice command. It’s more reliable to trigger via the home button instead. (Don’t lecture me, I can do it with my muscle memory without taking my eyes off the road, it’s the only time I touch my phone when driving, and I’d argue it’s safer than the distraction of trying to figure out what command Siri misinterpreted).

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