Hey Siri, why are you still so stupid in 2022?
Siri doesn’t work very smoothly, even though she’s celebrating her 11th birthday this year. We still miss – even in iOS 16 – a lot of functions with Apple’s smart assistant. Siri should really be able to do these 8 things by now.
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Contents
1. Hey Siri, get the context
You probably know it: you ask Siri on your iPhone a question, she gives an answer, but as soon as you respond again it does not work and she no longer understands. It would be much more convenient if Siri listens for a while after giving an answer, and remembers what the conversation is about.
2. No Siri, not now
Siri is the one in your group of friends who always feels addressed, but squared. If you have “Hey Siri” enabled, she sometimes activates at the craziest moments, causing a lot of irritation. That could be a little less sensitive.
3. Hey Siri, why do you sound like that?
You must be able to … personalize a personal assistant. How cool would it be if developers could design voices for Siri, which you can install via the App Store? For example, you can make Siri sound like KITT off Knight RiderHALL 9000 off 2001: A Space Odysseyor Marvin van The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy†
4. Hey Arnold! Hey things!
Why is Siri always called Siri? Actually, that doesn’t make much sense: it increases the chance that someone else will activate your Siri, and it doesn’t feel very personal. We’d like to see you can set your own name – with a filter for obscene names, then.
5. Hey Siri, can you hear me?
The Google Assistant has been bilingual for years: you can set which two languages it understands. This is useful if several languages are spoken at home. It has an extra advantage for Dutch people: if you set English as a second language, you can also use the more extensive English voice commands in addition to assignments in your own language. Siri doesn’t work with multiple languages at once – so it could be better!
6. Hey Siri Not Working
We often ignore Siri, because many tasks take longer via Siri than if we just press a button ourselves. Or they just go all wrong. Siri should work a lot better, especially for simple and frequently used tasks. This can be done, for example, by building up a kind of memory of assignments that you often ask about. Now, “Hey Siri, turn on the lights” can work for years, and then one day Siri suddenly responds with “I can’t find speaker Bulbs”. huh?
7. Hey Siri, do this and that
Siri snaps one task at a time — unlike a real assistant. It would be much more convenient if we could say “Hey Siri, dim the lights and turn on the TV” instead of having to give two separate commands.
8. Hey Siri, a little more humor please
In Interstellar the robot TARS has a personality setting. That is, you can adjust how humorous or sarcastic he behaves. We would like to see something similar in Siri. And this is not very far away: modern AIs can already stick to certain personalities. You will enjoy using a Siri that you are more comfortable with.
What are you missing?
Did we miss another feature you’d like to see in Siri? Or does Siri not work well with other things? Let us know in the comments!
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