iPhone users disappointed with Siri even after iOS 17 update, demand improvements

Frustrated iPhone users continue to express their dissatisfaction with Siri, despite the recent iOS 17 update, and are now voicing their demands for further enhancements.

Siri, a longstanding feature of the iPhone, has always been expected to show consistent improvements in performance and quality with each new iOS version.

The recent release of iOS 17 brought a significant change, allowing users to invoke the voice assistant with just the word Siri, rather than having to say Hey Siri. But that’s about the only major change with Siri this time around. Many users continue to find Siri’s performance unsatisfactory, highlighting the need for improvements.

I’ve been going through various posts on Reddit and Twitter, where many folks are expressing their concerns about Siri’s functionality and performance. Apple, it seems, has not made significant improvements to Siri in quite some time. Even in their recent iOS updates, Siri doesn’t seem to get any mention or any notable enhancements.

It’s frustrating that whatever upgrades they’ve attempted to apply to Siri appear to have left it more bewildered, resulting in it either misinterpreting requests or providing unsatisfactory answers. In its present state, Siri is inconsistent and often barely usable. Many users find it annoying when it’s either unavailable or encounters errors half the time and doesn’t comprehend requests the other half.

Apple’s annual focus on camera improvements and reducing what’s included in the box while maintaining or increasing prices is a point of frustration for many users. It can make us wonder why Siri, a fundamental feature, isn’t receiving the attention it deserves. With all the hype around AI chatbots and whatnot, I’d expect Apple to have been at the top of the game here. But that’s clearly not the case.

It is often said that voice assistants were indeed hyped when they first emerged, but it’s disheartening to witness such little progress over more than a decade. Among the first widely used voice assistants, Siri seems to have made the least progress of all. Google Assistant has always been a better voice assistant for most tasks. A quick ‘Google Assistant vs Siri’ search on YouTube will give you all the proof you need.

Users have been facing a series of frustrations with Siri’s functionality, and it’s essential to shed light on these experiences. I spent some time going through threads on Reddit and rounded up some common and other problems users encounter with Siri even after the iOS 17 update.

• Adding items to the shopping list through Siri feels like a game of trial and error. It places items correctly, but then asking it to remind you at the store results in amnesia about the context. It often takes multiple attempts to get it right, with interruptions, duplicates, misinterpretations, and wrong locations. Sometimes, manually adding items seems faster, but we still want to give Siri a chance.
• Requesting Siri to play voicemail simply doesn’t work. While other responses show as text on the screen, there’s no voice narration, making it extremely buggy.
• When asking Siri for an actor’s age, it often responds with random articles instead of providing a straightforward answer.
• For many HomePod users, Siri falls short. Asking it to play something like “Hey Siri, play BBC Radio 1” results in an unhelpful response, claiming the need for the BBC app.



• Reporting map issues while driving feels like a daunting task, as Siri often fails to cooperate.
• When requesting directions while driving and connected to CarPlay, Siri declines to assist and insists that users continue on their phones.
• Siri’s inconsistency is evident when inquiring ‘What iOS is on my phone’. It provides unrelated responses like “The current volume is 51%” or delivers web results, creating confusion. However, asking specific questions like “What’s my iOS version?” results in accurate responses.
• Siri can be stubborn when asked to stop playing music; it often continues to play.
• Some users have experienced Siri mistakenly reporting the iPhone’s battery status when asked about the AirPods’ battery level.
• It seems like some users have encountered a Siri that doesn’t listen anymore. For instance, when given the command – “Hey Siri, call Dad,” it responds with silence and even trying to use the power button as a workaround proves ineffective.
• When requesting Siri to change the morning alarm for a later time, it inexplicably delves into a long history of alarms before finally asking which one to modify.
• Instead of setting an alarm, Siri sometimes starts a timer, which can be frustrating. Users are left calculating their sleep time daily.
• Asking Siri on the phone for the time in 8 hours often results in irrelevant web search results, while the same query works correctly with HomePod.

In these cases, it’s clear that while Siri has its moments, it still has some quirks that need ironing out.

iPhone users began making comparisons with other AI like Alexa, Google’s BARD AI, Bing AI, and Google Assistant. Many users have noted that these alternative AI systems are continuously improving and have surpassed Siri in terms of functionality and overall performance.

This is where users are expressing their strong demand for Apple to prioritize Siri’s improvement and are eagerly anticipating the next iOS release with Siri enhancements at the forefront. I personally hope Apple takes its voice assistant more seriously. Maybe even sprinkle in some nifty AI chatbot capabilities to take things up a notch. That being said, feel free to share your experience with Siri after iOS 17 in the comments below.

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