I'll use the "Ok Google" version if I'm completely alone. But if I'm in a room with someone else (or in public) it just feels weird and awkward to make someone listen to me set an alarm or ask for directions... feels like I'm over-sharing.
Ask HN: Does anybody still use Siri?
11–20 of 36 posts
Re: Ask HN: Does anybody still use Siri?
#12I use Siri fairly frequently, but in certain narrowly-defined situations: when I've got my hands full, or am doing something else. The two that come to mind are when cooking ("Hey Siri, set a timer for 15 minutes") or when I'm trying to get everything together for leaving the house ("Hey Siri, how cold is it outside?"). I'll also use it if my phone's in my pocket, I'm wearing headphones, and it's awkward to get my ph…
You can also do:
"Tell Tom I'm running ten minutes late."
Saves a whole Siri-round.
Re: Ask HN: Does anybody still use Siri?
#13My new Mazda doesn't have CarPlay (yet) but activating Siri makes it come over the Bluetooth audio on the system like a phone call. I use it primarily to send texts home while driving.
Re: Ask HN: Does anybody still use Siri?
#14Almost always to call people, yes. "Call [name of person]" works really well.
I look up my team's score, occasionally. Unfortunately that team is Sunderland so it's rarely a happy outcome.
"Remind me to do x when I get home" is another good one.
Re: Ask HN: Does anybody still use Siri?
#15Kitchen & laundry timers. The weather. Creating reminders. Sending texts to my wife while I'm running or driving. Directions while I'm driving.
Re: Ask HN: Does anybody still use Siri?
#16Weather, directions, sports scores and betting lines. I use it multiple times a day.
Re: Ask HN: Does anybody still use Siri?
#17Kitchen & laundry timers. The weather. Creating reminders. Sending texts to my wife while I'm running or driving. Directions while I'm driving.
Re: Ask HN: Does anybody still use Siri?
#18There's two aspects to Siri. First is speech recognition, second is the actual AI.
Apple's speech recognition is very good. I use it as speech-to-text all the time in iMessage. I save a lot of time by speaking rather than by typing. It's more than 95% accurate for that purpose.
The Siri AI is very hit-or-miss. Sure it's great for finding out the latest football score. But if it winds up only being 50% responsive in general (and that's what it was for me), then it's not worth the trouble.
Once a person gives up on Siri, then it could take years before they make the effort to use it again. That's probably the current situation for a lot of people. That's where I'm at.
Edit: forgot to mention that i use a staccato voice for the voice recognition. Short pauses between words. It drives my kids crazy hearing it when they're in the same room, but it really improves the hit rate.
Re: Ask HN: Does anybody still use Siri?
#19Once the novelty wore off, I only ever used Siri to set timers - saying '10 minute timer' was easer than doing it through the app interface.
Since iOS introduced the shortcuts to apps on the lock screen, which included timers, I never use Siri.
Although I did recently discover Siri can be useful for DnD - "Roll a d20" :)
Re: Ask HN: Does anybody still use Siri?
#20If I'm about to call someone in another time zone, I might use Siri to check their time. Especially if I'm not sure about daylight savings here/there. It's a plus if your partner is on the other side of the globe and you want to think of them.
Sending a text message while driving is great, too.