How Apple let Siri fall behind the Google Assistant and Alexa • Hacker News Board

Re: How Apple let Siri fall behind the Google Assistant and Alexa

#51

Post by imron » Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 11:28 PM UTC

FreakyT wrote: post #25

omerta wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true at all. Look up the story of Apple University. Jobs can't run Apple from his grave. He tried his best to leave Apple with the right culture and leadership in his view. And for the most part, Apple has done really well since he passed. No one is going to get 100% of things right 100% of the time, and Jobs is no different; things would have inevitably gone wrong under his leadership, too.

Exactly this—a particular anecdote from the biography describes his motivation. Apparently when the HP Touchpad failed, Steve Jobs viewed it as a tragedy more than a triumph: > "Hewlett and Packard built a great company, and they thought they had left it in good hands, but now it's being dismembered and destroyed. It's tragic. I hope I've left a stronger legacy so that will never happen at Apple." In creating Apple U…

As did the first implementation of apple maps

Re: How Apple let Siri fall behind the Google Assistant and Alexa

#52

Post by draw_down » Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 11:29 PM UTC

Siri is frustratingly bad/limited. It’s been kind of impossible to deny for a while now. I wonder what they’re going to do, because they had better do something. And the Viv people are at Samsung now so they can’t just buy that.

Re: How Apple let Siri fall behind the Google Assistant and Alexa

#53

Post by katastic » Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 11:30 PM UTC

Twisell wrote: post #28

Something always make me scratch my head. Is there any proof that actual people use and value Google and Amazon assistant more than Siri? Or is the leadership only designed by autoproclaimed experts and funky ad-hoc metrics? I totally confess that I use Siri for only 3 things: -Desactivating all wake up alarm during my morning poo -Setting timers while baking -Sending a « I’m coming » text to my loved one before ridi…

My wife and I have an iOS and Android phone, and an Alexa home thingy.

- Android definitely reads our voice better. Alexa is a close second. iOS has to be helped in loud or non-ideal situations.

- iPhone maps/GPS are way worse too.

Often times I'll just hand my wife my phone in the car because Apple maps is taking forever or, giving INSANE directions that take us through tons of backroads to save .12839083 minutes on our drive when the highway is a clear direction that any human (or good AI) would have recommended.

As for the Alexa, we use it every day and it works great. "Alexa set alarm for 5." "AM or PM?" "AM." Boom. Done.

And I'm NO Android zealot. I have tons of problems with it. The app store seems to be way less damaging to your phone for iOS. Like, the first result for any phone problems for Android is "delete some apps." Ugh, the entire point of having a smart phone is apps. So if "removing all your apps" is the solution to the only advantage of having a smart phone, then your entire phone architecture is insane. That'd be like saying "Hey, my car keeps stalling." "Well, it only stalls when you drive, so don't drive it then." "Okay."

Re: How Apple let Siri fall behind the Google Assistant and Alexa

#54

Post by ams6110 » Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 11:30 PM UTC

veesahni wrote: post #36

Twisell wrote: post #28

Something always make me scratch my head. Is there any proof that actual people use and value Google and Amazon assistant more than Siri? Or is the leadership only designed by autoproclaimed experts and funky ad-hoc metrics? I totally confess that I use Siri for only 3 things: -Desactivating all wake up alarm during my morning poo -Setting timers while baking -Sending a « I’m coming » text to my loved one before ridi…

Google's voice recognition is excellent. I trust Assistant to help me throughout my day with a number of things now: - Cooking & laundry timers - Reminders (remind me to do X when I get home) - Directions (Take me to the nearest X, take me home, etc) - Checking hours of business (what time does X close today) - Initiating phone calls (Call X) - Checking weather (is it going to snow today? How cold is it right now?) -…

Android's voice typing has been weird for me. It used to work pretty well offline, then a few months ago all the punctuation stopped working. Now it's working again and the overall recognition is better than ever.

Re: How Apple let Siri fall behind the Google Assistant and Alexa

#55

Post by hellofunk » Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 11:30 PM UTC

spullara wrote: post #39

veesahni wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's voice recognition is excellent. I trust Assistant to help me throughout my day with a number of things now: - Cooking & laundry timers - Reminders (remind me to do X when I get home) - Directions (Take me to the nearest X, take me home, etc) - Checking hours of business (what time does X close today) - Initiating phone calls (Call X) - Checking weather (is it going to snow today? How cold is it right now?) -…

All of those Siri can do. Anything else?

This is strictly anecdotal but a friend of mine is an exec at Facebook and we were recently discussing phones. He had an iPhone for a few years and has now had an Android for a couple years. He said that by far the most drastic difference between the two platforms is Siri vs. Assistant (or whatever Google's assistant is called in the phone). He said it is no contest how much more useful and functional Assistant is, compared to Siri. We did not dwell on this discussion and I otherwise find him an objective, un-biased user of the two platforms, so there you have it.

Re: How Apple let Siri fall behind the Google Assistant and Alexa

#56

Post by thescribe » Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 11:31 PM UTC

Is a voice assistant the killer app for anyone? I haven't ever used them, and I've only ever seen someone use it as an ironic 'look at me' at a party.

Re: How Apple let Siri fall behind the Google Assistant and Alexa

#57

Post by dzhiurgis » Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 11:31 PM UTC

There should be an open standard to use whichever assistant you want, not limited to OEM one.

Re: How Apple let Siri fall behind the Google Assistant and Alexa

#58

Post by Grazester » Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 11:31 PM UTC

CharlesW wrote: post #43

Twisell wrote: post #28

Something always make me scratch my head. Is there any proof that actual people use and value Google and Amazon assistant more than Siri? Or is the leadership only designed by autoproclaimed experts and funky ad-hoc metrics? I totally confess that I use Siri for only 3 things: -Desactivating all wake up alarm during my morning poo -Setting timers while baking -Sending a « I’m coming » text to my loved one before ridi…

> Is there any proof that actual people use and value Google and Amazon assistant more than Siri? I found at least one measurement report: As of July 2017 Verto Analytics showed Siri on top[1] with 41.4M unique users per month (but falling), and Alexa with only 2.6M (but rising fast). [1] https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/11/siri-usage-and-engagement-...

Well from my experience my wife never uses Siri on her iphone and always tells me to ask Google on mine even when she has her iphone in hand. I always tell her just ask Siri and her response is always, "you know Siri sucks". I honestly know this but only tell her to ask Siri to annoy her for interrupting me to ask Google something on my phone.

Re: How Apple let Siri fall behind the Google Assistant and Alexa

#59

Post by braderhart » Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 11:31 PM UTC

omerta wrote: post #15

jameskilton wrote: post #7

You can probably point to a lot of quality failings at Apple as starting with Steve Job's death. Apparently he failed to teach and instill a culture of high quality and instead just focused on micro-managing everything himself. Steve Jobs may go down as both the best and worst CEO Apple ever had.

Not true at all. Look up the story of Apple University. Jobs can't run Apple from his grave. He tried his best to leave Apple with the right culture and leadership in his view. And for the most part, Apple has done really well since he passed. No one is going to get 100% of things right 100% of the time, and Jobs is no different; things would have inevitably gone wrong under his leadership, too.

Welcome to Hacker News, where next-generation bots wish to be like their elitist closed-source masters.

Re: How Apple let Siri fall behind the Google Assistant and Alexa

#60

Post by nl » Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 11:32 PM UTC

spullara wrote: post #39

veesahni wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's voice recognition is excellent. I trust Assistant to help me throughout my day with a number of things now: - Cooking & laundry timers - Reminders (remind me to do X when I get home) - Directions (Take me to the nearest X, take me home, etc) - Checking hours of business (what time does X close today) - Initiating phone calls (Call X) - Checking weather (is it going to snow today? How cold is it right now?) -…

All of those Siri can do. Anything else?

It's not that it can do it.

It's how reliable it is when it does it. I use both iOS and Android, and Google Assistant is so much more reliable that I find I use it. With Siri I find I end up having to intervene so often it isn't worth it.

I do have an Australian accent, so maybe that is a factor.