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How Apple let Siri fall behind the Google Assistant and Alexa

mashable.com

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

#161

Post by happertiger »

madeofpalk wrote: post #130
IBM wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Honestly, I don’t know the full details, but I still hold that Forstall took the fall for the poor execution of Williamson in the Maps debacle. Well that's not true because Eddy Cue fired Williamson [1]. Maps might have been the straw that broke the camel's back, but Forstall was fired also because he couldn't work well with Bob Mansfield (who came back out of retirement after he was gone [2]) and Jony Ive. [1] http…

Let’s be honest here - none of us actually know what went on.

Someone here knows. Let’s be honest here. ;)

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

#162

Post by happertiger »

Pokepokalypse wrote: post #156
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?) -…

Google's voice recognition is excellent, and fuck Samsung for putting that stupid Bixby crap and getting in the way.

Sigh. That’s the main reason I won’t move to the s9. I already have an iPhone and Siri just sucks. Why would I want another sucky assistant? It’s like hiring the wrong person... twice.

I really wish the manufacturers would only have a few features, like weather or timer or location (home, work, school) that were truly bulletproof in execution. It feels like they are trying to do too much most of the time when I just want them to not suck consistently so I can actually use them reliably.

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

#163

Post by chetanahuja »

thescribe wrote: post #56

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.

For users who have reasonably functioning products, yes. For Siri users, looks like not so much.

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

#164

Post by davedx »

brownbat wrote: post #80
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?) -…

I use it for these things, they're ok. I occasionally try to get it to control an app, it usually fails, but that's my dream state: I'd like to be able to say, "Hey Google, open app X and do Y task." But I don't know if there's enough incentive for apps to add an assistant interface. How easy is it to add commands on your app that it will accept via assistant? Are there common APIs or structures for this to shift the…

I always thought that Android's intents could be a good API for voice commands. It actually surprised me that we never really got much deep app integration with voice on Android phones given that API.

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

#165

Post by x0x0 »

IBM wrote: post #110
xiaq wrote: post #67

> "It was slow, when it worked at all," Williamson said. "The software was riddled with serious bugs. Those problems lie entirely with the original Siri team, certainly not me." Wow. It those were his original words, I don't doubt a bit that this guy should be responsible for Siri being left behind.

So Forstall and his direct report were responsible for two botched product launches, Siri and Maps. This is a big blow to the camp suggesting firing Forstall was a mistake.

I think Job was responsible for the maps debacle.

When you set hard deadlines for software release dates because you want to have tentpole features for IOS releases, and you mostly refuse to do widespread beta tests because then it won't be surprising, you're creating the maps debacle. Now I'm sure maps was harder than it looked, but I'd also bet lots of people on the inside knew that. They should have let the date slip.

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

#166

Post by gandutraveler »

brownbat wrote: post #80
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?) -…

I use it for these things, they're ok. I occasionally try to get it to control an app, it usually fails, but that's my dream state: I'd like to be able to say, "Hey Google, open app X and do Y task." But I don't know if there's enough incentive for apps to add an assistant interface. How easy is it to add commands on your app that it will accept via assistant? Are there common APIs or structures for this to shift the…

I can open app and ask for actions on Google assistant on my Pixel phone. I use things like - "Play on Spotify" - "Send message to on WhatsApp" - "Take a selfie or screenshot"

Maybe app actions are only available on Pixel devices.

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

#167

Post by piyush_soni »

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…

I use Google Assistant all day, and know people who do the same. It's actually amazing, and although Apple was the first one to add any decent voice assistant, Google was the first one that understood my accent at all ("Indian English"). When we had that, it was a shame to even ask any question to Siri. Now when Siri has an Indian English version as well, I still compare it all the time with my friend's latest iPhone, and it still sucks. It understands me every time.

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

#168

Post by happertiger »

datguacdoh wrote: post #150
1337biz wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obligatory question is why? What usefullness or functionality made that much of a difference to him?

Walt Mossberg has a funny "series" on his Twitter where he screencaps all the blatent failures he has with Siri. Many times, he or a follower will attach a screenshot of Assistant completing the action. It's not scientific by any means, but it's fun to go through and provides some concrete examples. His biggest issue seems to be that Siri is unreliable - there are queries that work, but only sometimes, and that makes…

If Apple engineers who work on Siri were required to do all of their corporate communication with Siri exclusively, Siri would rule inside a year.

That is assuming they were trusted to work on it instead of report to status meetings, or meetings to their dotted line manager, etc. Apple was built around Steve. It’s going to take a while.

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

#169

Post by piyush_soni »

gandutraveler wrote: post #166
brownbat wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use it for these things, they're ok. I occasionally try to get it to control an app, it usually fails, but that's my dream state: I'd like to be able to say, "Hey Google, open app X and do Y task." But I don't know if there's enough incentive for apps to add an assistant interface. How easy is it to add commands on your app that it will accept via assistant? Are there common APIs or structures for this to shift the…

I can open app and ask for actions on Google assistant on my Pixel phone. I use things like - "Play on Spotify" - "Send message to on WhatsApp" - "Take a selfie or screenshot" Maybe app actions are only available on Pixel devices.

No, they are available on all devices (at least on my Nexus 6P too). It's only a matter of which apps are implementing the "Actions on Google Assistant" and for which operations.

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

#170

Post by happertiger »

js2 wrote: post #146
jd20 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an Ike's Sandwiches like literally 30 feet from my office in San Jose, and I always like to ask Siri when it closes. To this day, I've probably tried on a dozen occasions and it has never once gotten it right. I'm a native English speaker with no accent. I tried again just now, this is what I got: Me: "What time does Ike's sandwich close?" Siri heard: "What time does Eichs sandwich close" Siri responded: "Hmm…

Siri has made me feel like an idiot so many times I don't even try any more. Fool me once... (I use it for reminders. That seems to work. Looking up anything is useless.)

We bought an amazon device to use as a kitchen timer. It sits right next to where everyone charges their iPhones. Nobody uses Siri. It’s sad. I want to love her, but I honestly can’t remember the last time she was useful, she only works with apples’ ecosystem (and I refuse to use maps it’s tried to kill me on multiple occasions), and I can’t honestly remember the last time I was impressed with her progress forward as a tech.

If the sum of 20 years of voice technology is a glorified stopwatch, you got to wonder...

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