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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

#41

Post by ztratar »

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?

Siri misunderstands me so frequently, I've learned to not use it for most of the above things.

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

#42

Post by exelius »

phxrsg wrote: post #35
Consultant32452 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The things you listed are my primary uses of Google Assistant, but here's some others. What time is it in [location]? What's the temperature outside? Change the temperature inside (nest). Turn off all the lights. Really the only thing you can't do with Siri that I'm aware of is home automation. But I could be wrong about that.

Siri can do home automation with HomeKit and it actually works really well. The disadvantage here is that HomeKit has less supported accessories because, as I understand it, it's less open/requires certification of the accessory. That said, for engineers in the crowd I know that I and others get around it by making a HomeKit RPi adapter for things that don't support it...

I thought Apple required HomeKit devices to go through a certification process that includes an audit of device security controls (things like secret management, crypto, default passwords, etc) — and very few of these low-cost IoT devices worry about security.

Apple won’t certify them, but there’s not yet a mass market for secure IoT devices (which would necessarily cost more due to the extra engineering required). It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem.

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

#43

Post by CharlesW »

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-...

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

#44

Post by paultannenbaum »

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 recently switched from being an iphone user to a pixel 2, and I can say that the difference between siri and the google assistant is signifiant. Enough so that I rarely used siri and I use the google assistant every day.

It isn't that the google assistant is more featured packed, more so that it just works much better. Especially with slightly more complex queries.

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

#45

Post by throwaway84742 »

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…

I still have a working HiFi in my home gym. It’s a solid piece of engineering, especially for its time. I don’t know why people love to hate it so much.

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

#46

Post by veesahni »

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?

How about continuity of communication between Google Home & Phone.

In my kitchen, I can ask Google Home "how far is X" .. and it responds with a distance/time and pops up a notification on my phone to initiate Google Maps navigation to the target. Useful if I'm in getting ready to go there.

Does Apple's HomePod have any such continuity with an iPhone?

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

#47

Post by notatoad »

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've had similar confusion based on the anecdata: none of the android users i know (including myself) ever use the Google Assistant. Or if they do, they don't do it in public. most iPhone users i know use siri at least a little bit. So is Siri actually better? Or is there something else going on that makes it more usable even if it's technically not as "good"

And the quantity of articles complaining about siri would seem to back up the idea that siri is getting used a lot more - Google Assistant is certainly not perfect, it's got some glaring flaws [1]. If people were actually using it, they'd be complaining. The lack of press coverage about Google Assistant's weak points is not a good thing.

[1]https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/03/14/10-stupidly-simple-...

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

#48

Post by rixrax »

How/for what do people actually use Siri, or Alexa for?

I mean I can't think of having seen anyone use them for a long time for anything but to either test them out for curiositys sake, or for demoing their new Alexa controlled drapes.

Hopefully this wasn't too off-topic. Maybe HN should have an ability to create a poll and attach them to a thread. ;-)

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

#49

Post by dharma1 »

It's what happens at large orgs, esp ones with leadership problems - they can't move fast to improve products, even when something is obviously not working.

The only thing I use Siri for is on the desktop for starting apps - I've hooked it up to a keyb shortcut. I find its a bit faster than fumbling around spotlight or the dock. Alfred would possibly be even faster.

Google assistant has the best knowledge graph for generic questions, and much better machine learning models for voice recognition and language parsing. I primarily use it for route finding, finding out opening times, currency conversions, sometimes calling people.

Alexa for almost only music, and timers, since it's hooked up to my kitchen speakers. It's terrible for general knowledge questions.

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

#50

Post by veesahni »

ztratar wrote: post #41
spullara wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of those Siri can do. Anything else?

Siri misunderstands me so frequently, I've learned to not use it for most of the above things.

This is what I experienced years ago when I last had an iPhone. Google's voice recognition is exceptional. I can mumble words and it still seems to contextually figure out what I was probably trying to say.
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