Products · Product
Siri
Raised as a usability problem by 441 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 307 threads.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Voice commands often fail or get misinterpretedUnreviewed
20102026- Simple tasks like setting a timer are slow and spin so long the user assumes they failed2026-09-21
- Voice commands misfire: lights all turn on, and reminders ask for time again2026-09-15
- Voice commands must be overspecified and still often fail to do what's wanted2026-02-02
Can only play one particular song regardless of requestUnreviewed
20102026- Siri refuses to like a song in Spotify, and screenshot requests often silently fail2026-09-21
- Can't get Siri to play running playlist on shuffle while running2026-07-10
- Siri routes music requests to Pandora instead of the user's Apple Music library, with no easy way to change it2025-12-02
Takes several seconds to respond to basic commandsUnreviewed
20102026- Very slow and often fails to respond, sometimes just disappears2026-10-13
- Simple reminders and alarms take over five seconds to set2026-10-13
- Slow responses, asks unnecessary classifications, and confuses which contact is meant2026-09-15
Plays the wrong song, forcing users to repeat requestsUnreviewed
20102026- Voice command "play my favourites" now plays random songs from an unexpected playlist2026-10-20
- Voice song requests fail, play wrong songs, or require unlocking the phone2026-10-08
- Voice command to play Spotify on Sonos often fails, so user gives up and uses the app2026-07-08
Doesn't recognize accent, so AirPods voice control failsUnreviewed
20102026- Siri can't use a different language than the device's UI language2026-09-14
- Accent recognition is poor and interactions feel hardcoded, failing on similar requests2026-04-21
- Speech-to-text misrecognises British accents, so voice input is error-prone2025-12-02
Rejects paraphrased commands and fails to control visible lightsUnreviewed
20102026- Siri fails to recognise lights it can see and control, and rejects paraphrased commands2026-06-08
- Must say exact light names or Siri fails; can't control multiple lights in one command2026-05-18
- Siri misinterprets 'turn on Bright' as 'pause in the bedroom' after an update2026-02-13
Must say 'hey Siri' again after every responseUnreviewed
20102026- Must say 'hey Siri' again after every response instead of continuing a conversation2026-10-14
- Must say "Hey Siri" before every sentence and answers are unhelpful2026-10-14
- Must repeatedly say "Hey Siri" to continue a conversation, most often while driving2026-09-15
Only timers and alarms work; other voice requests failUnreviewed
20102026- Voice alarm requests set wrong times and deletions fail, forcing repeated attempts2026-09-14
- Voice assistant misinterprets requests and needs repeated commands to set a timer2026-05-22
- Voice input misheard and slow response make setting a timer error-prone2025-12-08
Dictation cuts off early, entering only part of the searchUnreviewed
20102026- Dictation cuts off early, so only part of the spoken search gets entered2025-06-30
- Voice-to-text transcription is poor, so searching for content is frustrating2025-03-21
- Often fails to understand simple voice queries from non-native English speakers2023-09-19
iPad answers when the HomePod should respondUnreviewed
20102026- Focus request gets handed to a HomePod that then refuses it2026-09-14
- Siri on iPad triggers when the HomePod is meant to respond, so the wrong device answers2025-10-06
- Spoken cancel commands fail mid-prompt, forcing users to physically tap the HomePod2023-05-17
Voice assistant doesn't work when the phone is lockedUnreviewed
20102026- Voice command requires unlocking the phone, forcing hands-on passcode entry anyway2026-06-09
- Voice assistant was unreliable enough for driving that the user disabled it2025-01-07
- Voice input repeatedly fails, forcing users to stop, remove gloves, and fix the phone2023-05-16
Needs persuading to hand off to ChatGPT, then fails to add eventsUnreviewed
20102026- Siri-created appointments get no alert, so the user isn't reminded2026-01-12
- Siri needs persuasion to hand off to ChatGPT, then fails to add the invitation to the calendar2025-03-29
- Siri created a calendar event at the wrong time, 5 hours early2021-10-05
Silently returns wrong addresses instead of admitting failureUnreviewed
20102026- Weather query fails: Siri doesn't know location and requires unlocking first2026-09-15
- Siri can't understand Polish street and city names, so addresses can't be spoken2026-04-21
- Siri says it doesn't know location while Maps shows the user's live position2026-02-19
Dials unintended people after misunderstanding spoken commandsUnreviewed
20102026- Frequently mishears and misunderstands spoken commands2023-04-27
- Misinterprets spoken requests as calls or music, such as 'tell' becoming 'call'2023-04-27
- Misunderstands spoken commands and changes contact names into different people2022-11-23
Voice input can't be used in offices or on busesUnreviewed
20102026- Having to use voice for every navigation destination is cumbersome2026-06-08
- Voice control only covers a few functions, so users can't do full tasks hands-free2020-10-26
- Voice interaction is unusable in shared spaces like offices or buses2016-05-05
Must unlock the phone and find the app icon firstUnreviewed
20102026- Tapping an icon gets replaced by Siri, opening a different app by accident2018-07-09
- Can't figure out how to get Siri to open a webpage automatically2012-01-13
- Siri app required unlocking phone and finding app icon before use2011-10-05
Mishears 'four' as 'for', setting alarms to wrong timeUnreviewed
20102026- Siri's features differ across devices, so alarms can't be set on a laptop2021-10-05
- Voice alarm response misleadingly implies a new alarm was set when a recurring one was enabled2020-10-26
- Siri mishears 'four' as 'for', so alarms are set to the wrong time2016-03-12
No documented command list, so users must guess phrasingUnreviewed
20102026- Commands must be guessed at since nothing hints which phrasing works2026-02-05
- Users must know exact commands or the interface is hard to use2025-12-01
- No documented list of commands, so users must guess phrasing2022-11-23
Adding a shopping list item needs a two-step voice exchangeUnreviewed
20102026- Only recognises the owner's voice and can't add several items to a list at once2025-11-10
- Adding a shopping list item takes an infuriating two-step voice exchange2024-01-12
- Voice assistant keeps misunderstanding or failing to route simple shopping list requests to the right app2020-12-02
Can't tell if a reminder was made, and duplicates appearUnreviewed
20102026- Produces garbled reminder text that users must reinterpret later2025-12-02
- Can't tell whether a reminder was created; UI vanishes and creates duplicates2025-04-24
- Users can't figure out how to add reminders2016-01-02
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Siri refuses to translate or summarize the page, saying it only handles what's on screen2026-10-29
- Voice command "play my favourites" now plays random songs from an unexpected playlist2026-10-20
- Siri fails to call the right contact or set alarms by voice2026-10-16
- Siri can't set timers on Apple Watch and misroutes commands across multiple Apple devices2026-10-16
- Siri must be asked to call contacts two or three times before it works2026-10-15
- Siri spins for seconds then fails with a confusing 'Clock app not installed' error2026-10-15
- Can't correct a mistake conversationally, must restart the whole interaction2026-10-15
- Natural language requests work unpredictably, so users can't tell what will succeed2026-10-15
- Good night command takes seconds and gives confusing feedback before lights turn off2026-10-15
- Must disable learning for each app individually, and iOS updates re-enable it2026-10-15
- Voice commands misinterpreted, e.g. deleting all alarms except one deletes that one instead2026-10-15
- Can only answer one question; no real follow-up in conversation2026-10-14
- Asking Siri to click a visible button often does the wrong thing2026-10-14
- Must say 'hey Siri' again after every response instead of continuing a conversation2026-10-14
- Must say "Hey Siri" before every sentence and answers are unhelpful2026-10-14
- Very slow and often fails to respond, sometimes just disappears2026-10-13
- Siri is slow and no longer adds grocery items to the right lists2026-10-13
- Simple reminders and alarms take over five seconds to set2026-10-13
- Must speak destinations unnaturally slowly, and still misidentifies Walmart locations or asks for confirmation2026-10-08
- Voice song requests fail, play wrong songs, or require unlocking the phone2026-10-08
- Siri gets accidentally activated and takes over the interface2026-09-25
- Siri needs repeated tries, sets timers silently, so user creates duplicates2026-09-22
- Siri's AI response delays app search results by about two seconds2026-09-22
- Simple tasks like setting a timer are slow and spin so long the user assumes they failed2026-09-21
- Siri refuses to like a song in Spotify, and screenshot requests often silently fail2026-09-21
- Settings show Siri disabled and offer to turn it on, while its process keeps running2026-09-21
- Has to repeat or rephrase requests and undo wrong actions constantly2026-09-21
- Siri bubble appears on every text box and is annoying to live with2026-09-21
- Hard to remember to use it and not fast for quick actions2026-09-17
- Slow responses, asks unnecessary classifications, and confuses which contact is meant2026-09-15
- Voice commands misfire: lights all turn on, and reminders ask for time again2026-09-15
- Siri is slow and laggy, and fails to create notes or reminders2026-09-15
- Weather query fails: Siri doesn't know location and requires unlocking first2026-09-15
- Must repeatedly say "Hey Siri" to continue a conversation, most often while driving2026-09-15
- Siri can't use a different language than the device's UI language2026-09-14
- Voice alarm requests set wrong times and deletions fail, forcing repeated attempts2026-09-14
- Focus request gets handed to a HomePod that then refuses it2026-09-14
- Siri is still bad at basic requests despite AI advances2026-08-28
- New Siri is slower to respond and new features are hard to remove2026-08-17
- New Siri runs too slow on an older iPhone, unlike ChatGPT voice2026-07-13
- Takes around 25 seconds to respond, sometimes timing out on simple questions2026-07-13
- Half of requests fail and responses are slow2026-07-10
- Can't get Siri to play running playlist on shuffle while running2026-07-10
- Siri was murderously infuriating before, now only passably usable2026-07-10
- Voice command to play Spotify on Sonos often fails, so user gives up and uses the app2026-07-08
- Voice command requires unlocking the phone, forcing hands-on passcode entry anyway2026-06-09
- Siri can't do what users want, forcing them into fixed GUI phone-tree style workflows2026-06-09
- Simple one-word voice commands to system features don't work2026-06-09
- Having to use voice for every navigation destination is cumbersome2026-06-08
- Siri window lacks Cmd+Tab, minimize, Dock presence and standard keyboard shortcuts2026-06-08