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Serious off-topic question: Are there docs for Siri so that i can learn what it can/can’t do? I have tried skipping songs, playing a genre, set random play, a

Serious off-topic question: Are there docs for Siri so that i can learn what it can/can’t do? I have tried skipping songs, playing a genre, set random play, and similar in iTunes — generally a failure, often initiates an unwanted phone call. On the phone I can successfully call the intended contact about 50% of the time, possibly because I have ~250 contacts. I suspect that if i knew the right words to interact with the API I could have a more enjoyable Siri experience. Alternatively, is there a way to disable it completely — as in long hold on headphones button does not initiate.

hunter2_ 8y ago
This doesn't address your question but might be interesting. As someone who has used Android forever and never tried Siri, those anecdotes are mind blowing to me. For me with Google Assistant, media commands work about 80% and successful call initiation is about 90%. And I haven't looked for documentation either. YMMV of course.
- rayiner 8y ago
  So a simple media command fails 1 in 5 times? This is the best SV can do with a incredibly well-studied technology (voice recognition)?
  - hunter2_ 8y ago
    Well, I try new things all the time. For example, sometimes it finds an artist or song whose name contains the genre I was trying to play. I could approach 100% with "hey google, play" when something is paused (but not "hey google, stop" when it's playing, because of the ambient noise of whatever is playing making the wake word fail).
- matwood 8y ago
  As someone who has used both, the problem with Siri is when it works it's great, but it will fail on the exact same command the next time you try it. Consistency is key in these things working.
- wlesieutre 8y ago
  A recent survey of iPhone X users backs up the notion that people aren't happy with it https://techpinions.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2018-04-26-at-9.28.45-AM.png https://techpinions.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Screen-Sh...
- rootusrootus 8y ago
  Sometimes it works great. Sometimes I can't get Siri to do anything right. Anecdotally I've found that Google's voice assistant is quite a lot better. Unfortunately I am unwilling to accept the rest of Google's terms and conditions so I am stuck with Siri for the foreseeable future.
  - hunter2_ 8y ago
    I disagree with the terms of plenty of things that I use anyway, and I ain't dead yet. I do realize that it could jeopardize me in the future, but the convenience outweighs most of my cares. It's horrible, really. I imagine it's how smokers with no intention of quitting feel.
    - rootusrootus 8y ago
      Ha! Every time I pick up a big juicy cheeseburger...
  - dirkgently 8y ago
    And what are those specific "terms and conditions"? It's funny hoe Google is somehow perceived as evil while Apple or Amazon not. If I have to trust someone with mt data (and we all do), I will choose Google over anyone else.
    - denverkarma 8y ago
      I disagree that Amazon is not considered evil. But really I don’t think anyone deeply believes that these companies are good or evil in the personal human sense, rather it’s a question of incentives and interests. Google makes money by selling me to advertisers. I understand the business value but I’m personally not comfortable with it. Amazon makes money by selling me other people’s stuff. I’m comfortable with the business, but sometimes I’m concerned that what’s good for Amazon isn’t what’s good for the people who make the stuff I like. Apple makes money by selling me stuff that they make. This is the business model that I like best, because when they make stuff I don’t like I don’t buy it, and when they make stuff I love I’m happy to give them my money in exchange. Buying from the maker is the best win-win virtuous cycle, in my opinion.
- hammock 8y ago
  https://assistant.google.com/explore https://assistant.google.com/explore
primitivesuave 8y ago
For disabling Siri, the toggles are in Settings under "Siri and Search" - the long hold was a major annoyance to me as well.
mikeash 8y ago
Ask it “What can I ask you?” and it will show a big list of capabilities and phrases to trigger them.
- nitrogen 8y ago
  It is really weird to refer to a device in the second person. Why isn't there some other way to get that info?
  - hunter2_ 8y ago
    "What can I ask Google Assistant" also works. But I assume what you really mean is something out of band. Google Assistant actually does finish with a recommendation to see more in the app.
- mistermann 8y ago
  Is there a web page one can refer to instead? Seems like it could be far more efficient way to learn, and would also be able to easily highlight newly released features.
  - djrogers 8y ago
    Googling for 'list of siri commands' comes up with many excellent web pages, including this one from Apple themselves: https://www.apple.com/ios/siri/ https://www.apple.com/ios/siri/
    - mistermann 8y ago
      I probably should have specified I'm interested in the Google one. As far as I can tell, Google doesn't post a comprehensive reference, based on: google now command reference site:google.com Most any list that's been published is from 3rd party sites, and usually from 2016. Google's documentation that I've found tends to be of a form of a random list of various different scenarios you can do, but nothing comprehensive. And besides, my sense is that new development is on Google Assistant, which (I think) requires web search history to be turned on, which in my opinion is stepping over the line. I'm getting tired enough of Google's invasiveness that I'd like to switch to iOS, but I can't stand the UI, and the hardware is all too expensive for my tastes.
djsumdog 8y ago
It makes me think of old text based adventure games where you type in "open door" or "draw gun". All these complex "A.I." based voice assistants still break down to the vocabulary problem. They try to solve the general case by not giving humans/customers the language spec. There is probably more than just an AI that does speech to text and then a second phase interpreter. I suspect there is some AI in the first layer of Siri/OKGoogle/Alexa that uses context clues to narrow down what you're asking, but who knows for sure. It's a big black box. Eventually it's like the 90s again where you type "Get ye flask" and you get a box saying, "You cannot get ye flask" and you're left playing Peasants Quest asking, "Why in the world can I not 'get ye flask?!'"
- hunter2_ 8y ago
  But you wouldn't know to type xyzzy.
- framebit 8y ago
  To be fair, in Thy Dungeonman if you asked three times to "Get ye flask" it was revealed that it was a load-bearing flask.
_dan 8y ago
I have a Sonos setup in my house, it's connected to Spotify Premium (as I suspect most Sonos systems are). I recently added a Sonos/Alexa hybrid thing because I liked the idea of being able to play whatever I fancied while cooking. "Alexa play <whatever> in the kitchen from spotify" No other combination of words works. I'm not sure why it needs me to say "kitchen", all my Sonos systems are connected together, but if I say anything else it'll either play on just the one speaker or not work at all. I'm not sure why I must say "from spotify", but apparently I do or it ends up playing some random radio station from some other service. I find things like this quite the mouthful: "Alexa play Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath in the kitchen from spotify" ..and with a statement so complicated it often misunderstands and starts doing something random. I would MUCH prefer a simple voice based API. Attempting to understand conversational speech properly rarely seems to work effectively and often just ends up with users memorising a command just to get it to understand.
tinus_hn 8y ago
If you activate Siri and say nothing you’ll get a list of examples. Or you can just ask Siri ‘What can you do for me?’

hunter2_ 8y ago

This doesn't address your question but might be interesting. As someone who has used Android forever and never tried Siri, those anecdotes are mind blowing to me. For me with Google Assistant, media commands work about 80% and successful call initiation is about 90%. And I haven't looked for documentation either. YMMV of course.

rayiner 8y ago
So a simple media command fails 1 in 5 times? This is the best SV can do with a incredibly well-studied technology (voice recognition)?
- hunter2_ 8y ago
  Well, I try new things all the time. For example, sometimes it finds an artist or song whose name contains the genre I was trying to play. I could approach 100% with "hey google, play" when something is paused (but not "hey google, stop" when it's playing, because of the ambient noise of whatever is playing making the wake word fail).
matwood 8y ago
As someone who has used both, the problem with Siri is when it works it's great, but it will fail on the exact same command the next time you try it. Consistency is key in these things working.
wlesieutre 8y ago
A recent survey of iPhone X users backs up the notion that people aren't happy with it https://techpinions.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2018-04-26-at-9.28.45-AM.png https://techpinions.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Screen-Sh...
rootusrootus 8y ago
Sometimes it works great. Sometimes I can't get Siri to do anything right. Anecdotally I've found that Google's voice assistant is quite a lot better. Unfortunately I am unwilling to accept the rest of Google's terms and conditions so I am stuck with Siri for the foreseeable future.
- hunter2_ 8y ago
  I disagree with the terms of plenty of things that I use anyway, and I ain't dead yet. I do realize that it could jeopardize me in the future, but the convenience outweighs most of my cares. It's horrible, really. I imagine it's how smokers with no intention of quitting feel.
  - rootusrootus 8y ago
    Ha! Every time I pick up a big juicy cheeseburger...
- dirkgently 8y ago
  And what are those specific "terms and conditions"? It's funny hoe Google is somehow perceived as evil while Apple or Amazon not. If I have to trust someone with mt data (and we all do), I will choose Google over anyone else.
  - denverkarma 8y ago
    I disagree that Amazon is not considered evil. But really I don’t think anyone deeply believes that these companies are good or evil in the personal human sense, rather it’s a question of incentives and interests. Google makes money by selling me to advertisers. I understand the business value but I’m personally not comfortable with it. Amazon makes money by selling me other people’s stuff. I’m comfortable with the business, but sometimes I’m concerned that what’s good for Amazon isn’t what’s good for the people who make the stuff I like. Apple makes money by selling me stuff that they make. This is the business model that I like best, because when they make stuff I don’t like I don’t buy it, and when they make stuff I love I’m happy to give them my money in exchange. Buying from the maker is the best win-win virtuous cycle, in my opinion.
hammock 8y ago
https://assistant.google.com/explore https://assistant.google.com/explore

primitivesuave 8y ago

For disabling Siri, the toggles are in Settings under "Siri and Search" - the long hold was a major annoyance to me as well.

mikeash 8y ago

Ask it “What can I ask you?” and it will show a big list of capabilities and phrases to trigger them.

nitrogen 8y ago
It is really weird to refer to a device in the second person. Why isn't there some other way to get that info?
- hunter2_ 8y ago
  "What can I ask Google Assistant" also works. But I assume what you really mean is something out of band. Google Assistant actually does finish with a recommendation to see more in the app.
mistermann 8y ago
Is there a web page one can refer to instead? Seems like it could be far more efficient way to learn, and would also be able to easily highlight newly released features.
- djrogers 8y ago
  Googling for 'list of siri commands' comes up with many excellent web pages, including this one from Apple themselves: https://www.apple.com/ios/siri/ https://www.apple.com/ios/siri/
  - mistermann 8y ago
    I probably should have specified I'm interested in the Google one. As far as I can tell, Google doesn't post a comprehensive reference, based on: google now command reference site:google.com Most any list that's been published is from 3rd party sites, and usually from 2016. Google's documentation that I've found tends to be of a form of a random list of various different scenarios you can do, but nothing comprehensive. And besides, my sense is that new development is on Google Assistant, which (I think) requires web search history to be turned on, which in my opinion is stepping over the line. I'm getting tired enough of Google's invasiveness that I'd like to switch to iOS, but I can't stand the UI, and the hardware is all too expensive for my tastes.

djsumdog 8y ago

It makes me think of old text based adventure games where you type in "open door" or "draw gun". All these complex "A.I." based voice assistants still break down to the vocabulary problem. They try to solve the general case by not giving humans/customers the language spec. There is probably more than just an AI that does speech to text and then a second phase interpreter. I suspect there is some AI in the first layer of Siri/OKGoogle/Alexa that uses context clues to narrow down what you're asking, but who knows for sure. It's a big black box. Eventually it's like the 90s again where you type "Get ye flask" and you get a box saying, "You cannot get ye flask" and you're left playing Peasants Quest asking, "Why in the world can I not 'get ye flask?!'"

hunter2_ 8y ago
But you wouldn't know to type xyzzy.
framebit 8y ago
To be fair, in Thy Dungeonman if you asked three times to "Get ye flask" it was revealed that it was a load-bearing flask.

_dan 8y ago

I have a Sonos setup in my house, it's connected to Spotify Premium (as I suspect most Sonos systems are). I recently added a Sonos/Alexa hybrid thing because I liked the idea of being able to play whatever I fancied while cooking. "Alexa play <whatever> in the kitchen from spotify" No other combination of words works. I'm not sure why it needs me to say "kitchen", all my Sonos systems are connected together, but if I say anything else it'll either play on just the one speaker or not work at all. I'm not sure why I must say "from spotify", but apparently I do or it ends up playing some random radio station from some other service. I find things like this quite the mouthful: "Alexa play Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath in the kitchen from spotify" ..and with a statement so complicated it often misunderstands and starts doing something random. I would MUCH prefer a simple voice based API. Attempting to understand conversational speech properly rarely seems to work effectively and often just ends up with users memorising a command just to get it to understand.

tinus_hn 8y ago

If you activate Siri and say nothing you’ll get a list of examples. Or you can just ask Siri ‘What can you do for me?’