A Siri-ous observation about HomePods

Since its inception, I’ve noticed specific changes in Siri particularly when I attempt to use her services with an with HomePods. For instance…  

I just issued a command to the bedroom HomePod to play a specific playlist everywhere in the home. She does it perfectly. Later on in the day I give her the same command in the living room. At first I think it went fine but as I walk down the hall to the kitchen I realized she’s not playing my playlist but some other compilation. So I command her to play the playlist (again). In response she asks who is speaking. Incredible!! She just heard me in the other room a minute ago. So I tell her who I am. After a pregnant pause she says that there’s no such playlist but she could play something else if I wish. She not only forgot who I was but also wasn’t able to find a playlist that exists in my library (one she played many times before).  So, I walk into living room and try again. Success! She not only knows who I am but plays the right playlist. Unfortunately it took multiple attempts. Very frustrating.

Another day another issue. I tell Siri to play some music. This time she gets it right but she’s shouting. I tell her to lower her voice. Amazingly it works! But, the next day she booming again. So I repeat the order to lower her voice and she complies…. Until the next day. This goes on for days.

Not HomePod but follows the theme...Now I’m in the car and I tell Siri to send a message. She responds that I must unlock my phone first. Why?? I’m doing 70mph on the highway and she wants me to grab my phone and unlock it. What a massive safety crisis! So I unlock my iPhone and she allows me to verbally send a text message. Further down the road I decide to place a handsfree call. I instruct Siri to call my wife. She responds by asking my what number or email address I want to use. I respond by saying the same number I’ve used every day for the last twenty years!

Traveling on route 81, I ask Siri to tell us where the nearest Chick-fil-A’s are. She responds by telling me there’s one 2.4 miles away. Unfortunately, when I ask for directions she wants me to turn around because it’s in the opposite direction. So I ask her again to give me instructions to a Chick-fil-A but in the direction I’m heading. Sorry, I can’t do that O Glorius One she says. Who’s O Glorius One?? I’ll never know.

At night we arm our alarm system using Siri. Correction… trying to use Siri via HomePod. My wife gives her the command to turn the house alarm system on just before we go to bed. She responds by saying she can’t recognize who’s speaking. Once we get past that point she then asks which one? One or two? We only have one alarm system. What’s she talking about? So we set it manually. 

Watching TV at night, Siri (via HomePod) randomly speaks up and says she can’t do that or can’t find that.  My wife and I look at each other with wonder as to who’s giving her commands. We said nothing and the TV certainly didn’t say “Hey Siri” during the program. 

Back to HomePod music… we have a number of HomePods in the house. Some are set as stereo pairs, others are standalone. Occasionally (daily), when told to play music and she actually gets it right, it’ll start playing in one room and then another and then another. Often the room that was playing first will drop out and come back on after ten seconds then other rooms will do the same until the whole house has music playing. Then, once in a while it all shuts off and there’s an eerie silence. I guess the system needs to settle in or find its equilibrium. My neighbors are not impressed with Siri and HomePods and think I’m out of my mind using it.  My wife has recently joined them.

So more often than not (at least for us) Siri (whether part of HomePod or iPhone) doesn’t understand, can’t do that, doesn’t know who we are, talks to herself and can’t grasp spacial direction.

For the sake of brevity I’ll stop my anecdotes here. I’m sure a search will provide many more many more stories about HomePod and Siri performance.

But… since this is a forum for questions I’ll end this with one. When is the wealthiest most technologically advanced company on the planet going to give us a finished HomePod/Siri product we can reliably use? I've shelled out vast amounts of hard earned money to buy this stuff I should work.