Hey Siri on iPhone Chooses Wrong Contact Every Time

I’m having the same issue. I tell Siri to text and then my husbands name. If I don’t remember to say Doug, and mistakenly say Douglas, she texts his name associated with his old work phone from years ago! I don’t even have that contact anymore. The person who now has that number is nice and tells me wrong number. It took a few times before I figured what was happening. So embarrassing. I just have to be careful now and say only Doug. Not Douglas. Crazy.

Siri no longer recognizing names in Car Play

I’ve had the exact same frustration for over a month now. Siri used to be extraordinarily helpful/useful… then, recently Verizon put me on a different (also Verizon) phone plan which wound up fouling up my phone’s ability to access the cellular network…after two days of no connectivity, Verizon’s trouble shooters finally had me take out my SIM card and put it back in and also reset the cellular network on my phone. After this, Siri spoke differently and was an absolute idiot. I’ve tried every suggested step to retrain her, to no avail. I’ve tried editing my contact list to simplify things for Siri. Nope. Didn’t help. She still ignores the obvious choices and misdirects texts and calls with maddening frequency. If I ask her to text “Doug” (my son whom I contact multiple times every day), she instead will insist on trying to text “Dorian” (an obscure contact I’ve NEVER had messaging contact with. (And yes, I’ve retrained Siri to my voice…not once but FOUR times. Didn’t improve her a bit.) If I ask her to text “Lisa” (my best friend) she instead pulls up a “Lisa” out of my contact list that I’ve not contacted in over 16 years and didn’t even realize was IN my contact list! If I ask her to call my mom, she instead tries calling people in my contact list that have “so and so’s mom” noted in the contact notes (not even in their name)…meanwhile I have ADDED “Mom” to my mom’s listed contact name in an attempt to help the newly stupid Siri…but even that did not help. Nothing I try helps. It’s almost like an Apple joke on me, having Siri now consistently select the most obscure, least correct response of all available options.

I used to use Siri all the time, but she’s useless now—worse than useless! Just frustrates me to pieces! If I were a cynic, I’d wonder if this is the precursor to adding a monthly charge for an upgraded Siri experience. Frustrate the consumer enough that you create a market for paid subscriptions for an upgraded/premium version! LOL, but I’m not quite cynical enough yet to believe that that is the case here. I am baffled, though, how Siri could suddenly be untrainable (and shockingly stupid) after years and years of surprising me by her continual keen learning.

This is wildly frustrating. I have the Same issue.

Siri is phenomenally unintuitive at times.

This has been happening to me too! An old number which I deleted is still tied to my partner. Tried blocking, deleting and reading their number as ‘other’, while her current number is favourited. Setting iPhone or phone has no effect. Unfortunately still remain unsuccessful. Very frustrating!

Mine has just started doing this very thing. I deleted the incorrect contact that it keeps associating my husbands name with, and then it just grabs another random name and continually calls that person instead of who have asked for.

Hello GeekElectro,

We would like to see how we can help you with Siri. Since she has been added as your wife, are you able to say "Text my wife" without issue? If you delete the conatct and add her back, does the issue return? Does this happen with any other contacts? Just to confirm, did you follow the steps at the bottom of this link: Change Siri settings on iPhone - Apple Support

"Retrain Siri with your voice

Go to Settings > Siri & Search, turn off Listen for “Hey Siri,” then turn on Listen for “Hey Siri” again."

Cheers!

Hello!

If those steps don't seem to have improved things, you'll want to reach out to Apple Support directly to look into that further and see what may be happening.

You can reach out to them here: Apple Support

Take care!

Siri is usually good, but when it's wrong I can't find a way to correct it. I set up a shortcut to turn on a mains plug to pre-warm my coffee machine just before I get home. It worked perfectly for years, with my just saying the word 'coffee'. Recently when I said 'coffee' it always brings up the address of a friend whose surname is Coffey. And I can't get the old behaviour back. So I had to re-write the shortcut so it's 'coffee machine'.

My kid has a favourite sing and Siri always gets the wrong artist, despite endless promptings. It's not like the 'correct' version isn't on Apple Music – you can type to search it.

Is there no "correction" function?

I experience the same issue. When asking Siri to text Erin (my wife, with a nickname in iOS of "Erin"), Siri regularly texts an Aaron or an Ehren in my contacts, although I rarely text either, and neither have a nickname in iOS. Frustratingly, Siri doesn't ask to confirm which person I mean, and confidently sends the text to the wrong person.

Any luck solving this issue?

Hi GeekElectro,

Thanks for following up with us. Based on the steps taken already, your best bet is to get in touch with us directly with the options found here: Get Support

Cheers.

My Siri has been acting up lately. It’s confusing contacts with completely different names.