Apple will soon ring up the curtains on WWDC 2024 and by now everyone is looking forward to seeing what Apple does to venture into the oh-so-lucrative world of GenAI. This makes people more anticipative given that Google and Microsoft have already covered a significant distance in the journey, and it would be safe to say that Apple has a lot to catch up with.
iOS 18 will have AI as the centrepiece, and so will Siri. Siri, which has been around for 13 years, will be seeing new features and I couldn’t help but wish for something way too prominent. Yes, the virtual assistant can do a fair share of tasks but having used it for so many years, it needs to pick up momentum and give rise to a ‘rebooted Siri.’ So, before, Apple makes the official announcements, here’s me sharing my Siri wish list, desperately wanting it to become true.
Let’s Not Be So Basic
Siri can perform a lot of tasks like setting up an alarm, answering questions and translating language, among other things. But, this feels very basic and mostly to the point. While this is good to an extent, rivals like ChatGPT and even Gemini provide much more context to a certain query and feed you with a lot of information, which is more useful.
On top of it, these AI bots can write emails, summarise content, provide ideas (useful for those brain fog moments), and even help write articles. This experience feels wholesome. This may require Apple to move away from the “on-device” notion, but with Apple’s armour and expertise in AI, I think this won’t be a problem for the tech giant while maintaining user privacy.
I strongly hope Siri gets all these capabilities so that it can become more helpful and not just diss me when I ask a question about love. Yea, that happens, almost every time!
Understanding Hindi and More Languages Better
Over the years, Siri has added support for many languages, including, Indian languages like Hindi, Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, and more. But, it needs to get a better hang of these languages, especially Hindi.
The virtual assistant is still not fluent in Hindi, and this ends up ruining the experience when you use the language. Just ask Siri to pronounce an Indian name and you will know. I still have to enunciate to make Siri understand what I am talking about. In contrast, Gemini (formerly, Google Assistant) can easily understand and recognise Hindi and Punjabi and provides the apt result for the query. I haven’t tried Siri in any other foreign language, but I feel it has room for improvement.
CarPlay Support Needs to Be Better Too
The above wish is kind of interlinked with this one. I have used both CarPlay and Android Auto and you do require a voice assistant on the road. Siri has majorly failed to decipher a song name and has always played the incorrect song. When asked to make a call to a person, Siri barely understands and ends up giving an apology. This needs to change and I hope Siri can better understand stuff and provide improved results without failures. This is especially needed so that I don’t have to pause driving to search manually.
More Human, Less Robotic
While Siri mostly gives accurate information and responses, it does sound a little robotic. The ability to choose between male and female voices isn’t that helpful, either. So with AI-backed improvements for the virtual assistant, I would appreciate it if Siri could be more human-like and less robotic. This also should bring in emotions, so, that Siri can use them to answer certain questions, be it with excitement or a grin.
While Siri can learn user preferences, this needs improvements for it to better learn from your behaviour and act more like you. As I said before, it needs the human touch!
The conversations we have with the chatbot should feel more natural. This is something Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman anticipates too, so, here’s hoping!
Automate Everything and Anything
My Siri usage has dipped but I still wish to restore my faith. One thing I wish Siri could do is make things super convenient for me. This can be done by automating a lot of tasks, without me having to do them manually. For instance, Siri will open Zomato for you but if you ask it to order food for you, that won’t happen. This, I want to change.
Plus, it would be really helpful if Siri could create an itinerary for me when needed. It presently just puts an upcoming trip on the calendar, which, again, feels basic.
This also brings me to the point that Siri should support more third-party app types, so, that these capabilities can be further enhanced. Currently, there are a limited type of apps SiriKit supports (media, messaging, ride-booking, and more).
Siri also does a lot of tasks through the Shortcuts app, which can be complex. You first need to create shortcuts and then ask Siri to perform through those shortcuts. But, what if Siri becomes adept enough to replace the Shortcuts app and does those things for you? This will be much easier and will save you a lot of time! That’s kind of what Rabbit sought to do with the R1, and it’s something that Apple can pull off.
While Siri set the stage for mobile voice assistants, it seems to have lost its touch over the years and all I wish is for it to resurrect and get ahead of the competition. I also hope the overhaul happens with Apple being considerate of user privacy, especially when the audio clips can be personal to the users. I am sure Apple can handle that well.
It’s only a matter of a few days until we get to know what Siri picks up, so, stay tuned for that!
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