why does siri only work if i have internet connection?

Interesting that you cite Nuance. It's Nuance that provides the servers that support Siri.

And having a patent doesn't mean that you have a product, or even that it will work.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

Interesting that you cite Nuance. It's Nuance that provides the servers that support Siri.

And having a patent doesn't mean that you have a product, or even that it will work.

True on both counts, but having a patent restricts others from using your idea, even if you don't have a product. Seems like a waste. Maybe Nuance should acquire a handset company, like Google (Motorola Mobility). Also, Nuance provided the speech recognition, but the natural language processing and command execution is all Siri (at least the way I understand it).

I too have been frustrated by Siri. It's wonderful when it works but this mroning, even though Internet was availabel, it wouldn't play an album. It's the either Siri or Voice Command that annoys me. I've been in software development for a long time and it seems to me that this is a short-sighted solution. It should not be difficult to have the Voice Command recognition model up front to intercept the basic commands. It doesn't make sense to have to go to the Internet to do things that were done within the phone before. Alternatively, and possibly easier, if Siri can't get to the Internet, auromatically switch on Voice Command or possibly ask if that's a viable alternative.

I will be sending feedback to Apple.

If Siri was so advanced it could carry out simple instructions like send text message or call someone without the need for the Internet. My experience of Siri is that it's just a limp worthless piece of kit that looks great on tv but in reality it's of no use

Siri can control my phone settings now, but if i could say "Turn of 3G", she will turn of all cellular data and turn off herself... i think that's a problem... I want to turn off 3G only, not all cellular data....

Having chatted to a apple adviser regarding Siri issues. I am no farther forward. The issue is when all emails are deleted from my iPhone 4S my ipad and my laptop Siri still has them on Siri screen? Not very secure should anyone happened to pick up on. So remember out there you may have deleted all your emails from all boxes but if you say to Siri OLD EMAILS there they are for anyone to read. Scary. Waiting to here back with a satisfactory answer. I came across this purely by chance. If they can't sort it make sure you have security on your phone or ipad in place. Best of luck.

sertacDiler:

When you turn off 3G, you turn off cellular data also. Data and voice share the 3G connection. It is kind of like turing off your cable connection and wanting to keep your cable modem connected to the outside world.

I don't know about your phone but my phone doesn't have an option for turning of just 3G, only all cellular data. I wouldn't expect Siri to be able to do something thats not an existing option in features.

buzzrt wrote:

Not very secure should anyone happened to pick up on. So remember out there you may have deleted all your emails from all boxes but if you say to Siri OLD EMAILS there they are for anyone to read. Scary.

Put a passcode on your phone.

To all whom it may concern,

Even my Lumia 800 windows phone can be told, using voice recognition, to call a particular person, without the requirement of an internet connection. The fact that this 'iPhone' cannot perform basic voice recognition in order to carry out a simple task is pathetic and annoying to say the least.

Schwatts wrote:

To all whom it may concern,

Even my Lumia 800 windows phone can be told, using voice recognition, to call a particular person, without the requirement of an internet connection. The fact that this 'iPhone' cannot perform basic voice recognition in order to carry out a simple task is pathetic and annoying to say the least.

Voice Control

Make phone calls and control music playback with Voice Control. (On iPhone 4s or later, you can also use Siri to control iPhone by voice. See Chapter 4, Siri, on page 40.)

Note:

Voice Control and Voice Control settings aren’t available when Siri is turned on.

Try reading the manual before using words such as "pathetic and annoying"...

This is still a frustrating issue. Schwatts should have said "will not" instead of "cannot". We know the phone is capable of performing these task, it is not a matter of server power for the simple commands. The "pathetic and annoying" part is that apple boast about how awesome Siri is and how it can do everything we need her to do. But when you're driving down the road and you want change songs or make a call but can't because Siri can't ask Apple what to do (yes, you can make calls even though you don't have a data connection).

Which now it turns into a safety issue. I know it is up to the driver to not use a phone while driving. But one of the selling points of buying a iPhone is the "remarkable" hands free function. Don't lead us to believe that we can depend on a feature only to have that feature only sometimes work. Now the driver is frustrated that their "amazing" phone isn't working as expected and they have to resist the temptation of unlocking the screen and then selecting the contact they need to call or changing songs. It doesn't matter what the user wanted to do, its the fact that Siri should have been able to do it with out server access. I'm not talking about locating a gas station or a 4 star restaurant but just basic commands that Voice Command can do.

How about this instead of Siri saying "sorry i can't do that right now, try again later" (which is sometimes fixed just by turning on/off airplane mode. which is another frustrating topic). Siri follows up with "would you like to use Voice Command?"

Ideally I would want the siri to just recognize the basic voice command controls (play music, call mom, etc) and automatically carry them out. No need to connect to a server to do. I understand asking "play New Kids on the Block" could/would require server assistance to understand what "new kids on the block" as opposed to just "play next song".

i didn't mean to reply only to tonefox, but I'm going to pull an apple and not bother to correct my mistake.

I like my iPhone but in 2016 a basic feature that the rivals Microsoft and Google recognize as just that (a basic feature) Apple still does not implement? They are no longer innovative... This will be RIM all over again.

Understood, if we're talking about anything that requires processing power.

But, Siri setting an alarm or reminder, is a feature that used to work without a connection, before a multitude of updates.

So, this was removed.

Siri, does not need power beyond the device to perform rudimentary functions on the device, Windows 98 can do this, offline - Apple is forever taking three steps back, two forward.

They no longer lead the way with anything, they just stumble alongside whilst making things pretty and appealing to ego, instead of revolutionising.

It's a shame.

Since (local) voice control is limited (in the ways others mentioned) then falling back to 'voice control' functions only would leave the user with the impression that Siri was also as limited.

Alternatively, apple could warn the user whenever this occurred, but that would likely risk leaving a bad impression in for the same reason that GPS systems no longer risk ever saying "recalculating..." any more.