iOS 17: Siri Substitutes a Timer for Alarm

So irritating. If I say, "Siri, set an alarm for 45 minutes" I get a timer. Not what I wanted because my timer is set to "turn off" what I'm working on. I want an alarm that notifies me. BUT if I say, "Siri, set an alarm for 45 minutes from now." I get an alarm. Go figure.

Extra steps BUT I just tried

“hey siri set an alarm” once siri asks, “for when?” I said,” ____ hours/minutes from now” AND it worked.

I figured out a workaround! It will set a timer for anything 1 hour or less, but it will set an alarm if you say "hey Siri, set an alarm for an hour and 1 second" lol

17.1 on my new 15. I tried it on my husbands iPhone 10. He’s updating to 17.1 as I’m typing this. His didn’t work. It kept setting a timer. I just tried it again in my phone using the words “set an alarm for 50 minutes from now” and I get the old “Done” reply from Siri and it shows it on the screens as an alarm. I had to do it repeatedly earlier before it finally set the alarm and not the timer.

This is the only work around I've found to set an alarm instead of a timer. I have to look at my phone clock and then say "Set an alarm for 45 minutes from 3:51 for laundry". I know I can do the math myself but I'm too lazy. What a pain. Hope this helps others work around the goofy timer thing.

I disagree. This worked perfectly fine prior to iOS17, and I use both timers and alarms A LOT.

When requested, Siri could differentiate between requests for setting a timer and an alarm, and you could request a length of time and Siri would set the alarm appropriately based on that.

Alarms and timers have different behaviors as well, and it is helpful to have Siri do what is asked for as it was in the past instead of Siri assuming we want a timer when asking for an "alarm" set x amount of time from now.

It makes Siri rather unhelpful, in that I need to look down at my phone to see what time it is and figure out the time I want an alarm, instead of just saying "Hey Siri, set an alarm for 45 minutes to check the dryer".

In this case I want an alarm with snooze for my default snooze time, not a timer that will offer to repeat 45 a minute timer.

Would be nice to restore this functionality and have Siri do what is requested. It obviously worked well before, just have Siri do what is requested like it did in the past.

Aloha,

I'm on 17.1.1 and it's still setting timers instead of alarms. I tried alternate phrasing but no luck there.

To confirm. I have another iPhone (XR) on 16.7.2 and it works fine and will not be updating that phone till this is resolved.

Wish I could downgrade back to 16.x since I use alarms and timers quite a bit to stay on top of things that are going on in the background so I can focus on an individual task till it's time to check on one that I've set a timer for.

Hope this info is helpful.

NFennell wrote:

That's not the issue. We used to be able to say "Siri set an alarm for 1 hour from now" and if it was 4:45 pm it would set the alarm for 5:45 pm. Now, we say "Siri set an alarm for 1 hour from now" and it sets a timer for 1 hour. Added to the fact that this eliminates the options for snoozes (helpful for anything from naps to laundry) since the timer only gives the options of "stop" or "repeat timer", if your hands are busy and aren't holding the phone (cooking for example) you might not have the current time available to you in order to do the correct math.

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I would always ask Siri to “Set an Alarm for a hour from now” prior to iOS17 and it would make an ALARM so I have the option to snooze it. I do these constantly so I can be sure to check something at said time. It is now setting a timer when I clearly state ALARM and it’s growing increasing frustrating.

joshica96 wrote:

I implore you to please change it back the way it was!

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Hisay wrote:

Sometimes I need an alarm not a timer to be set in 20 or 30 minutes because I don’t know the exact time and won’t know the exact time in 20 or 30 minutes but I still need an alarm set. Why did Apple change this wonderful feature. When will you bring back the ability for Surrey to know the time in 20 or 30 minutes, so that she can set an alarm. Please change this feature. I use it a lot.

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Zelda42 wrote:

I'm a nurse and I use this multiple times an hour, and I'm in gloves so I don't want to touch my phone. I will end up missing something because a timer will end and I'll forget by the time I leave the pt room. There is NO 3rd PARTY APP with this functionality. This is the PRIMARY reason I purchased my apple watch 3 months ago. Either FIX this ASAP or allow me to roll my devices back to the last 16.x update.

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Merryme, Siri still sets a Timer though, instead of an Alarm, and responds with “Counting down…” and calls it a Timer instead of an Alarm. Annoying additional steps are required:

1. going to Settings
2. finding Timer, in Settings
3. choosing to be notified when time is up
4. choosing a sound
5. figuring out how to pause instead of turn off sound

Hallisonszoo wrote:

Don’t like the iOS 17 timer in place of alarm update. Bring back the alarm when asking Siri to set an alarm for a specific time. If I want a timer countdown I’ll ask for it. I want the alarm feature back. This is frustrating. Please fix it!

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