iOS 17: Siri Substitutes a Timer for Alarm

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.

I am having this same issue and I am very frustrated with apple. If I wanted a timer I would have said timer. I want an alarm , so set the Alarm siri!

I could set an alarm by saying “hey siri set alarm for 30 minutes “ before this ios 17 update. Now it sets it as a timer — if I wanted a timer I would have said 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 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.

Me too I use alarms for medication. I need to see what time it’s going to go off (not a time countdown) and I need to be able to snooze. This is a ridiculous change it worked fine. Put it back the right way please

Does anyone know if this has been corrected with iOS 17.1.1?

I used the "Siri, set an alarm for x minutes/hours" all the time, often taking advantage of the snooze feature, so this is definitely an issue that's inconvenient. I'm afraid to update because every time I do, Apple manages to screw something up.

Thank you for the work! I don't want to do math either and this worked great for me.

The other PIA with this new change is that you can't just say "delete all timers", as you can with alarms. They accumulate quickly, so you have to delete each one individually.

This is such a ridiculous change, if I wanted a timer I would say "timer" 😠

Not commenting was an option

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.

Help us get apple to fix this. Took me 1 minute to file my report.

Tell Apple:

Product Feedback - Apple

Pnutbuta wrote:

Put it back the right way please

No one participating here in this user-to-user forum can change anything bout how the phone works. You can, however, let Apple know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

joshica96 wrote:

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

Apple does not read here in this user-to-user forum for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple