Siri sends message to wrong recipient on iPhone Xs Max

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Level 1

69 points

Siri sends message to wrong recipient on iPhone Xs Max

Ever since I received my new iPhone Xs Max, Siri has problems sending messages to the correct person if I have several with the same last name in my Contacts.

If I say, "Hey Siri, send text to Kendyl Sc*******", it will display the correct person from my Contacts at the top of the screen (so Siri hears me correctly), but then always insists on sending the message to ANOTHER family member with a different first name but same last name. This happens to many (but not all) of my contacts. (See screenshot below).

It happened with iOS 12 and 12.01. I even tried installing the public beta of 12.1 to see if that would fix it but nope...same problem.

Siri works fine on my iPad (also on iOS 12), MacBook Pro (running Mojave), and my previous iPhone (7 Plus) worked fine as well.

All these devices use my iCloud account. Has anyone else had similar problems? I tried to Google this and cannot find anything.

ANOTHER problem is that I can no longer say "Hey Siri, send text to Kendyl" without the last name. It always comes back with "I didn't see Kendyl in your Contacts". This worked before and still does on all of my other devices.

iPhone XS Max, iOS 12.0.1

Posted on Oct 10, 2018 5:17 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

janericster Author

Level 1

69 points

Oct 20, 2018 1:01 PM in response to janericster

After trying about a dozen suggested solutions, I finally found something that works (at least for now):

Settings > Siri & Search, disable all "Ask Siri" toggles
Settings > General > Keyboard, disable "Enable Dictation" at bottom
Enable Siri toggles back on
Enable Dictation back on

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Answer 2

Oct 12, 2018 6:50 PM in response to myscienceteacher

Messing around and got partial results...

I opened Contacts on my iPad (keyboard & all just made it easier).

I deleted my mom’s contact card. Trying “text my daughter” still didn’t work.

Went into Contacts and deleted my daughter in relationships (under my contact card). Then re-added her. When I added her by selecting from existing contacts it did not work. When I added her by typing in her name it worked!

Did exactly the same stuff, several times, with my son’s name and it didn’t work.

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Answer 3

Oct 12, 2018 5:56 PM in response to janericster

Adding to this:

I am getting this same thing, but I have a different setup.

I am using iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 12.0.

Everything has worked flawlessly up until a couple of days ago.

When on iPhone I can say “text my daughter” and it texts my mom instead.

If I ask Siri “who is my daughter?” Siri asks me “which dajughter” followed by my daughters “lastname, firstname” with strange characters and a second option of “firstname, lastname” embedded in same funny characters. (Sorry, can’t remember what - something like _<$ opening and closing)

I worked on this some more:

I went into contacts and deleted my mom and daughter from relationships in my contact profile, then re-added them.

Now when I ask “Who is my daughter” I get the correct contact info.

But when I say “text my daughter” Siri sends a text to my mom still.

If I say “text my wife” Siri says “I don’t see ‘wife’ in your contacts. What is your wife’s first and last name?”

When I tell Siri she hears it correctly - the name at the top is correct, but then says “which one?” and offers two wrong but similar names!

If I say “text my son” I get a text sent to my mom. If I say text my mom I get a text to my mom. If I say text my dad I get a text to my dad. It works for some, but doesn’t work for others. And the whole time Siri is hearing and displaying back what I say correctly just as the original poster said.

Weirdest thing? It works on my iPad (2018) running iOS 12.0.

Edit: I thought maybe instead of saying text daughter I would tell her to just text her name....

I just tried “Text [first name last name]”

Siri displayed the name correct and then tried texting my mom! I can’t get Siri to text my daughter any way I do it! Grrr

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Answer 4

deggie

Level 10

168,181 points

Oct 10, 2018 5:31 PM in response to janericster

The problem is sharing an iCloud account. You need to get different Apple IDs for everyone and then set up family sharing: Set up Family Sharing - Apple Support

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Answer 5

janericster Author

Level 1

69 points

Oct 10, 2018 5:52 PM in response to deggie

Thanks for the quick response! Everyone in the family does have their own Apple ID with their devices and we have had family sharing set up for years. When Siri suggests another family member, it also includes distant relatives with the same last name that are in my Contacts. It works with ALL of "my" other devices just fine, even my previous iPhone 7. It only started happening when I got my new iPhone Xs Max. All my devices use only my Apple ID and they share the same contact list on iCloud. So I'm really at a loss.

I also sent a bug report into Apple but I doubt I'll hear anything. I think what I'll do is take my iPhone Xs Max, iPad, and MacBook Pro into an Apple Store to show them and maybe they can figure it out. I hope it isn't a hardware issue with the new phone.

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Siri sends message to wrong recipient on iPhone Xs Max

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