Support for More Complex Siri Requests
Right up there with fixing Siri’s performance is the need to support more complex requests, as well as allowing follow-up requests. Right now most requests to control HomeKit accessories or even get weather information require multiple commands, each of which needs to be prefixed with “Hey Siri.” For example:
- “Hey Siri, what’s the temperature outside?”
- “Hey Siri, what’s the windchill outside?”
This should be able to be replaced with a simple phrase such as “Hey Siri, what’s the temperature outside with the windchill?” Unfortunately, making such a request will have Siri apologize for the fact that it can only tell you one piece of temperature information at a time.
Similarly, while Apple made some good strides on HomeKit in iOS 12 — you can now turn on multiple lights by using a command such as “Hey Siri, turn on the lights in the living room and the dining room” or “Hey Siri, turn on the floor lamp and the light strip” — trying to do anything more complicated still confuses Siri. It should be reasonably possible to do something like turn off a light and set the thermostat, or even turn one light on and turn another one off without having to issue separate commands.
In the short term, Apple could at least address this by offering support for “follow-up requests” in the same way that Amazon has done with Alexa. Allow the HomePod to keep listening so that at least I don’t have to keep saying “Hey Siri” before each command. Ultimately, however, support for more sophisticated queries is something that is crucial if HomePod and Siri will ever feel like a true home assistant.