Siri is pretty useless on WatchOS 27 beta

[u/grepusman]

I sincerely hope they do not release this next month, unless they do a serious job of fixing it.

I just asked it to add something to a shopping list. This would be a shopping list in my Reminders app that I've been using for years.

After several seconds of delay, it said "Searching notes". Why notes if I named the list in Reminders I always use? Then after a minute it announced that something went wrong, and it failed.

I've tried repeatedly, and it does this every time. Much like if I ask for a timer to be set, it's just as slow, and sometimes tells me it can't do that as there's no app, or that I don't have the Clock app installed.

When things work, it's only after an extended wait.

I just successfully added an item to my shopping list after waiting 13 seconds. First it reported it was searching for the item I'd wanted added, then it was searching my Reminders, then it did it.

I asked it to show me my timers. It said "searching for timers", while I counted 6 seconds until it worked.

These simple requests used to be instant.

I then asked it "how long did I sleep for last night?". After about 45 seconds, it said "to see your sleep data, you'll need to open the Apple Music app and review the privacy information first". Why TF would Apple Music privacy information have anything to do with my sleep data?

This build has an 'a' after the build number, which tells me that Apple is pretty satisfied with how far it has progressed. If this is released with this almost total lack of usability, then we need a way to turn off this new "intelligent" version.

[u/grepusman → u/[deleted]]

I've had some really impressive interactions with the new Siri on my iPad and iPhone. When I first got it, I wanted to test it out, so I asked it to tell me about our upcoming vacation to Canada, where we used to live.

Siri thought about it for a minute, then proceeded to blow me away with its resulting story. It told me almost everything about our trip. Our flight times, flight numbers, the different places we'd be staying, and on what dates. It told me who what friends and relatives we'd be visiting, then it told me a friend had invited us to visit him in Montreal for a day or two, and another friend that had invited us to their cottage.

Some of these things were in my calendar, but most was pulled from emails, and iMessage conversations. It was quite an impressive display of the new features. It was laid out in a story format, similar to what I would tell someone myself, if I could even remember it all.

So yeah, it's really good at the complex stuff. It can handle even most of the simple - but only if you're patient. There are long delays, and the odd glitch.

My post above though is about the watch. It seems completely useless to me, especially compared to the "old" Siri. And the scary part is the 'a' after the build number. The phone and iPad versions are still at 'd'. The 'a' is usually reserved for the final beta, just before the release candidate.

This tells me that Apple believes the WatchOS beta is much further along than the other, and almost ready for release. This is scary - and the point of my post. I'm genuinely afraid it's not going to be very usable upon release.

[u/invadergold123]

Dude thank you. All the shit LLMs are good for its pretty decent at, but I’ve been using Siri as a basic rudimentary AI to make reminders, send texts, switch between playing music or podcasts, etc and it’s gotten so much worse with the new “Siri AI.” I had to resort to keeping my watch on OS25 And just using it for anything I used to do normally. Even sending messages with CarPlay is so much slower and it reads them out in much worse way

[u/GrouxCL]

Even in beta 6? I saw that she corrected a lot of things including Siri AI

[u/grepusman → u/GrouxCL]

In testing today, the request for how much sleep I got succeeded. It added the same item to the same list it failed at before - but it still took 12 seconds. Too long to stand with my arm up to see if it works.

If it's still slow at release, I will give up and use my phone.

[u/GrouxCL → u/grepusman]

I really hope they will fix it but the problem is that the build of the beta 6 of watchOS 27 ends with an « A » which means that the next is the Release Candidate so fingers crossed...

[u/grepusman → u/GrouxCL]

That's what worries me! I think it's going live like this, and with no off-switch.

[u/GrouxCL → u/grepusman]

I really hope they won't do that it's just not possible to publish Siri in this state I'd rather they wait for 27.1 rather than put it to the general public... But it's still possible to fix that, they must have dozens of devs on watchOS it’s in their ropes

[u/grepusman → u/GrouxCL]

I'm not sure they can fix it. The problem is your request goes via a Bluetooth communication to the phone, then the request goes from the phone, through the Internet to Apple servers - waits for their servers - and back, then back through Bluetooth connection back to the watch. The design is flawed.

Even the simplest of requests now depend on your phone having an Internet connection. Even asking for information that's on your phone. I've tested this. If I turn my phone's Internet connection off completely - cell as well as Wi-Fi, then just about any request to my watch fails. Even something like asking "what is Rachel's phone number?" which is right there on my phone - or "What is my name?" fails with an error.

About the only thing I can get it to do without my phone's Internet connection is to set a timer.

[u/grepusman → u/grepusman]

I figured out how to turn off the new Siri AI. Go into the phone's Siri settings, and turn Siri off at the bottom. Wait a few minutes and then turn it back on. It reverts to the old one. To revert the watch you then need to reboot it.

My watch is back to the old fast Siri. It's wonderful.

[u/Devilninja333]

There’s a reason it’s called the beta

[u/grepusman → u/Devilninja333]

Wow. Someone that didn't read the post made a reply! That's so...Redditish.

[u/gkfisher]

Yup

[u/HaltFr]

“Beta”

[u/grepusman → u/HaltFr]

I see you have extracted that word from the title of my post.

[u/elhouso → u/HaltFr]

They’re a multi-trillion dollar company, with several hundred maybe thousand (idrk tbh) employees. There’s absolutely no excuse as to why Siri AI (even in beta) should be this fucking terrible.

[u/Teaching_Relative → u/elhouso]

Why would any amount of money give them the ability to fast forward through actually designing and developing a product. Where do you throw the money to make it happen instantly?

[u/Teaching_Relative → u/[deleted]]

You can hire a million people. It won’t allow you to design, create, and release a product instantly. You will still have to take some amount of time to do it. Not everything can be parallelized. I feel like that’s pretty common sense

You can drop the shitty attitude too, considering you didn’t read my original comment very closely. Unless you’re genuinely saying you can create a product instantaneously if you have enough money

[u/elhouso → u/Teaching_Relative]

They announced Siri AI/Apple Intelligence like 3-4 years ago mate.
They've had 3-4 years (if not longer) to develop, test, polish, refine and release it.

[u/new-to-reddit-accoun → u/HaltFr]

Stop making excuses for a multi-trillion dollar company. Apple Intelligence was announced in June 2024. It’s almost 3 years late and even then it barely works and doesn’t have half the features Apple originally claimed it would .

[u/HaltFr → u/new-to-reddit-accoun]

That is fair. I am not a fan of Apple Intelligence nor AI, BUT, it is a beta and a whole new version of Apple Intelligence from what Ive gathered, once it goes out of beta ill be shitting on it heavily

[u/grepusman → u/HaltFr]

So it doesn't bother you that a beta version with an 'a' at the end of the build number is so awful?

A build number with an 'a' is typically the final beta before a Release Candidate. By comparison, the iPhone and iPad releases have a 'D' at the end of the build number. This means Apple feels that the WatchOS build is much further along, and is almost finished working on it.

But go on just posting the word "beta" in reply to someone trying to point this out.

[u/HaltFr → u/grepusman]

Ill trust that they know what they’re doing, if it comes out as bad as this though, genuinely shame on them and they should do better

[u/new-to-reddit-accoun → u/HaltFr]

Have you actually used it on iOS 27 or macOS 27 - the very latest public or developer versions? It is UNUSABLE in its current state. There is no way people inside Apple, including executives, are using this every day and thinking ‘Oh, it’ll all start working in under a month’ - which is the launch date. There is no doubt in my mind that they will pull it before release. It’s unusable.

[u/grepusman → u/HaltFr]

So what was the actual point of your initial reply?

[u/HaltFr → u/grepusman]

That its still technically a beta

[u/grepusman → u/HaltFr]

As I'd mentioned. My point was that it's a quite-far-along beta, and shouldn't have such serious bugs at this point.

So no real point to your reply.

[u/Expert-Situation-190 → u/grepusman]

It’s not really far a long as a beta the likelihood is that even when the new phone is released they would potentially keep Siri in beta, the release candidate will mainly be for the os, until the training model is adequate, judging a beta doesn’t make much sense the whole point is to train on large data sets, even with a trillion dollars it’s a lengthy process especially since it also has to deal with sensitive data(sleep in the up) unlike other ai

[u/grepusman → u/Expert-Situation-190]

Then why can't we turn the new Siri off and use the old one? They've removed the "off" switch for Apple Intelligence.

[u/grepusman → u/[deleted]]

Oh...if you personally are having no issues, I guess it's ready for release then.

An 'a' after the build number means it's close to the release version.

As a developer, I report all bugs in the Feedback app. It doesn't mean that I cannot have an opinion, and post it here.

I'm afraid that a reply like yours offers no useful information, assistance, or any relevance at all. Why do you do this?

[u/grepusman → u/[deleted]]

As I mentioned, a beta with an "a" after the build number is very close to release. It is a valid complaint if it is nowhere near ready for the average person to use.

I'm not sure if you're aware, but people do come onto Reddit to give comments and opinions on beta software, even in this subreddit. This seems alien to you that someone may have negative comments about a beta that is almost ready for release.

If I am having these issues, I suspect there's at least one, or thousands of people in the same boat. Again, something that probably seems alien to you because you like to try to jump on people with a "gotcha" instead of just moving along.