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Comment by weehobbes | Hacker News Reader

Just curious, anyone using Siri regularly these days? If so, how/for what? I keep trying Siri every once in a while but it doesn’t seem to stick. Only use I find is setting an alarm now and then, but I still often just open the app to do it manually.

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Not regularly. But one interesting function I had with it was when I cant locate my phone in my home. I just shout out "Hey Siri" and I can tell by its answer where about it is. It may sound silly but there are countless times when I am about to leave home in a hurry and I cant find my phone. Normally I could have been extremely frustrated and spend minutes looking for it. Now it is just there within a voice command.

I use Siri frequently throughout a typical day. From most common to least common:

- Send a text while driving, walking with my kids, etc

- Create a reminder with a specific time or place ("Hey Siri, when I get home remind me to take out the trash")

- Resume an Overcast playlist ("Hey Siri, resume Overcast tech playlist")

- Turn on/off lights (I have a couple lamps on HomeKit outlets)

- Get directions

- Set a timer

- Place a call while otherwise using my hands (I have an Apple Watch, which makes this pretty handy)

- Play music / playlist in Apple Music

- Check a sports score

Getting an Apple Watch significantly increased my usage of Siri. It's not perfect, and as I wander around the house doing things (without my phone) the connection sometimes gets tenuous. But a lot of times it is nice to not pull out my phone, and keep using my hands for whatever I was already doing.

I am actually pretty pleased with Siri's functionality to do things for me. I can't speak to the "General Information query" use case, as it has never been compelling for me--however most people say that Siri lags behind other assistants in this area.

I would preferentially use Siri over Alexa for controlling/setting my lights/thermostat/alarms/timers, but alas, the 12" MacBook still doesn't have hands-free Siri, so instead I use Alexa on one of my Sonos speakers.

I use it while driving, in the winter times when I have gloves on, and sometimes when swimming or when my hands are full while cooking.

More often then not however, I find it infuriating at how bad it is at picking up "Hey Siri"

Siri cannot understand 50% of the things that come out of my mouth, and the other 50% of the stuff it defers to 3 results from a search engine.

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