Recent Siri Changes Remove Features Used By Low Vision and Blind Users (macrumors.com) 23
With the recent release of iOS 15, Apple appears to have made some changes to Siri functionality that have removed features relied on by low vision and blind iPhone users. MacRumors reports: Several Siri commands that provide details on phone calls, voicemails, and sending emails no longer appear to be working. The following commands used to be functional, but have recently been removed: Do I have any voicemails?, Play my voicemail messages, Check my call history, Check my recent calls, Who called me?, Send an email, and Send an email to [person]. Over the last two weeks, we've received several emails from iPhone users who are missing this key Siri functionality, or their relatives who are attempting to help them navigate the changes. The Siri feature removals have also been documented on the AppleVis forums for blind and low vision users of Apple products. Asking Siri to provide details on recent phone calls or voicemails results in the following response: "I can't help with that, but you can ask me to open the Phone app."
Asking about email garners a similar response about Siri being unable to help. It's worth noting that it's still possible to ask Siri to play the most recent voicemail message that's available, or a voicemail from a specific person, but Siri will not read out a list of all the available voicemails. The Siri commands seem to have disappeared when iOS 15 was released, but iOS 14 users are also not able to use them anymore so it's not an issue tied to iOS 15.
Asking about email garners a similar response about Siri being unable to help. It's worth noting that it's still possible to ask Siri to play the most recent voicemail message that's available, or a voicemail from a specific person, but Siri will not read out a list of all the available voicemails. The Siri commands seem to have disappeared when iOS 15 was released, but iOS 14 users are also not able to use them anymore so it's not an issue tied to iOS 15.
Telemetry (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like a classic case of using telemetry to decide what features are worth maintaining. Telemetry says that only a very small number of users actually use those features, so there is no business case for spending money to maintain and support them.
What the telemetry fails to notice is that for the users who do use those features they are absolutely essential and there will be a lot of negative press if they are removed.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Could also be security concerns. As I understand it, by default, SIRI is active when the phone is locked, so that's quite a lot of access potential with just a recording of someone's voice commands or whatever. Of course, if that was the concern, they could just block those functions when the phone is locked, so idk.
Re: Telemetry (Score:1)
Discrimination lawsuits incoming...
Re: (Score:2)
Discrimination lawsuits incoming...
Actually probably better handled by the Americans with Disabilities Act:
"...prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in several areas, including employment, transportation, public accommodations, communications and access to state and local government' programs and services. As it relates to employment, Title I of the ADA protects the rights of both employees and job seekers."
Re: Telemetry (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like a classic case of using telemetry to decide what features are worth maintaining. Telemetry says that only a very small number of users actually use those features, so there is no business case for spending money to maintain and support them.
I don't think it's the telemetry. iOS has lots of accessibility features that relatively few people use, and Apple continues to add more.
"When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind I don't consider the bloody ROI." - Tim Cook, in a shareholders meeting.
Driving (Score:3)
Note that those features are really handy when you drive, so really i don't know what they are thinking. I have been using siri when i am driving or walking for around 5 years, and i already think it is pretty damn useless, since half the times it does not understand what i am asking and a quarter of the time it can't help anyway. I don't know but i would bet google assistant is much much better.
Apple is sitting on hundreds of billions of dollars in cash and meditating to spend them to enter the car market
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know what country you're writing from, but here we have an offence titled "driving without due care and attention" (which is generally considered less serious than "reckless driving" and specific offences like drunk/ drugged/ untreated poor eyesight driving ; cases c
Re: (Score:2)
Nah, that's pretty unlikely; they knew accessibility was niche when they put it in.
For instance, assistive touch for the Apple Watch is SUPER niche, but they put it in anyway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Basically, you can select and use elements on the Apple Watch without touching it, but merely by twisting your wrist, clenching your whole hand, and pinching your fingers on the wrist that the watch is worn on. So if you don't have or have use of an opposing hand, you can still use the watch.
Or here's
Re: (Score:2)
Apple are American aren't they? In corporate HQ, if not assembly line?
So doesn't the Americans With Disability Act ( "ADA", vintage 1990-odd) apply, and they have to make reasonable accommodations for users with different (physical) abilities in their products. In the same way that, for example, the last tag I put into this message was the "STRONG" tag (which has meaning for people using a screen reader) not a "BOLD" tag (wh
Re: (Score:2)
While this is certainly true, Apple's accessibility has been widely acknowledged to be top-of-class. Again, it's a surprise that this is happening, which is why we're hearing about it. It's very out of character for Apple to disable functionality like this; it doesn't actually make anything better or easier for their development teams.
The reality is that Siri is a hot mess, and stuff breaks all the time. I use Siri daily, and the gaps in the functionality, the way that functionality breaks and the different
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I was under the impression that blind people are the biggest userbase of voice assistants. I always explained the popularity of smart speakers by the fact that the blind have been largely left out of the computing revolution. So it would be quite surprising to me if they only represented an insignificant fraction of voice assistant users, because I find it hard to believe that so many sighted people would subject themselves to such a horrible interface.
Re: (Score:2)
Some people have commented that it's useful while driving. Maybe Apple disabled it because they don't want people trying to check their messages while driving.
Re: (Score:2)
To re-enable the features (Score:3)
Re: To re-enable the features (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Obligatory Mallrats:
Stan Lee : [passes by magic eye picture stops] Oh, a sailboat.
[Pats William on the back and walks off]
Willam Black : Aaahh!
[Runs and kicks the picture over]
Willam Black : When Lord? When the hell do I get to see the goddamn sailboat?
[subtitle, "William eventually saw the sailboat."]
Willam Black : Yeah?
Standardised accessibility... (Score:2)
Security (Score:4, Informative)
This is an obvious security hole, because you could access this from the lock screen.
Security is the enemy of convenience.
Re: (Score:2)
This is an obvious security hole, because you could access this from the lock screen.
Security is the enemy of convenience.
Asking Siri to do sensitive things (reading / sending messages, for example) requires unlocking your phone.
Re: (Score:2)
This is an obvious security hole
Which is why...
A) Siri is disabled by default.
B) Siri can be set to remain disabled until the phone is unlocked.
C) Even when permitted while the phone is locked, Siri still doesn’t provide personal info (e.g. contacts, messages, emails, etc.) until you unlock the phone. Sports scores? Sure. Directions to your home? Need to unlock it first.
So yes, a bad implementation would be a security issue, but they already dealt with all of your concerns.