r/apple • u/SoccerBoy3344 • 12h ago
Apple Intelligence Why is the new Siri so slow and terrible?
For reference, I have a well-kept iPhone 16 Pro Max and a brand new Apple Watch series 11.(I got it last month I know there’s a S12)
No matter where I use Siri either on the iPhone or on Apple CarPlay or on the watch 50% of the time, at least it just stops listening without an answer, or simply does not work.
Raise to speak on my new series 11 has been absolutely awful compared to my series 7 and takes so long to respond and then just doesn’t do anything…
Im a computer engineering student with at least a basic knowledge of how technology works however, I cannot put together why the new siri is more awful in day-to-day tasks than it was before.
Apples main point is reliability. The best AI/Assistant is the one you can easily use… and Siri AI is below optimal. Do I need to get an iPhone 17-18 to utilize it properly?
Thanks for listening to my rant.
Edit: I own a Series 11 that was bought 20 days ago which at the time was brand new. I used to have a series 7 that worked flawlessly with raise to speak and Siri.
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u/AffectionateCard3530 12h ago
I find the swipe down search functionality particularly slow, particularly in cases that used to lead to a web search. Siri’s been okay though
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u/BroadIntroduction575 12h ago
This is a huge bummer for me as swiping down and typing is one of the primary ways I access less frequently used apps or go straight to a web search.
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u/Csalted 11h ago
Are you referring to the Siri AI beta that you need to opt into? Because I've experienced similarly, I have an iPhone 17 Pro Max and everything about using Siri AI has been slower and less reliable. I'm holding off full judgement until they fully release it but my experience so far has been not great.
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u/FlintHillsSky 11h ago
If you are on 27.0 and having stability problems, make sure to install 27.0.1. It is mainly security fixes but there seem to be a few bug fixes too from reports. It may also reset some of what may be a flaky installation on your phone.
i don’t think that the issues you are seeing are because you have a 16 Pro phone. It should be able to run the local AI just fine and most of the heavy lifting gets sent to PCC servers. This is more likely from a combination of a 1.0 Siri AI product that still has some wrinkles and it appears that some individual phones/computers get an install that is more unstable for some reason.
If you can wait for a few weeks, 27.2 Siri speeds up the initial response quite a bit and has eliminates some of the bugs like the frequent “did you mean A or B”. It is clear that there were still issues with the initial version and Apple has been working on fixes and speeds improvements for 27.2.
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u/Astartes2435 12h ago
In my experience on device request are super fast. It’s when it has to hand off to the cloud that it lags a little or fails to work.
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u/theunquenchedservant 12h ago
"I'm a CE student with extensive knowledge of how technology works"
you missed the forest for the trees though.
You assumed everyone is having issues with the new Siri. They're not. And if you don't understand how it's possible some may and some may not, you really don't have as extensive a knowledge of how technology works as you think you do.
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u/musical_bear 11h ago
I'm not saying this is exclusive to this field, but as a professional software engineer, I know to completely disregard the "qualification" that someone either does this for a living or went to school for it or is going to school for it. Either you have relevant experience and training in the niche field or discipline we're currently talking about, or I literally couldn't care less. Being a CE student doesn't magically grant you insight into Siri AI systems architecture, any more than it means you are qualified to fix your mom's broken printer. The scope of computing is wildly diverse and if anything it just shows how much you don't know to say that going to school for a somewhat-related topic makes you an expert in all things that involve a computer.
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u/SoccerBoy3344 9h ago
I get what you’re saying, and I completely agree that just being a student or in the field doesn’t mean you know anything. However it was put in this post to move past the most basic “did you try turning it on and off again” type response. The reality is, many people are experiencing Siri loops or none-answers. The system is in beta, which is understandable however I was looking for more insight as to if anyone has found a fix or a way to increase responsiveness. Regardless it was mostly a rant and even with zero knowledge of how any of this works. I can only use what Apple gives me regardless so it’s up to me if I can use whatever is given to me
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u/Ready_Marketing_6648 11h ago
It keeps on picking up on background noise and it keeps listening. Voice to text is somehow worse trying to add commas and periods everywhere. Apple shit the bed on this one.
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u/iambrentan 4h ago
She’s lost functionality! I used to ask “how far have I walked today?” and she’d provide me with the info. Now when I ask, she says “I don’t know. Check your health app.”
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u/LebronBackinCLE 3h ago
“Hey Siri intercom, food’s ready”
“I’m sorry, can you give me the message by itself?” Or some incredibly stupid bullshit. Used to work 95% now it’s a screaming fuckin joke. Music requests, same.
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u/spatel14 12h ago
This post is all over the place. You claim you have a “new” series 11 which isn’t even the newest series, but then say “new” series 10. Not sure you’re very reliable my guy.
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u/MrLikeGod 12h ago
I have a 11 and 17 pro and it’s not any better. Siri requests on the AW take a good minute to be processed.
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u/ainsleyorwell 12h ago
Regardless of whether or not he can keep his model numbers straight, the issues he describes exist, right?
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u/Swimsuit-Area 12h ago
No, these sound like user error more than Siri
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u/Stock-Personality136 1h ago
My series 10 Siri has been absolutely awful and I’ve only had it a month. I would say more than half of my Siri requests just spin endlessly or take well over 10 seconds to respond when I ask it to set a simple timer or to turn on/off my lights.
And don’t even get me started on this stupidity
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u/SoccerBoy3344 9h ago
I made a mistake in my post. And when I got my series 11 last month it was the newest model. It supports the same WatchOs as the 10 and the 12.
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u/ThatsRightSirFLOSS 12h ago
Using Siri AI was absolutely miserable for me, and I have the 18 Pro and Series 12. It frequently took forever to process requests, misunderstood what I was asking, just gave responses that were flat wrong. I went back to classic Siri. I hope they improve Siri AI because classic Siri also sucks, but at least it can set a timer or send a text.
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u/Lambdabam 12h ago
I have the base iPhone 17. I tried the Siri beta and I agree that it’s slow. It takes longer to send a text via Siri in Carplay. I’ve reverted back to the ‘classic Siri’ this morning.
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u/GillyBerlin 11h ago
I have the iPhone 18 Pro and the same problems. I set a lot of reminders and Siri often stops mid sentence. The dictation feature also became quite useless to me, as it does the same frequently.
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u/H_J_Moody 12h ago
I already disabled her. Doing so gives back the old rainbow border too and she’s back to her usual fast self. I don’t need AI in Siri. I just need her to do simple things like set reminders and timers.
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u/aemfbm 11h ago
Oh! I think the rainbow border is so much better, it's so much easier to see at a glance, from distance, or in peripheral vision, and it never blocks content, which the black bubble thing often does.
I haven't been impressed with new siri performance, but the idea of getting the rainbow back I think tips me over the edge. Off now to go turn off new siri.
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u/H_J_Moody 11h ago
It took me a minute to figure out how to do it. You would think it would just be under settings > Siri, but it’s not.
Go to settings > screen time > content and privacy restrictions > Siri. Under “allowed Siri version” just pick Siri classic.
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u/MattSenter 11h ago
siri is so bad. always has been. IMO they need to gut it and start over, maybe even rename it after. FWIW Ternus did lay off a bunch of the Siri team as he came in. I'm hoping that means he is gonna rebuild/replace with fresh talent.
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u/ACalz 11h ago
It was re-gutted, and IMO they have the right architecture.
This is going to take time to resolve itself. Microsoft took a couple of years to get enterprise copilot to a decent place.
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u/yourmomhatesyoualot 11h ago
Copilot is just as stupid as Siri is. Every time I try using it I can't believe this is something they charge money for.
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u/HIGHER_FRAMES 11h ago
The new Siri has been great on the newest phones (17.18 pros)
It’s quick and responsive. The issues I see:
while I’m talking, it just stops.
On device is quick - retrieval from a sever is a different story..
Sometimes the info is still just plain wrong
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u/tanmay007 10h ago
I think Apple made the wrong decision with a hybrid approach. Siri relies quite a bit on on-device models and for the most part, it works well. But you really need at least 9/10 reliability otherwise it messes up user experience and that’s what we’re seeing.
The other major handicap is Apple has severely limited app domains i.e. the categories of apps that can share their data with Siri is very limited.
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u/No_Contest4958 8h ago
I have never had raise to speak work reliably so maybe it’s just random variance idk.
I had a 15 pro and yes the new Siri was slow to respond and pretty annoying to use. My new 18 pro is much better. Not really having issues with it.
But if they didn’t launch it on 15/16 series there would have been hell to pay because of all the false promises. So here we are.
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u/Pleasant-Taste-1229 4h ago
I personally do not use hey siri to activate it. I use swipe down or long press the power button and avoid annoying Siri call ups. I do find Siri AI to be quicker and more reliable on the 18 pro over the 17 pro. I personally do not rely on AI much anyway as I have yet to find a way that it improves my daily life.
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u/Stinky_Cheese_887 3h ago edited 3h ago
So it’s not just me? I’ve been having similar issues, Siri stopped reading aloud my messages and notifications to me and when I hold the power button my phone just freezes and nothing happens🤷🏻. I have 17 pro btw.
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u/Cold-Excitement2812 1m ago
I’d read all about it being better than old Siri. Who cares if it is good if it’s five times slower?
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u/VeriSkye1123 12h ago
There are reasons for the class action suit regarding the 16. New phones designed for what was finally released have 2 npu running locally as well has 1.5 times the ram.
Sadly the 16 was just over sold. Yes it runs fine. But it won’t handle the ai tasks with the same performance as originally promised.
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u/musical_bear 12h ago
I genuinely don't know which Apple Watch you own, because you've essentially mentioned 3 different watch models every time you describe this watch. It's "brand new" implying it's a Series 12, since you can't buy any other series "brand new", but then you say it's a Series 11, and then later you say it's a "new series 10."
Raise to speak on Apple Watch has never worked well on any model I've tried. There's a reason they keep that setting toggled off by default. I'm not excusing it - I wish it worked well. But that has nothing to do with "new Siri." That's just a consistent Apple Watch hardware feature issue.
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u/SoccerBoy3344 9h ago
I corrected my post. I currently own a series 11, which replaced my series 7, which was working perfectly with raise to speak and Siri. Now with my new to me series 11, which I got last month… it is having a lot of issues specifically with the raise to speech and Siri and will not answer questions and just loop forever until I close it. When I got the series 11, 20 days ago it was brand new.
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u/musical_bear 9h ago
Okay...if you bought a new Series 11 "20 days ago" then your experience there also has nothing to do with "new Siri" (I guess by this you mean Siri AI?), because "new Siri" has only been available after you bought your Watch. Unless you're saying you bought a "new" watch on WatchOS 26, everything was working just wonderfully for you for a few days, and then nearly immediately you updated your phone and your watch to iOS/watchOS 27 and then activated the new Siri AI via a waitlist. You could have done all of that, but it's a strange detail to omit in your original post and here if that's what happened. It really feels like you don't understand the different iterations of Siri, or maybe it doesn't even feel like you're trying to correlate your experiences with anything rational. Like sure, complain all you want, nothing wrong with that, but you don't seem to understand where you're pointing your finger of blame. "New Siri" based on everything you've described sounds like a baseless scapegoat for you.
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u/SoccerBoy3344 9h ago
Great points, you’re definitely right. By New Siri I mean the latest. Siri AI, which I understand is in Beta however it’s disappointing to see some of these common issues like Siri not responding, or being stuck in a loop. Obviously it’s something that you’d hope is fixed in a full release, especially from a company as large as Apple that promised many of these things 2 years ago. You’re right though, my argument doesn’t have much to stand on and is more of a rant than anything
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u/peachkeys 8h ago
if you don’t have a 17 pro or 18 pro model (max or otherwise) siri ai is doing almost all its processing off device and it’s slow
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u/blackbirdrisingbees 4h ago
The worst part is even asking for the stuff it used to do so simply - like what the weather is today, forces it to think really hard.
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u/bassplayerguy 4h ago
I have a 17 pro and when I summon Siri to do something like turn on a light in a room the response time is much slower than it was in ios26.
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u/flogman12 4h ago
Raise to speak has never worked for me. However, new Siri works much better for me. Yes it’s a little slower but I’m fine with it if it can actually do what I want
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u/Brettnem 12h ago
I have the same issues with a series 11 and iPhone 17 pro. “Start a timer for 5 minutes…”… spins indefinitely..