You'd have a hard time finding anyone who thinks Siri is the best of the digital assistants out there. Google Now, Microsoft Cortana, and even newcomers like Amazon's Alexa have all bested Siri in various ways.
But now the stakes are higher than they ever were before. The common theory in the tech world today is that voice control and artificial intelligence have the potential to dramatically change how we use our gadgets.
If that prediction comes true — just use the Amazon Echo for a few minutes and you'll see the potential there — Apple will need to give Siri a massive upgrade.
Siri turns five this year, and while it has seen a number of iterative improvements since its debut, it still feels like a stagnant product, especially compared to the amazing tricks the competition has pulled off.
So, what does Siri need to catch up? Let's dive in.
Faster response times
One of the things that blew me away when I tested the Amazon Echo was how fast it was. I'd ask it a question or tell it to play a song, and — boom! — it'd answer almost immediately. That gap between when you ask a voice assistant to do something and when that something actually happens is called latency, and it's something Amazon worked really hard to reduce when it was building the Echo.
Siri, on the other hand, feels like it's working at a snail's pace by comparison. There's a noticeable lag with every Siri request, whether you're using it on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. (For some reason, it seems especially slow on Apple TV.) Siri would feel much more efficient if Apple figured out how to reduce latency the way Amazon did.
Integration with apps
Siri can do a lot of things, but most of it is related to the built-in features already on the iPhone. What if I want to make a dinner reservation? What if I want to call an Uber? What if I want to play a song from Spotify?
Siri has learned a lot of new tricks over the years, but Apple will have to open Siri up to third-party apps if it's going to be truly useful.
Amazon has already proven how useful this can be. The Echo now has 1,000 "skills" from third parties, with more being added every week.
Luckily, it sounds like this is coming soon to Siri. According to Amir Efrati of The Information, Apple will give developers tools to integrate with Siri as early as next week at WWDC.
Eliminate the need to look at the screen
The end-game for Siri is to create a tool that removes the need to tap and swipe at a screen to do what you want. In theory, Siri should be smart enough to handle everything simply through voice commands.
But that's not always the case. For many tasks, Siri asks you to confirm a request by looking down at your iPhone to make sure it understood you correctly.
For example, here's what it looks like when you try to send a text message through Siri:
If voice really is going to change how we interact with our devices, then Siri will need to get a lot smarter.
Luckily, Apple acquired a company called VocalIQ last year that could change all that. VocalIQ built artificial intelligence technology that is much better at letting users complete tasks using just their voice. Now Apple has to figure out how to integrate that into Siri. You can read more about how VocalIQ works here.
Search
Search is the top feature people use Siri for, according to a new survey by tech analyst Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies. Although Siri has gotten a lot better at search over the years, it often kicks you to a regular Google or Bing search results webpage instead of giving you the answer you're looking for.
In my experience, Google Now is much better at giving you the one answer you're looking for, and it's been that way since it first launched about four years ago.
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