Andrew O'Hara
Siri got some seriously useful enhancements in watchOS 5, going a long way towards making the Apple Watch more independent. AppleInsider delves in to see how Apple's personal assistant will help out in the forthcoming update.
One of the most debated changes coming in watchOS 5 is "Raise to Speak". This allows you to chat with Siri just by raising your wrist, and without having to utter those well-known keywords — Hey, Siri.
There are clear benefits to this, though in our testing we've inadvertently triggered Siri far more than we've meant to. Luckily, for those that dislike the change, it can easily be disabled within Settings.
A feature we've been dying for for ages was also added, which is independent volume controls. In watchOS 4, Siri volume was controlled by the speaker volume of your Apple Watch. Now, speaker volume, and Siri volume, can each be set independently.
The Siri watch face got quite the revamp this year, complete with a new, alternate color scheme. More data sources than ever will be fed into the Siri watch face, with photo memories, live sports scores, and heart rate data all easily glanceable.
Additional data from third-party apps will also show up, making it more intuitive. Third-party apps that you don't want to see can also be toggled off in the Watch app on your iPhone.
Of the more widely-used Siri features, is new support for a variety of different commands. Siri now knows more about different topics (famous people, food, motorsports), Shortcuts, and (as we were hoping for!) - the ability to find your phone/iPad.
All changes covered:
- Raise to speak
- Independent volume control
- Updated Siri watch face
- Third party apps in the Siri watch face
- Siri Shortcuts
- New areas of knowledge
This includes: questions about famous people, questions about food, and questions about motorsports - Find iPhone/iPad
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
10 Comments
All well and good if Siri actually worked well. I love Apple, but this technology lags vs. the competition. Unfortunately, Siri is the worst of Apple and does not come close to the brilliance of the brand. Fix Siri? They need to start over.
Siri needs to learn me and keep that data locked only to me via my iCloud account. That way she can help me with what I use and need and learn more about my usage but doesn’t have to aggregate with other people’s. Personally, I don’t care about motor sports but do care about photography, for example. So I’d ask her about photo trips and info.
So people can now ask how much of my daily calories income has this Big Mac?