When using Siri with VoiceOver, Remember to Give That Beep a Chance

[M. Taylor]

Hello All,

For the first 48 hours or so after activating my new 14, I thought the
device might be defective as almost 90% of my Siri requests were not being
understood by the phone.

For example, when making requests such as, "Call Richard" or "Call Sieghard,
mobile", Siri would respond with something like, "Could you say that again?
I didn't quite understand you."

Even when I asked Siri for the current weather conditions in a particular
city, I would receive an error response. This even happened when I had my
Apple Earpods, attached. Now that I think about it, I couldn't even get
Siri to open the Calendar app.

Now keep in mind that it wasn't until I purchased the 14 that I had any
experience with OS 16, let alone OS 16.2.

I was so tired during that first 48-hour period, after purchasing iPhone 14,
because of a lack of sleep, that I blamed myself for doing something wrong
even though I could not pinpoint my error.

Of course I searched Google for solutions but could not find any articles on
the subject. This led me to believe that the issue was not widespread, at
the very least.

I was just beginning to consider taking the new phone back to the Apple
Store when, near the end of that first 48-hour period, I decided to upgrade
my beloved iPad Pro 2017 from iPad OS 15.x to iPad 16.2. Immediately after
doing so, I experienced the exact same phenomenon on the iPad.

To say that my mind was blown, would be the understatement of the holiday
season.

After experiencing the same glitch on two devices, one new and the other
that, until the update to the latest OS, had performed flawlessly, I
realized that the issue was with 16.2 and not a hardware problem.

So I asked myself what had changed between OS 15.x and OS 16.x. The answer,
which I had read about in this community, was the Siri beep prompt.

As many had reported and discussed, on-list, Apple, in its infinite wisdom,
changed the beep prompt that VoiceOver users hear, when activating Siri.

Now I do my best to read virtually every thread posted to this list. This
can be an overwhelming task, at times, so, sometimes I simply miss the
proverbial "meat & potatoes" of a thread. I write this to say that what I
discovered, organically, has most likely already been described, on-list. So
I apologize if this is redundant.

Okay, what occurred to me was that the most significant difference between
the legacy Siri beep prompt and the new Siri beep prompt was the length of
time it takes the new prompt to end. The difference is less than one second
but it is a significant difference, all the same.

So I asked myself, what would happen if, instead of speaking to Siri near
the beginning of the prompt, as I have always done, I waited until the
prompt completely ended.

So, I tried it and . Yes, you guessed it; that is all it took in order to
bring Siri recognition back to virtually 100% on both devices.

After that, I realized that I have been, to a much lesser degree
experiencing the same problem on both of my Apple TV models. These models,
also, use the new Siri beep prompt. Waiting just that extra little moment,
before speaking to Siri made a universe full of difference.

So, if you are finding that Siri is not as accurate in its responses as it
was in previous versions of the OS, after activating Siri, wait until the
new beep prompt has completely ended, before speaking, and you should notice
quite a difference in the results.

When using Siri with VoiceOver, remember to give that beep a chance, to end,
that is, (smile), before speaking.

Mark

[Carolyn Arnold]

I have 16.0.1, and I cannot hear the Siri prompt other then when I have on ear buds, but I just guess at it, and it works pretty good. I guess I am so used to having to judge some things like that, that it has worked for me. I'd rather have a tone that I can hear though.

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[M. Taylor]

Hello Bill,

I am almost certain that the volume on both Siri and dictation have been set to zero.

Try the following:

1.
Press the side button on your 8 Plus and ask Siri about your local weather. While Siri is responding, press the volume up button on your phone repeatedly. You should hear Siri speaking voice, increase.

2.
Open an edit box and start a dictation. Before ending your dictation session, press the volume up button on your phone repeatedly. Next, end the dictation session. This should bring back the dictation prompt.

Please try these steps and let us know how it goes, okay?

Mark


-----Original Message-----
From: vip...@googlegroups.com <vip...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of William Outman
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2022 4:11 AM
To: vip...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: When using Siri with VoiceOver, Remember to Give That Beep a Chance

I know what you mean about waiting for the beep tone to end, but right now I’ve mysteriously lost it altogether on my 8Plus with 16.2. I’ve had it all the way through the upgrade sequence from 15.x to 16.2, but had the problem crop up two days ago.
Also, I lost my dictation tones, but that function still works as I used it when booking Uber yesterday.
Can’t figure out what got turned off.
Bill


Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 28, 2022, at 2:38 AM, M. Taylor <mk...@ucla.edu> wrote:
>
> Hello All,

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The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list.

If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself.

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The archives for this list can be searched at:
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[Carolyn Arnold]

I tried it, but could not find where the Edit Box is.

-----Original Message-----
From: viph...@googlegroups.com [mailto:viph...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of M. Taylor
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2022 9:01 PM
To: vip...@googlegroups.com
Cc: viph...@googlegroups.com

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