Reposting my own years old reply above for easier discovery since it’s become so popular over the years:

None of the suggestions I’ve read describe the solution the way that finally worked for me: raise the Watch to your mouth and speak right away, but make sure you turn your wrist so that the face of the Watch is facing your mouth; perpendicular to the sound waves exiting. I would have thought into the mic was where you want to speak but it’s into the screen while it is also perpendicular to level (the floor or ceiling) or parallel to walls.

Here’s my prediction:

Unless Apple changes its underlying philosophy, we will never get the Siri people have been waiting for.

Not because Apple lacks the talent to build it.
Because Apple may never allow Siri to become it.
We will get progressively more polished versions of the same constrained assistant: nerfed by privacy trade-offs, neutered by blanket security policies, and shaped around Apple’s judgment rather than user choice.

The step-count example captures the contradiction perfectly.

My steps are already stored on my iPhone. Siri is supposedly becoming more capable on-device. Yet when the connection is poor, I can ask for my step count and be told that Siri cannot connect.

So what exactly am I receiving in exchange for the limitations of a smaller, privacy-focused local model?

And why is my step count treated as though it is so sensitive that Apple must decide, on my behalf, that convenience is not worth the risk?

Secure defaults are reasonable.

Removing my ability to make that trade-off myself is not.

Warn me. Explain the consequences. Then let me decide.

That is the deeper problem. Apple increasingly appears to prioritize its own judgment over user agency. Every improvement to Siri then runs into the same philosophical ceiling.

The result may be an assistant that gets better every year while falling further behind the rapidly advancing AI frontier.

The bottleneck may not be Siri’s intelligence.
It may be Apple’s unwillingness to trust its users.

I expanded the full argument here: https://substack.com/@nathanaelmontgomery/note/p-206704882?r=1d5mc&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

Are people using the beta genuinely seeing a breakthrough, or just a better version of the same constrained Siri?

I asked new Siri on my 17PM what the AQI was for my locale. She replied that it was a moderate 56 while the weather kit actually listed it as 378.

Siri doesn't work for navigating half the time.
" hey siri navigate to (local grocery store)"

Super intelligent Siri: " uh oh there's a problem "

Seems like it always has connection issues but just when using Siri. If I switch to browser or an app it works fine

Siri looses itself while finding the one brain cell it shares with my cat

Siri maps issue
After the last iphone sw update siri doesn’t verbally navigate my maps app. I’ve tried everything Ive read on google debugging so and no success. The radio does fade when siri gives a direction but there is now audio from siri. Now what do i do?

welp.

Of course when I asked ChatGPT directly, it gave me the correct answer:

• Area code (NPA): 208 (also overlaid by 986)
  
• State: Idaho
  
• Rate center: Coeur d’Alene

I just don’t know what to say. Except. I’m not surprised. She’s just as useless as ever. At least in beta 2. Honestly I don’t know why I was holding on to any hope at all.

If you ask New Siri to count to 100 she will begin counting aloud but at random she will say the same number twice before moving on to the next correct number. 🤣