What is Siri on iPhone and how does it work? Apple's Siri voice assistant

Greetings, friends. Today we will talk about the girl Siri, we will explain who is Siri and what it was created for.

Siri- the best personal assistant and friend for iOS. It is present on the following gadgets: , . The English abbreviation Siri (Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) in Russian stands for Interpretation and Speech Recognition Interface. Yes, Siri works as a question-and-answer system, that is, you ask it a question, and it answers you.

Siri adapts to each person individually, thereby learning their preferences and morals. This application uses natural speech processing, which gives it the ability to make different recommendations, ask questions in response and answer the questions we pose.

If you look at the devices on which Siri is available, their creation dates back to 2011. It is officially impossible to install the Siri assistant on a device that is not on the list, but hackers were able to do it. By the way, see the instructions for iPhone 3GS/4, iPod Touch 4, iPad 2. For this procedure you will need to jailbreak.

For the first time, the Siri application was available in the App Store (read), in the United States. The application interacted with the services of Google Maps, TaxiMagic, MovieTickets, OpenTable.

Using unique technology from Nuance Communications, users could make restaurant reservations, buy movie tickets or call a taxi. Siri was acquired by Apple on April 28, 2010. After this, Siri was removed from the App Store and ceased to exist on October 15, 2011.

Supported languages

English (UK, Australia, Canada and USA)
Spanish (Spain, Mexico and USA)
Italian (Switzerland and Italy)
German (Germany and Switzerland)
Japanese (Japan)
French (France, Switzerland and Canada)
Chinese (China and Taiwan)
Korean (South Korea)
Cantonese (Hong Kong)

Unfortunately, Siri is not yet available in Russian, but don’t worry, experienced programmers are already working on creating this directive.

Thank you for your attention and see you soon.

Would you like to have a personal assistant on your iPhone? For example, so that you can plan your day, week and even month, and someone in a pleasant manner reminds you of important matters, schedules your meetings, directs your actions, calls or sends mail directly from your smartphone. Such an intelligent program for the Siri voice interface on the iPhone was developed in Russia by the SiriPort project group.

The individual characteristics of the Siri voice assistant meet modern innovative requirements for the creation of artificial intelligence. The application is super smart and can fully carry out voice commands from all possible actions on a smartphone: call subscribers from the contact list, send messages, find the necessary information, create bookmarks and task texts, without using the smartphone keyboard, but only the voice interface. This article will tell you how to install Siri on an iPhone 4 or iPhone 5 or 6 generations.

The new licensed personal assistant application is a voice recognition program, and all Apple devices have it installed. It should be added that the voice assistant works based on iOS 7 on iPhone 4S devices using Siri, Siri on iPhone 5, on iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, iPhone 6S, iPhone 7 generation. In addition, the assistant can service the iPad Mini, Mini 2 and Mini 3, is also present on the 5th generation iPod Touch, on Apple Watch devices, and also works on the 3rd generation iPad and higher.

After the release of iOS 8.3, Siri iPhone can be configured in Russian. iOS 10 on new generation devices takes into account even greater capabilities of the voice assistant. This makes it much easier to find and remember personal information, saving, as they say, time and money.

Want to know how to enable Siri on iPhone?

For example, if you don’t know how to turn on Siri on iPhone 4 - 7 or don’t understand how to turn off Siri, then we’ll proceed step by step. Consider voice assistant on iPhone 4S or iPhone 6S using voice assistant. First, you should find out whether the application is installed on the iPhone 4 or iPhone 6S and why Siri does not work on the iPhone. If it turns out that the assistant program cannot be run on the iPhone, do not despair, you can install other quite similar alternative programs, for example, the “Dragon Go!” program developed by the Nuance Company, which will be able to access other programs installed on the iPhone, such as Google, Netflix, Yelp and others.

If the voice assistant was installed on the iPhone when it was sold, it will most likely be in the active state by default. To check this, hold down the Home button on your iPhone. Siri will beep when it is ready to use. You can give a command by voice: for example, say clearly out loud: “Check your mail!”

If Siri is not activated as required, you can do it yourself as follows. Open the main screen of your phone and click “Settings”, find the “Basic” folder and, knowing how to use it, launch the “Siri” application. However, when working with a smart program, you can give a dozen tasks to an assistant, communicating out loud. Try saying a greeting such as “Hey!” or “Hey Siri!”, or, say, “What’s the weather, Siri?” In addition, you can determine the gender of your assistant by selecting it in the settings section.

How to change Siri voice or language

If the voice assistant communicates with you in a language you don't understand, you can change its language. To do this, find Siri in the iPhone’s “settings” menu, select the “Siri Language” command. A list of language options will open in front of you and, after scrolling through, select the one you need, with the help of which the assistant will communicate with you in the future.

If you want to program the communication style of an individual assistant, customize not only her voice, but also the established style of address, various phrases that you will be pleased to hear. To this end, go to the “Settings” section again, launch the “Siri” program, find the command line “ Audio feedback” and accordingly activate the communication option that suits you.

By the way, the developers of this software product prudently introduced into the consciousness of the voice assistant the ability to recognize voices, intonation, accent and even dialect; it understands any languages.

Siri mode in the car

Turning on the Siri app can greatly facilitate your tasks by selecting the desired direction on the map when you are driving a car. To do this, the car must support the CarPlay software or use the “without looking” function available in this program. To use the services of the assistant, you need to call him by pressing the voice command button located directly on the steering wheel of the car and give Siri the appropriate command.

If your car has a CarPlay-enabled touchscreen, activate Siri by accessing the Home button from the screen menu. If you voice a command, the assistant waits for a pause in speech before starting to execute. But, if the car is very noisy, it is better to respond with a button located on the screen that transmits a sound wave, and then Siri will guess that you have finished and will begin to carry out the assigned task. If necessary, by going into your iPhone settings, you can also read how to disable Siri.

You can also connect the assistant to the source via a Bluetooth headset, as well as via a USB cable. In this case, perform all actions in the same order.

She managed to become for many users not only a faithful assistant, but also a pleasant conversationalist, with whom, if you know how to find the right approach, you can exchange a few words. But not everyone knows that this technology has existed for a long time and is not Apple’s own development. In this series of articles, based on materials from the Huffington Post, we will follow the life cycle of the most charming and attractive product of artificial intelligence technology.

For the first time, a wide audience saw that same round icon with a microphone when Apple held a presentation of the iPhone 4S. That morning, the then vice president of the company picked up the phone, pressed the button and asked:

“I am your humble personal assistant,” answered a female voice to the approving laughter of the audience.

Over time, it became clear that Siri’s place in users’ lives would no longer be so modest. Meanwhile, this virtual assistant was first released in early 2010 as a third-party application for iPhone. The app was also called Siri and was developed by a 24-person startup that would later be acquired by Apple.

At the time, Siri had a bolder demeanor and a richer feature set. Like science fiction writers dreaming up a character in a novel, Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus and design expert Harry Saddler carefully crafted the girl's personality and backstory. She had to be “out of this world,” “vaguely familiar with popular culture,” and possessed of “veiled sarcasm,” Kittlaus recalls.

For example, when asked about the gym, Siri could quip: “It wouldn’t hurt you to go there, your grip is not the same.” And if you ask “What happened to HAL?” (the brainy talking computer from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey), she would throw out a line like, "I don't want to talk about it." And at that time, the word “fuck” was present in Siri’s vocabulary.

When this brute fell into the hands of Apple, she immediately washed her mouth with soap, depriving her of several old functions and enriching them with new ones. Siri, which Apple acquired for an undisclosed sum believed to range from $150 million to $250 million, was subsequently able to learn multiple languages. She came to the service of millions of people, even though she was programmed to work all over the world. She also gained a voice, whereas previously she only answered questions through written messages. In addition, it was integrated into the iPhone, which allowed it to interact with more functions of the operating system.

However, as impressive as these abilities are, many users don't know that the Apple version of Siri is missing many of the features it was originally equipped with. After all, this was not just an iPhone application, but the result of an initiative funded by the US Department of Defense aimed at creating a virtual assistant that could think and learn.

In its original version, dating back to 2010, Siri was able to communicate with 42 different web services, from Yelp and StubHub to Rotten Tomatoes and Wolfram Alpha, providing the user with one answer that included the most important data received from those sources. She could buy tickets, make restaurant reservations and call a taxi, without any need to open a separate application, register with a special service or make a phone call. In addition, it very efficiently and intuitively adapted to the user's tastes and wishes in order to fulfill queries and produce results that would best suit him.

At a 2010 technology conference, Siri co-founder Tom Gruber demonstrated how the technology works. He said, “Find me a romantic place near my office that serves Italian food.” In response to the request, he received information that contained the most necessary data from Citysearch, Gayot, Yelp, Yahoo! Local, AllMenus.com, Google Maps, BooRah and OpenTable.

According to the creators, Siri was supposed to become an “active mechanism” that allowed people to talk with the Internet. While the search engine used selected keywords to generate a list of links, the active engine could engage in dialogue and then make a decision and act on that decision. Have you had too much alcohol and want to get home? The ability to interact with Google's search engine to find help is unlikely to help you out on its own. But if an active mechanism comes into play, it can transform your incoherent "I'm drunk, take me home" into a command that goes to a taxi service located in the nearest area.

The startup's goal was not to create a better search engine, but to become pioneers in shaping an entirely new paradigm for interacting with the Internet. This paradigm implied that an intelligent system provides a person with answers to questions that interest him, and does not simply load relevant search results, from which he must independently select the most suitable one. If search engines are recognized as the second generation of the Internet, then, as Siri's developers were sure, the active mechanism should have become its third generation.

The active mechanism was designed to be a part of your life that is always at your fingertips. Such an assistant should anticipate your desires and fulfill them before you even think about them. For example, the creators of Siri planned (it did not go further than plans) to develop a way to provide assistance to passengers whose flights were delayed or cancelled. The digital assistant could quickly search for flights from other companies, the nearest trains, as well as car rental services that currently have available cars.

Paradoxically, this Siri of the past contained hints about what Siri functions might look like in the future and how artificial intelligence technologies will actively permeate our lives. The global goal of the project was to expand a person’s capabilities by adding an assistant into his life, compensating for the limitations of our brain and eliminating the need to perform unnecessary and boring tasks.

People who were familiar with Siri before 2011 know that Apple's version only partially realized the system's potential. “The creators of Siri saw the future, defined the future, and built the first working version of the future,” said Gary Morgenthaler. This man was one of the first venture investors who believed in the success of Siri and supported the project with money.

“As members of the original team, we are extremely disappointed in how slowly this technology has moved to market since it was acquired by another company.”

But today, with multiple virtual assistants vying for space in our lives, Apple must use the technology it has to turn Siri into a powerful assistant that can bring real value to people. From the history of Siri, it is clear that a fantastic future of digital assistants is coming. And if today Siri is just a technology that flies into the market from the springboard of the iPhone, then it is possible that in the future the iPhone itself will be remembered only as the phone in which the greatest technology Siri debuted.

“There is no doubt that this kinder, more gracious version of HAL will one day become part of the mainstream,” Kittlaus states. “Today she’s just a cover story, but she’s definitely capable of more.”

Based on materials from Huffingtonpost.com

Recently, smartphones have become increasingly part of our lives, becoming the main attribute. With portable devices, today's generation spends all their time working, playing or studying. Thanks to the telephone, customers are constantly connected not only on the mobile network, but also on social networks. We are talking about VKontakte, Twitter, Facebook and so on. I would like to note that smartphones are integral assistants. They allow you to properly manage your day, set goals, and achieve them. Also, thanks to phones, you can control your own behavior. Of course, not without the help of applications.

One of the well-known tools for “communicating” with a smartphone is Siri. This article will talk about how the assistant works, is activated, and so on, and we will also talk in detail about what Siri is.

Siri technology

To begin with, it must be said that the technology on which Siri works was created by a huge group of developers. If you trust sources on the Internet, then 40 years ago scientists were working on creating artificial intelligence. As a result, something has appeared that is capable of analyzing and responding to all the information given by a person. Siri is a question and answer system. This is a development that is completely built on all such achievements of scientists. Thanks to the fact that Apple decided in time to use such technologies as an addition to its products, the era of artificial intelligence began. Thanks to the enormous efforts and work of scientists, people can now use Siri. Read more about what it is and how it works.

Siri on iPhone

From iPhone 4S up to and including the sixth generation, Siri was released as a separate application. If desired, the program could be deleted or, conversely, downloaded to your device. The main condition is that the smartphone runs on the iOS operating system. The utility was launched by simply clicking on the icon. Now Siri has become a basic program. Even if the user does not yet know that there is a special store with official applications for iPhones, immediately after purchase he can start using this artificial intelligence. What is Siri and how does it work?

Siri has received the principle of speech requests, from which it selects commands for itself and carries them out. Thanks to the company's work, the utility is able to recognize a large language pack. At the moment, Siri has 20 variations. On the territory of the Russian Federation, the program is available in Russian. There is also a voice processing function.

Siri features

A person who has not yet worked with Siri, of course, thinks not only about what Siri is, but also what functions the application performs. Why is it needed, how can it help when “communicating” with the gadget. The answer is as banal and simple as possible. The utility must correctly and correctly recognize all user commands. The response is quite fast, errors are excluded. This is the main function of the utility. If we talk about more specific tasks, then, in fact, Siri is capable of executing any command that is subject to the smartphone itself. You can ask the utility to call or send a message, for example, and wait a bit until the request is completed. You can also perform application voice processing.

Features of the program

Of course, there are no technologies that would ideally understand a person’s voice and everything he says. Siri is an attempt to create a means of communication between the smartphone and the consumer. However, it also has its drawbacks. That is why you should know exactly all the features of the program and how to use it. Siri cannot be installed on Android, but there are analogues.

All requests must be as clear as possible. For example, the following commands will be executed: “Call dad”, “Open mail” and so on. All requests must be formed accurately and not in any form. This is only allowed for the English language, since this package is recognized best. We should not forget about the manner of pronunciation and clarity. All phrases must be said as correctly and clearly as possible. It is these factors that determine the extent to which the request will be understood. It should also be taken into account that if the command is given in a noisy place, then most likely Siri will not understand it.

Available languages

A rather pressing question is what languages are available in the program. There are many of them: Russian, English, Swedish, German, many Asian and so on. What does this give? If the language pack is installed in Siri, then you can communicate and make requests in it. In any case, the program will understand the commands. However, there is one peculiarity. Not all of the languages listed are available in the operating system, which means that Siri will not function in them. If iOS version is higher than 8.3, then a similar problem may not arise, since half of the languages described above were added to this software modification.

How to work with Siri?

Another pressing question that interests many. How to work with Siri? There are two ways to enable the program. If it is preinstalled and comes immediately upon purchase, then you don’t need to do anything special. The program will launch when you long press the "Home" button. If you don’t want to use the assistant or don’t like that the key is responsible for turning it on, then you can disable the option in the settings.

The second option is that Siri is not installed on the phone. Then you will have to install the utility yourself. To do this, go to the official Apple store and download the desired program. After installation, you can access Siri directly from your desktop. It will work like a regular application. The program does not require activation or registration. This development is as clear and simple as possible. The interface is simple and understandable, anyone can use such an assistant. Let us remind you that Siri does not exist on Android.

How to use?

Using Siri is even easier than downloading it yourself. You should go to the application. There the user will notice a sound recording line. A similar panel is also available in the voice recorder. In addition, the launch of the program is equipped with a sound accompaniment, after which the phrase “Hello, can I help you with something?” is said in a pleasant voice. The owner of the device says what he needs.

An example of such a request would be the phrase: “Siri, show me the free parking lots nearby.” Once the speech is recorded, another signal will sound. After it, Siri will display the results of the command on the screen.

“Siri can’t hear my voice, what should I do?”

Sometimes it happens that Siri does not recognize the voice or does not hear it at all. If you don’t want to take your phone to a service center and pay money, then you can try to find out the reason yourself and figure out its solution.

You should immediately check the functionality of the operating system. Very often, after flashing or updating, Siri does not want to listen to the owner’s requests. This is usually cured with a hard reboot, but, unfortunately, not in 100% of cases. If it doesn’t help, then you should go to the settings and try to play around there: turn on/off the assistant, allow access to the microphone, and so on.

Another common problem is a broken microphone. To check this, you can connect a headset. If the assistant responds through it, then the problem is probably in the phone. If you don’t have headphones, you can go to any program where you can perform voice input. Again, if it does not work in other utilities, then the problem is in the microphone. In this case, you should take your phone to a service center. They will help you solve the problem. If the smartphone is still under warranty, they will do it for free.

Now anyone can answer the question “What is Siri?” The program is clear and convenient.

In this review, I decided to combine all the necessary knowledge about Siri. From the article you will learn how to set up Siri, how to use it, what it can do and why it is needed at all.

Who is Siri? What is Siri?

Siri (Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) is a personal assistant and question-answering system developed for iOS. Siri uses natural speech processing to answer questions and make recommendations. Siri adapts to each user individually, learning their preferences over time.

Siri's history begins in 2010, when the voice application was released into the App Store by Siri Inc. On April 28, 2010, Siri was acquired by Apple.

Siri is available on the following devices.

iPhone 4S, 5, 5C, 5S, 6, 6 Plus
iPad Mini 1, 2, 3, iPad 3, 4, Air, Air 2
iPod Touch
Apple Watch

Siri in English first appeared in iOS 5. Siri in Russian was released along with iOS 8.3.

How to turn Siri on/off?

There is no separate section for Siri in Settings yet. So let's go to Settings->General->Siri. Turn on the Siri checkbox if it is not enabled.

After this, a message appears in the center of the screen, warning the user that requests for Siri are being sent to Apple servers. Click “Enable Siri”

Below we see Siri settings (we’ll come back to them later). We are interested in the item Language. Select "Russian".

Now press the Home button on the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch and hold it without lifting your finger for a couple of seconds. The Siri start window appears on your iPad.

We ask our questions and receive answers or some actions from the system.

Siri Settings

Settings->General->Siri. Let's go through the specific options.

Allow "Hey Siri"— by enabling this option you can activate Siri if the phone is charging. To do this, I must say, you will never guess... “Hey Siri.”

Language— select the Siri language. Yes, you can talk to Siri in any language you know. Moreover, for some languages there are dialects to choose from.

You need to understand that phrases for Siri are spoken by a living person (announcer). This requires resources: this is why Siri still speaks Russian in only a female voice.

Audio review— the essence of this setting is to silence Siri if the phone is in silent mode. By default, Siri will always speak.

My details— this item allows you to select yourself from the Contacts program. Siri will address you as specified in the Nickname field (if available) or by name.

Let me add that Siri can understand human language and she is constantly learning. That is, she understands human phrases like “How are you?” and responds accordingly. Chat with Siri. :)

Siri also provides the widest capabilities in English. There are not many additional options in Russian yet. In particular, the English Siri supports the WolframAlpha system. The translation into Russian is underway, but there is no exact time frame for the appearance of WolframAlpha support in our Siri.

Siri is built into CarPlay. CarPlay is a modern way to control an iPhone in a car, when the most necessary applications adapted for the driver are displayed on the car display screen.