The new version of Siri, Siri AI, was released this month as part of iOS 27.The new Siri is being gradually rolled out to users through a waiting list and is labeled as 'beta', indicating that Apple still has work to do in future versions.
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The new Siri is much better at answering questions with access to rich knowledge, can search your messages and notes for personal queries, and can take action based on what's on your screen with screen awareness. However, the new Siri isn't embraced by everyone.
Based on social media posts, there are a few reasons why the new Siri is disappointing to users. Some expect it to perform tasks that Apple never promised would be possible, while others note that they are experiencing performance and reliability bugs that make using the assistant frustrating.
Here are the five main categories of complaints from users testing Siri AI so far:
1. Some users are repeatedly seeing a “Sorry, something went wrong” error when activating Siri. This appears to be caused by network communication issues between the phone and Siri’s cloud backend, which can be resolved by disabling a VPN or changing Wi-Fi network settings. However, Siri’s interface doesn’t inform the user of the exact problem, leaving them with a ‘useless’ voice assistant.
There are also indications that Apple's cloud infrastructure is experiencing intermittent outages, which can cause requests to fail.
2. While the new Siri is supposed to be better at finding things on your device, some users are reporting the opposite. For example, when asking to “Add eggs to my shopping list in Reminders,” Siri may respond that it can’t find the list. Users have also encountered issues when trying to turn off alarms, with Siri claiming that there are no alarms set.
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Others are reporting that their HomeKit accessories can't consistently be found by name. These issues appear to be related to underlying search indexing errors, but it's unclear if there are any steps users can take to fix the situation.
3. The new Siri seems to require the device to be unlocked for many requests, even if the 'allow Siri when locked' option is enabled in Settings. This applies to several queries that the old Siri did not require the device to be unlocked. Many users are trying to activate Siri in situations where the phone is locked, such as in the car or while using AirPods.
It seems that whenever the new Siri tries to access the semantic index for personal content, it fails if the phone is locked, making simple commands like 'Send a message to [person's name]' more difficult.
4. Another common complaint is that the new Siri is slower to respond. While on-device models play a role in how the new Siri works, much of its processing is done in the cloud with Private Cloud Compute. A slow network connection can therefore lead to delays in responses, even for basic requests like sending messages or checking notifications.
This speed issue is especially noticeable when using Siri AI with watchOS 27 on an Apple Watch Series 9 or later, where even simple commands can take several seconds to process.
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5. Despite the new Siri’s capabilities, some features of the old Siri have not yet been integrated into the new system. For example, asking about Health app data is not currently supported by Siri AI. Users who previously used the ChatGPT integration can no longer prefix their commands with “Use ChatGPT” to direct their requests accordingly.
