What happened to Siri?

In April 2010, Apple bought Siri. Sixteen years later, it still isn’t what anyone wanted it to be. It mostly gets used because the iPhone is a popular device. But in the last couple of years, ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini have become more useful than Siri has ever been.

I was excited when Siri came out. I could set reminders, set my alarm, and check the weather, all with my voice. Today I still use it for exactly those things, plus the odd text message. And it misunderstands me so often (way more than any other voice-to-text tool I’ve used) that it’s become completely frustrating. Apple has spent 16 years hyping it up as the greatest thing, and it’s only made everything harder.

I used to use it for dictation and for sending texts. Half the time, it had no idea who I was trying to text. It would ask, “Who do you want to send it to?” even though I’d just told it.

Then, a few years ago, Apple rolled out a partnership with ChatGPT. They spent a tremendous amount of time talking about secure compute, how it’s private, and how your data isn’t used for training. I thought that was awesome. But the experience was still miserable. It was like the old days, when you’d ask, “Hey, can you tell me about this thing?” and the phone would say, “I can search the web for that, but you’ll have to use your phone or computer.” That’s what happened here. It’d ask, “Would you like me to use ChatGPT to look this up?” Yes. And then I’d wait. And wait. In fact, it would have been faster to go to the library and find the book with the Dewey Decimal System.

It wasn’t always like this. When the internet came around, Apple saw it as the next frontier. Hell, even their product names started with an “i” for internet (and a few other things, like individual). Every Mac made networking simple, and they built their own router that was easy to use. They were skating to where the puck was going, and they scored.

But something happened. Some people point to Steve Jobs’s death, or turmoil inside the company. I don’t think it’s either of those alone. It takes a village to build what Apple builds. I think the company has lost its vision for what software could be.

We’re in the next frontier of computing. AI agents are changing how we use computers. You can just will things into existence now, and you’re no longer stuck with what other people thought was good for you. Bespoke software and tooling is where the puck is headed, and Apple is still tying their skates.

This isn’t the first time they’ve been late to the party. Before the iPhone, Apple partnered with Motorola to put iTunes on a phone. Then came the iPhone, because they knew they could make the experience 10x better. I used to think CarPlay was the same kind of move. Apple built software people liked for other companies’ cars while it worked on its own car, which would hopefully be 10x better. The rumors are they scrapped that project. Maybe Apple is doing the same thing with Siri, starting with partners and taking its time?

Apple started with ChatGPT and has since signed a big partnership with Google to use Gemini in iOS 27. I haven’t noticed a single thing that’s gotten better (plenty have gotten worse), and I’m clearly not the only one complaining. Gemini on its own is amazing, though it’s not as private as Apple would like. It understands context, finds things quickly, and just works. It feels natural. It feels like the future. ChatGPT and Claude do this too, and they come from companies far younger and smaller than Apple.

Other companies are eating Apple’s lunch on software. I think Apple knows there’s a real problem here, but as a customer, it doesn’t feel like it. I’m stuck with Siri as the default assistant. There are some workarounds, but I can’t make Claude or Gemini the default. If I want another assistant, I have to open its app. I can’t wake it with my voice or with the button that’s reserved for Siri.

Apple makes the best hardware. Other vendors are getting close, but as I consider buying the iPhone duo, it’s the software beyond the operating system that gives me pause. I can’t choose my voice assistant, and I’m stuck with one that still feels 16 years old. It fails at the basics: dictation, finding information, and knowing context. Siri once showed what the future of computing could be. Now it’s further behind than assistants that only just launched, and I don’t think Apple will catch up. Software is moving faster than it has in years, and Apple’s big announcements are great when they’re about hardware and awful when they’re about software. That’s embarrassing for the company that was the pinnacle of personal computing.

All of this has me rethinking my computing choices. The iPhone is an important part of my everyday life, but it’s become more frustrating to use. It has impressive hardware and amazing fit and finish, but I keep getting annoyed by slow animations, a voice assistant that doesn’t listen, and the lack of customization. The “i” was also supposed to stand for individual. It doesn’t feel that way anymore. So I’m looking at what else is out there. What assistant are you using?