Apple launches new app that could help Siri gain on Google Assistant

Those iPhone users who would love to see improvements made to Siri will have a chance to have their feedback heard by Apple. As noted by TechCrunch, a new app has been launched called Siri Speech Study (love the alliteration) which will share with Apple voice requests made to Siri by iOS users, and other feedback. The app doesn't explain what the goal of the study is nor does it explain how to become a participant in the study.

The app does offer a link to a license agreement and those interested in participating can leave their Apple ID number to be considered. Apple told Tech Crunch that consumers cannot decide to install the app and join the study; they have to be invited by Apple to participate. The study is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and Taiwan.

You might recall that Apple had a third-party company grading Siri's performance by listening to tapes made of users' interactions with the voice assistant. But after it became known that snippets of personal talks with doctors and even some sexual activity was captured on these tapes, Apple suspended the program. Other companies like Google and Amazon were running similar programs for Assistant and Alexa, respectively.

All three tech firms said that by grading how their voice assistants handled certain requests, they could improve the user experience. Apple did say at the time that less than 1% of users' daily interactions with Siri were passed along to the third-party contractor that was hired to rank Siri's responses.

Apple needs to make Siri a stronger competitor to Google Assistant; the latter is a feature that could lead a consumer sitting on the fence to choose an Android phone over iOS. Independent tests have shown that Google Assistant answers questions more accurately and understands questions better than Siri.

The Siri Speech Study app allows users to tell Apple what they were trying to say in situations where Siri misheard them. At the same time, if Siri was activated even though no one said "Hey Siri," that mistake also could be mentioned to Apple. Users will be able to see a list of the requests they made to Siri and then decide which ones to send to Apple for further analysis.

Siri has been criticized for sending users to web sites to find the answers to questions that Google Assistant answers itself without requiring help from third-party sites. For example, if you were to ask Siri for the release date of the iPhone 4s, her reply will be "Everything you need to know about Apple products is at Apple's website." Ask Google Assistant the same question and the Assistant responds with the correct date (October 14, 2011) with a picture of the phone included.

Speaking of the iPhone 4s, that was the model that Siri debuted on. Apple had purchased the Siri company in April 2010 for an amount believed to be greater than $200 million. it was a typical Apple acquisition; a low-priced purchase of a firm with a niche product or service that could be used with the iPhone in one or two years.

Some help for Siri is reportedly coming in the form of the iOS 15 update arriving next month. Siri will supposedly get faster and smarter on iPhone models powered by the A12 Bionic chipset and later. This means that a zippier virtual assistant might be seen on the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR, iPhone 11 series and the iPhone 12 line. It also should surface on the iPad Air (2019), iPad Air (2020), iPad mini (2019), and the iPad (2020).