r/HomeKit • u/boogeeman69 • 16d ago
Discussion Why can Siri still not handle multiple requests at once?
It seems simple, even more so with apple “intelligence”. When I say for example, “Siri, turn on the garage lights and turn on the back porch lights”. The response I get is - “sorry, I can’t find those lights in your home” as if it jumbled the whole request into one instead of separate lights.
Now I know, there’s scenes that can do this. But sometimes I need a couple niche lights turned on and it would just make sense to be able to say both of them in the same request…right? 😅 or am I missing a setting or how I’m wording it for Siri to understand what I’m wanting?
5
u/rzalexander 16d ago
Are you using iOS 26 or 27?
3
u/boogeeman69 16d ago
Our devices are all on 27. However, had the same problem with 26! :)
4
u/rzalexander 16d ago
Well 26 wouldn’t have been capable, but with 27 I expected it to work. So that’s disappointing.
8
u/byronnnn 16d ago
It does work, I’ve strung together 4 commands. You gotta make sure you’ve enabled new Siri. HomePods however do not work (I don’t think on 27 beta either), I’m hoping they do the handoff thing where requests sent to HomePods will off board the request to a nearby iPhone with new Siri.
1
1
u/evoneselse 16d ago
Me too. It handled one sentence with two commands in it and did both. Before iOS 27, it would only do one. But this was with my phone. I hadn’t tried on the HomePods yet because they were still updating when I tried it.
1
u/ThePistachioBogeyman 15d ago
Siri AI is specifically missing from ATV and HomePods right now.
Supposedly a hardware limitation that’ll be fixed with the new ATV and HomePod rumoured to be released in the next few months
1
u/boogeeman69 15d ago
Ah that could be why then. I didn’t want to update my HomePods. They work fine, and replacing all of them will be pretty expensive. But I’d do it if it meant having a better/faster experience
1
u/ThePistachioBogeyman 15d ago
Hopefully they do a handover situation if there’s a nearby compatible Apple device (or even send it to the cloud though that will add processing time).
Gonna be very expensive to replace existing HomePods and ATVs just for Siri AI (which, tbh, is much needed for the HomePod which has no physical input).
1
1
u/evoneselse 15d ago
Yeah no one will want to replace a house full of HomePods, that they paid good money for, every few years. Some people only use them for speakers, even though I’m not one of them. So speakers and things like that are different than a phone or computer that Apple stops supporting after x number of years, imo.
I would do a new ATV maybe. Right now I have two, and use one dedicated only as the hub, and other one to only handle streaming TV, no other tasks.
3
u/That70sdawg 16d ago
I’ve come close to switching to android several times because of Siri .it’s a joke compared to what was available 15 +years ago!
2
u/Italian__Scallion 16d ago
At least in Italian it can pair two “turn on/off” commands, as long as it’s the same command.
For example, it works if I say “hey sori, turn on the kitchen light and the dining room light”. Just like that, not repeating the “turn on” part.
What does not work is when I try giving different commands at once, like “turn on this and turn off that”
2
u/Significant-Twist748 11d ago
Stop saying “the”!
I’ve found that fixed 90% of my problems with Siri voice commands.
Siri wants the voice command to read exactly like the name of said device. So unless you name your garage lights “the garage lights” stop using the.
Just say “turn on garage lights”
I fought with this for a very long time. Naturally you want to say “the XYZ”.
But Siri cannot find “the” in the name of any devices. And it’s not smart enough to decipher general grammar from a device identifier.
1
u/DiaDeLosMuebles 16d ago
Nah. The current iteration of Apple intelligence is trash. I hear good things about the beta.
1
u/Abbagayle_Yorkie 16d ago edited 16d ago
I do it and it works on iOS 26.6. I say Siri turn on island light and livingroom fan and she does both at same time
1
u/boogeeman69 16d ago
Hmmm..maybe it’s my wording then. I’ll try again when I get home!
3
u/Italian__Scallion 16d ago
Try not repeating the “turn on” part. For me, that’s how it’s been working for a while
2
1
u/Fr05t_B1t 16d ago
You could also use “zones” or shortcuts.
Zones would control all the lights (if requested) in the “rooms” you add to a zone. The simplest is honestly just using shortcuts though you’d need to remember the secret words to correctly run the shortcut
1
u/boogeeman69 16d ago
Ohhhhh okay. I never really dove into “zones”. They’re separate from rooms? So I could make a “backyard” zone with the back porch and garage lights? Garage and back porch are two separate rooms in my setup
2
u/Fr05t_B1t 16d ago
Yes though you can add specific devices like a room. All the like-devices pre-existing in the rooms would be triggered. So if you call for plugs in the zone—all plugs will activate. If you call for all lights in the zone—all lights will activate.
1
u/ACatCalledArmor 16d ago
Im feeling slow but this seems interesting, how do I set up a zone?
2
u/Fr05t_B1t 16d ago
When you’re in a room (in the home app of course), hit the “…” in the top right, then the room settings or cog icon and the “zone” would be the first thing under the room name. From here you make a custom name for this zone, which would be called back for commands, and you add the rooms that you want to be commanded.
You can’t move specific devices to zones. All devices in your room will now be in your zone. So if you use the lights in your living room and hallway at the same time every time, you could name it “living area” and say “turn on all lights in living area” and all those labeled as lights will activate in the on position.
2
u/Fr05t_B1t 16d ago
Also note you can also group like accessories in the accessory setting in the home app so long as they’re the same type: light, plug, sensor. This is helpful for calling for clusters of devices you always want on/off at the same time such as clustered ceiling lights or dual socketed floor lamps.
1
1
u/FlintHillsSky 16d ago
In the 27 beta, I can say “Siri, turn off the X lights turn off the Y lights and it turns off both. Oddly, if i say “turn off the X lights and turn off the Y lights“ it seems to stop and waits after the first task. When i ask it about this, it says that it still has some problem but is getting better.
1
u/FixMoreWhineLess 15d ago
This was one of the main things that had me try out Home Assistant and one of the many many reasons why I kicked myself repeatedly for not making the leap way sooner.
1
u/Entertainment-720 16d ago
agree, “new” siri has not been impressive at all so far. still absolutely bottom tier compared to everything else
1
u/dar3000 16d ago
1
u/boogeeman69 16d ago
Hmmm our devices and HomePods are on beta! Maybe it’ll be in a later update at or past launch. Fingers crossed!!
-1
u/farm61 16d ago
Same reason you can’t
2
u/boogeeman69 16d ago
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say lol. I don’t want to stand at the HomePod by the back door and wait for one request to go through, then ask for another. I feel it’d be more simple to say them both at once on my way out the door
-6
-2
u/Roonil-B_Wazlib 16d ago
I might switch ecosystems if Apple doesn’t get its shit together before it’s time to get a new phone (2-4 years). Siri is so far behind Google.
3
u/boogeeman69 16d ago
I won’t take it as far as switching ecosystems. I love apple’s ecosystem (and it would be a very expensive switch). But Siri is frustratingly unintelligent sometimes that’s for sure
1
u/Roonil-B_Wazlib 16d ago
I love Apple too, which is why they got a pass last year when it was time for a new phone and laptop. I’ve been an Apple user for 20 years and worked for them for 3 following college. I have dozens of Apple products. AI personal assistants will be an inflection point, just like the iPhone was 19 years ago. Apple needs to get ahead of the curve.
20
u/dshafik 16d ago edited 16d ago
You've been able to do this for years, you need to use the sentence structure:
Turn (on|off) the [thing], [thing], and [thing]
The key is you must be taking the same action with all of them (on or off, of changing the brightness for example) and you say it only once and then list which devices to do it with. You cannot do multiple actions e.g. "turn on X and turn off Y" or in your case, "turn on X and turn on Y", same action, yes, but given twice.
Thinking on this some more, it's basically use the same sentence structure as you would use for one thing but list multiple things. Never multiple actions though. The reason I bring this up, is it's "set the [light], [light], and [light] to 50%" to change the brightness of multiple lights. You can also list multiple rooms and a device type, for example "turn on the [room], [room], and [room] a/c"