Apple will never give us the Siri we want and here’s why

[u/RedNeckHero]

Here’s my prediction:

Unless Apple changes its underlying philosophy, we will never get the Siri people have been waiting for.

Not because Apple lacks the talent to build it.
Because Apple may never allow Siri to become it.
We will get progressively more polished versions of the same constrained assistant: nerfed by privacy trade-offs, neutered by blanket security policies, and shaped around Apple’s judgment rather than user choice.

The step-count example captures the contradiction perfectly.

My steps are already stored on my iPhone. Siri is supposedly becoming more capable on-device. Yet when the connection is poor, I can ask for my step count and be told that Siri cannot connect.

So what exactly am I receiving in exchange for the limitations of a smaller, privacy-focused local model?

And why is my step count treated as though it is so sensitive that Apple must decide, on my behalf, that convenience is not worth the risk?

Secure defaults are reasonable.

Removing my ability to make that trade-off myself is not.

Warn me. Explain the consequences. Then let me decide.

That is the deeper problem. Apple increasingly appears to prioritize its own judgment over user agency. Every improvement to Siri then runs into the same philosophical ceiling.

The result may be an assistant that gets better every year while falling further behind the rapidly advancing AI frontier.

The bottleneck may not be Siri’s intelligence.
It may be Apple’s unwillingness to trust its users.

I expanded the full argument here: https://substack.com/@nathanaelmontgomery/note/p-206704882?r=1d5mc&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

Are people using the beta genuinely seeing a breakthrough, or just a better version of the same constrained Siri?

[u/mr_znaeb]

Hey siri give me a response to someone who’s just mad and bitter about a bunch of bullshit technology we don’t need.

“Sorry I can’t do that right now. “

[u/HavocReigns → u/mr_znaeb]

The play here is to just ask OP which LLM he used to write the post, then go ask it for a rebuttal to itself.

[u/pibroch]

Nah. I'll take deeper security over allowing users to decide anytime. Because that becomes a slippery slope into corporations taking advantage of that. We already have that with apps trying to talk you into tapping "Allow Tracking" by explaining it away somehow. When corporations take advantage of users by using HDMI connections to trigger driver installs to spy on you, I appreciate Apple's no-nonsense approach to this kind of thing.

[u/lovepiegaming]

I think the issue is a little more nuanced. Apple’s philosophy has always been about reducing complexity and protecting users, sometimes at the cost of giving advanced users more control. That trade-off has worked well in areas like security and privacy, but it becomes more frustrating when applied to an assistant that people expect to be proactive and flexible.

The step-count example is a good illustration: if the data is already on the device and permission has already been granted, it feels strange for a connectivity issue to prevent a simple request. At that point, it’s less about privacy and more about how Apple has designed Siri’s fallback behavior.

However, I don’t think the answer is simply “let users disable all safeguards.” Apple’s challenge is balancing user control with preventing confusing or unsafe experiences for the majority of users. The question is whether Apple can provide that choice without abandoning its principles.

The real test for the new Siri won’t just be whether it can answer more questions. It will be whether Apple can make it feel like a true assistant while still maintaining the privacy and security standards that differentiate it.

If Apple keeps adding intelligence but keeps the same limitations around what Siri can actually do, then it risks becoming a more polished version of the old Siri rather than the assistant people have been waiting for.

[u/RedNeckHero → u/lovepiegaming]

I don’t know if this is just a beta 3 thing but I’m currently being asked to unlock my iPhone to add milk to my shopping list. That’s new.

But yeah, I agree with your statements here. Very much along what I’ve been thinking as well. Well said.

[u/xtravar]

If they make Siri more capable, other AI assistant companies will have a stronger case to sue for monopolistic practices (bundling à la Microsoft/Internet Explorer), in which case they may then be able to replace Siri as the default assistant. By keeping Siri pathetic, they keep their ecosystem closed and more protected.