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Siri Updated to Respond to Long Questions With Quotes on Brevity

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Apple has quietly given Siri the ability to answer user responses with quotes, citing famous passages from notable people like William Strunk and Thomas Jefferson. First noticed by iLounge, the quotes are used when Siri is asked a question that is excessively long, tactfully reminding the user of the value of brevity.

When Siri is given a request that is too lengthy, she will now respond with one of several different quotes that suggest that the user shorten the question. For example, one quote from Thomas Jefferson reads, "The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."

siriquotes
Siri has a range of different quotes in her repertoire, including one from the 1970's television show MASH.

It is unknown when the change to Siri was implemented, but a Reddit thread from last week appears to contain the first known instance of the phrasing, suggesting that Siri's new quoting ability was added within the last week or two.

Top Rated Comments

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jonAppleSeed
168 months ago
Instead of updating Siri to understand long senescence, they instead make her more quirky. Nice!
Score: 34 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Xenomorph Avatar
Xenomorph
168 months ago
I can Google for help over dial-up faster than Siri can answer my questions.

It's been in beta since 2011. Why can't Apple make it faster?

Google's voice search seemed to come out of no where and is way better than Siri, already.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
M
macsrcool1234
168 months ago
Instead of updating Siri to understand long senescence, they instead make her more quirky. Nice!

Exactly.

Google's voice search is years ahead of Siri (isn't it STILL in 'beta' :rolleyes:).
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
A
adildacoolset
168 months ago
Exactly.

Google's voice search is years ahead of Siri (isn't it STILL in 'beta' :rolleyes:).

I really don't understand comments like this.

Just because it's a little bit quicker, and has slightly better voice recognition, people are making over-the-top statements like this.

In my experience, Siri answers a much broader range of questions, gives far more comprehensive and in-depth answers (à la Wolfram alpha), has better natural-language processing, and has some nice easter eggs in it.

I value those more than slightly faster response times and slightly better voice recognition.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
H
HenryDJP
168 months ago
Instead of updating Siri to understand long senescence, they instead make her more quirky. Nice!
Understandable but the problem with humans is, they talk too much. Many times I completely ignore a post that is laden with endless text. Siri and Google voice are only suppose to assist simple questions, not address soliloquies. :)
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
R
robjulo
168 months ago
Nothing more than a parlor trick.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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