5 Things Siri Can’t Do

Siri is pretty awesome so far. It does some cool things. Still, there are, natrually, some things it just doesn’t seem to have figured out yet. Those things will likely improve over time. Then, there are some things it may never do, depending on how much Apple wants to restrict certain functions.

Let’s take  look at some of the things Siri definitely can’t do right now.

1) Add Contacts

Siri cannot add contacts. When you ask it to add a contact, it will inform you that it’s not allowed to do that. This means you must add a contact manually. It’s not a huge pain, and we trust our typing more than we would the voice recognition at this point anyway.

2) Open Apps

This is another one that Siri informs us it’s not allowed to do. When you ask it to do something that concerns opening an app, it will say that it’s not allowed to do that. We don’t know if the feature will come as Siri is updated, or how things will work. We imagine that Apple would like to eventually take it to a point where Siri does just about anything you can do with your fingers.

3) Update Reminders

This may also have to do with the opening apps limitation, but you cannot delete or change reminders. For instance, say you have a dinner date set for tonight, but the other person cancels. You would have to manually go in and delete it. You can’t say “Siri, cancel my dinner date tonight” or something of the sort.

4) Can’t Take Dictation

Website 9to5Mac discovered this one. Siri cannot take dictation. If you say something like, “Make a voice memo” it will inform you that it hasn’t yet learned how to do that. As they point out, it says “yet” which is a differentiator here, because with most requests that it cannot follow through it it will just say it isn’t allowed to do so. However, it will offer to create a note or reminder.

5) Download 

This was also discovered by the folks at 9to5Mac. Siri can’t download onto your iPhone. This doesn’t exactly surprise us, but it would be pretty cool if we could just say, “Siri, download Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears.” Then again, we’d have to sign in and enter our password anyway.

In Beta

Keep in mind. Siri is still in beta. There are a lot of kinks to be worked out and a lot of things it must learn to do. It will take some time, and it will continue to improve. Right now, Siri can feel both brilliant and dumb at the same time. We’re sure that it will only get better.

Know of anything else the iPhone can’t do? Let us know in the comments. Maybe we misspoke with Siri, and there are things it can do? Feel free to comment as well. We’re definitely listening.

By the way, check out some of the other Siri-related posts from earlier today:

Setting up Siri

Stephen Colbert Loves Siri