One thing that many seem to forget about Apple’s new voice recognition assistant is that it’s still in beta. Although Siri is available to iPhone 4S users in Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, you can’t expect a seamless experience.
While many have still been impressed with the feature since its release, others are too quick to criticize it. A report from British tabloid The Daily Mail today brands Siri a frustration that has left Scottish users “bamboozled” because it cannot understand their accent.
The Daily Mail continues:
These problems occurred despite a statement on Apple’s website claiming the application has been designed to work with UK, US and Australian accents. It reads: ‘Siri can be enabled in any country, and you can choose to speak to it in English, French, or German. ‘However, Siri is designed to recognise the specific accents and dialects of the supported countries listed above. ‘Since every language has its own accents and dialects, the accuracy rate will be higher for native speakers.’
While the report provides a number of examples of Siri failures, at no point does it mention the word “beta,” or state that Siri is in testing and that the feature is not a final release.
However, not all Scottish users find Siri unsuccessful. In the video below, it actually does a pretty good job of recognizing the majority of the commands given, including creating reminders, alarms, and timers.
Until Apple declares Siri a final release, users should not expect it to work without a few hiccups. And to be fair to the feature, it’s not the only thing that has trouble with the Scottish accent. I’ve been listening to my granddad, who has a strong Scottish accent, for 23 years, and I still don’t understand half of what he says.
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
37 responses to “Siri Can’t Understand The Dialogue In ‘Trainspotting’ Either”
What was he trying to create? I couldn’t understand. LOL, jk.
No one understands scotish accent but themselves lol! love em though!
The Daily Mail is well known in the UK for being, shall we say ‘economical with the truth’.
Once again, they take a handful of problems and blow it out of all proportion.
In the UK it’s no surprise it’s known as ‘The curtain twitcher’. This refers to the habits of the nosy, busybody watching from behind their curtains, and making movements when spotted.
RRREEMÄÄINDER…lol I think I have to visit Scotland one day :D
Scotland’s awesome, Edinburgh, our capital is definitely one of the best places to visit in Europe, especially during the festival season.
To be honest, Siri understood me and my friend pretty well, even though we have pretty heavy accents. Maybe it’s only a select few people that it’s affecting.
I’m from Scotland and Siri works really well. Although, I do not have a strong accent and say words as they should be said.
However, I have come across one word that Siri could not understand no matter how many times I said it – Sir. I got round this by mimicking an American accent!
LOL just wait till Siri hears UK’s thickest Geordie accent and Singapore’s ‘Singlish’.
Has Stephen Fry tried proper Narfk on it? Ha you got a loight, bor?
I thought this was odd. There is no such thing as “United Kingdom English” as it appears under Siri’s settings. There is a *written* UK English, but ***no such thing*** as spoken UK English.
Siri speaks Southern England English. It does not speak any of the other variations of English in the UK, such as Mancurian, Scouse, Yorkshire, Geordie, West Country, Scots, Brummy, Northern Irish, Scots, or the Welsh accent. Many of these aren’t just accents — they’re dialects which have their own grammar structure and words. e.g. “Bairn” for “Child” in Scots and Geordie. Somehow I doubt Siri will understand “Remind uz tae gan wi me bairn tu tha pictchas.”(“Remind me to go with my child to the cinema.” in Geordie).
i.e. Siri is not designed to understand maybe 30% of the UK’s population, unless they fancy pretending to be reading the BBC news.
ELEVEN!!!!
No one other than the scots can understand a scottish accent. The day Siri figures that out im heading for Cheyenne Mountain.
atleast its consistent lol
Twat
An articulate twat though.
I’m glad Siri does not understand them. I’d like to put the Scottish on Newt’s moon colony. If ya can’t spake the Kings English the want da poointttte.