One of many helpful capabilities of Siri on HomePod that’s been obtainable since 2018 is Private Requests. It permits customers to make voice instructions that cope with what might be extra non-public data from their particular iPhone and iPad. Nonetheless, because it seems, Private Requests are nonetheless damaged with Siri on HomePod typically replying “I’m unsure who’s talking.”
As a refresher, Private Requests occur while you ask Siri on a HomePod to do one thing together with your iPhone or iPad apps like Messages, Reminders, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, and Discover My.
When working, the characteristic makes multi-user voice recognition worthwhile to deal with a lot of completely different duties without having your iPhone close by (however your iPhone does must be at house for Private Requests to work on HomePods).
The difficulty is that Private Requests don’t work persistently. In my very own expertise, they’ve been hit-and-miss since 2018. However with HomePod software program 16 and 16.1, Private Requests have been absolutely damaged for each my unique HomePods and HomePod minis.
After I put in 16.2, the characteristic began working once more, not at all times, however at the least 75% of the time. However now on the most recent 16.3.2 launch, my spouse and I are nonetheless getting the “I’m unsure who’s talking” error often.
How frequent is the difficulty?
Again in January, my colleague Ben did a ballot asking whether or not folks have been seeing Private Requests fail on HomePod. Nearly 1,000 folks responded:
- 79.74% mentioned sure
- Amongst that majority seeing the difficulty, 66% mentioned “Sure, just lately,” with 14% saying “Sure, however not just lately”
- Solely 15% mentioned “No” with 6% Not sure/Different
And lots of customers have shared in regards to the characteristic not working on Apple’s Group discussion board, Reddit, and extra throughout the years.
Troubleshooting
I’ve achieved quite a lot of troubleshooting to try to repair Private Requests a number of instances since 2018 to no avail:
- Ensuring Private Requests are turned on (House app > House Settings > My profile (some customers notice they’ve seen this get toggled off robotically someway by iOS)
- And ensuring they’re on for every HomePod individually
- Turning Private Requests on/off and doing a clear setup of the characteristic
- Updating HomePod software program
- Double-checking WiFi connection
- Double-checking Siri is aware of who I’m (Contacts > My Card)
- Turning off Hey Siri in iPhone Settings and organising once more
- Ensuring my iPhone’s Siri voice and every HomePod’s Siri voice are utilizing the identical variant (this has labored for some customers who’ve seen the difficulty however not me)
- Resetting HomePods
Share suggestions with Apple
Apple fastened a bug that was inflicting HomeKit requests to fail with Siri on HomePod with the 16.3.2 software program launch, however there was no point out of a repair for Private Requests.
Together with being irritating for longtime HomePod customers, inconsistent Private Requests additionally gives a tough expertise for these new to HomePod 2 or HomePod mini.
Whereas we wait on a patch, there’s not rather a lot to do should you’ve tried the above troubleshooting steps.
Nonetheless, there’s a simple strategy to let Apple know you need to see it resolved. Simply fill out a brief suggestions type right here.
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