Translated material
Russian, do you speak it!?
How RuNet accepted “Russian Siri”, what it can already do, what it can’t do and why it appeared right now
On the evening of February 23, Apple released the second beta version of the iOS 8.3 operating system for developers, in which the Siri voice assistant unexpectedly acquired support for seven new languages, including Russian.
The next day, “Russian Siri” became one of the most discussed topics in RuNet, and TJ tried it and tried to figure out whether a localized voice assistant would be useful for residents of Russia and why Apple took this step right now.
What Russian Siri can and cannot do
After information appeared that Siri finally spoke Russian, many users of Apple technology noted with skepticism that even in their native language, the voice assistant will remain just a toy that will very quickly get boring and be forgotten as unnecessary.
In fact, when using a headset, Russian Siri can be extremely useful: it almost accurately identifies names from your address book, allowing you to quickly and conveniently make calls and write messages without taking your smartphone out of your pocket.
Many Russian-speaking users have still refused this function due to the need not only to type all contacts in Latin letters, but also to select convenient analogues for each name: the English Siri understood “Andrew” much better than “Andrei”, and could not cope with complex names like "Timofei". Now all these problems are behind us.
Another stopping factor was difficulties in recognizing English speech with a Russian accent: Russian users quickly stopped using Siri due to the need to repeat commands several times. However, in the localized version, speech is read almost flawlessly: the voice assistant easily copes even with tongue twisters.
But there is a fly in the ointment here: Siri often does not understand when the user switches from one language to another: the command “launch Instagram” is read as “launch Instagram,” and the system does not find applications called “Instagram.” Thus, it is not yet possible to launch most applications using voice. There are no problems only with the most popular English words like Google and Apple.
Another important plus is the ability to read Russian-language text.
Now iOS users can easily read their incoming messages or an excerpt from Wikipedia during their morning run. Siri reads Russian words clearly, but sometimes makes mistakes in accents and pronunciation of phrases like “OK.”
The voice assistant is not yet able to multiply numbers (sends a request to Google), display information about movies and sports events, and search for necessary places nearby (it copes with libraries, but does not see pharmacies, hospitals and coffee shops), but it copes well with tasks that are not tied to geolocation.
The Russian version can already add a reminder to the calendar, create a note, set and turn off an alarm, tell the price of shares of a company or the weather for the near future.
The “Hey, Siri” command in localization was called “Hey, Siri” and already works flawlessly. With its help, you can activate the assistant without touching the phone, but only if it is charging.
How was she received?
Immediately after the release of iOS 8.3 beta 2, network users traditionally began to test Siri’s strength by asking her various provocative questions. Most of the well-known commands like “Tell a joke” or “Sing a song” migrated to the new version almost unchanged, but purely Russian answers also appeared like “Here I am!” in response to the inviting “Siri!”
Russian responses from the voice assistant became one of the most popular topics for discussion on the RuNet on February 24.
About the meaning of life from Russian Siri. #SSSR pic.twitter.com/GpTQ8i1c74
— Wylsacom (@wylsacom) February 24, 2015 In general, Siri has a great future in Russia. :) #SSSR pic.twitter.com/fi7zcofPBM
— Wylsacom (@wylsacom) February 23, 2015 Siri, tell a story More details – https://t.co/Cqs69qqVJH pic.twitter.com/5FgGoUDMxZ
— Rozetked (@rozetked) February 24, 2015 Okay, Siri read Dick, not bad pic.twitter.com/ZOPiingPU8
— Antoha (@mocaddishu) February 24, 2015 “Russian Siri” has also become a popular source of jokes.
- Siri, where have you been for 5 years? - Oh, that's it...
— Den Talalá (@r3s3t) February 24, 2015 - Siri, how much are new Apple products in Russia? - Look at the photos with kittens - :-(
— Maxi Zareckiy (YES) (@shaikhulud) February 24, 2015 Siri, tell me how many tanks are there in Novoazovsk and how many Grads are there in Gorlovka?
— Mud Roissi (@Fake_MIDRF) February 23, 2015 Siri, Crimea?!
— TimIT (@Tim_Gadget) February 23, 2015 Why now
In addition to the Russian language, Siri in iOS 8.3 beta 2 supports Danish, Dutch, Thai, Turkish, Swedish and Portuguese.
Although Siri has seen little development in the past two years, some have noted that the feature will inevitably be given new life by the Apple Watch, where voice commands will often be the only input available. It is with the imminent release of the watch that such a sharp expansion in the number of supported languages is associated.
At the time of writing, the Russian Siri is at the stage of the first beta version, so there is no point in switching to an unstable build for its sake (Telegram and Dropbox are buggy on iOS 8.3 beta 2): it is better to wait for the full release.
Better late than never,
Vadim Elistratov,
TJ
#Сатья #Apple #Siri #iOS_8_3 #Siri_in_Russian #iOS_8_3_beta_2 #обзор_русской_Siri