I Tried Siri AI on My New Apple Watch and Felt Frustrated
An in-depth look at testing the new Siri AI on the Apple Watch after joining a waitlist, revealing latency issues and accuracy flaws.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- Users must join a waitlist to test the new Siri AI on the latest Apple Watch.
- Finding nearby yoga studios via AI proved less efficient than standard Google Search.
- Setting a Move ring goal resulted in mismatched calorie values in the Fitness app.
- The Conversations app frequently failed to display recent chat history correctly.
One of the major features Apple announced alongside the new Apple Watches is Siri AI, bringing chatbot capabilities directly to the wrist. Users are required to join a waitlist to try out Apple's improved chatbot, prompting a hands-on test to see if the on-wrist assistant lives up to company promises.
Testing began by asking for the nearest yoga studio, to which the AI responded with a list of locations far from home. After rewording the prompt several times, it finally listed one about a mile away. This highlighted how using AI can be less efficient than a regular Google search or even the older Siri model, which quickly found the closest studio during previous tests.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
Without a phone nearby, testing continued with example prompts provided on the WatchOS 27 page. Asking "Read my upcoming events" required a solid five-second pause from Siri before it correctly recited the upcoming calendar appointments.
Attempting to adjust the Move ring goal proved similarly imperfect. When asking for a 350-calorie goal, it set 350. However, when requesting 325, Siri claimed it changed the goal to 325, but checking the Fitness app revealed it had actually been set to 320 calories.
Integrating generative AI features into compact wearable devices introduces hardware and connectivity challenges, which often leads to processing delays and occasional synchronization mismatches between the device and companion apps.
At least one aspect performed better on the watch: while both versions claimed no data on sleep tracking, the watch version successfully reported bedtimes and wake times.
Meanwhile, the promised Conversations app failed to function properly. Pressing the digital crown brings up the picker with Siri in the center, but tapping it consistently displayed "No conversations" despite a full day of interacting with the assistant.
Source: Lifehacker
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