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Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by Noaidi on Monday January 12, 2026 @10:29AM (#46589751)
Guess I am not using Siri anymore…

By the way, have any of you ever tried to delete and disabled Siri’s iCloud backup? You can’t do it.

Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by jjice on Monday January 12, 2026 @10:48AM (#46590022)
Why not? Apple's ChatGPT integration has been pretty explicitly anonymizing requests and doesn't require an account. Maybe I'm missing something.
Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by runjake on Monday January 12, 2026 @11:02AM (#46590234)
Unless Apple is lying:

On iPhone, Settings → iCloud → Storage → Siri → Disable and Delete

Edit: Tried it. It works for me. Takes a minute though.

Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by Noaidi on Monday January 12, 2026 @11:14AM (#46590429)
TRY IT!
Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by runjake on Monday January 12, 2026 @11:43AM (#46590923)
I did. It works, as far as I can tell?
Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by Noaidi on Monday January 12, 2026 @03:40PM (#46594015)
You’re able to disable Siri in iCloud? Not turn off Siri, disable Siri back up in iCloud. And when you go back to it after not turning it on, it’s still off?
Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by runjake on Monday January 12, 2026 @04:07PM (#46594317)
Yes. But, I'm not surprised that you're having issues. In my experience managing a large enterprise, iCloud accounts seem to have all kinds of weird, account-specific issues.
Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by Noaidi on Monday January 12, 2026 @03:42PM (#46594036)
I have a current case open with Apple with this issue. It does not work. And I don’t believe you. I’m sorry I just don’t believe you because Apple says there is a technical problem preventing this. That does not just affect me. Because I also tried it on three other phones of three other friends of mine and it does not work.
Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by hu3 on Monday January 12, 2026 @10:46AM (#46589996)
You guys use Siri?
Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by rootusrootus on Monday January 12, 2026 @12:02PM (#46591187)
Only for opening/closing the garage door, setting timers, and sending texts. What else do people use the digital assistants for?
Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by manuelmoreale on Monday January 12, 2026 @11:00AM (#46590210)
My exact reaction every time I hear people discuss Siri. I don’t think I used it once in my life and it’s one of the first thing I turn off every time I have a new device. So interesting to see how different people use the same devices in completely different ways.
Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by moi2388 on Monday January 12, 2026 @11:14AM (#46590433)
Siri is extremely useful. That is, if your use cases are limited to:

- setting a timer

- dictating a title to search on Apple TV

Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by mbirth on Monday January 12, 2026 @11:44AM (#46590936)
You can use Siri to call custom Shortcuts which in turn can ask for more details if required. And now that Shortcuts can make use of the LLMs (Apple’s or ChatGPT), there are a lot more ways to make Siri smarter.
Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by spinningarrow on Monday January 12, 2026 @11:36AM (#46590805)
Creating calendar events and reminders too!

A feature set that has remained unchanged since Siri’s launch…

Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by manuelmoreale on Monday January 12, 2026 @11:38AM (#46590823)
Makes sense then, considering timers I set them on my watch and I don’t watch tv.
Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by godzillabrennus on Monday January 12, 2026 @11:07AM (#46590321)
I used it when it launched to figure out it was useless and haven't gone back.
Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by jen20 on Monday January 12, 2026 @12:04PM (#46591217)
Hundreds of times a day for HomeKit, though rarely anything else. It’s _mostly_ fine, provided there are no HomePods around.
Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by Noaidi on Monday January 12, 2026 @10:47AM (#46590009)
Only when I wake up in the middle of the night to ask it what is the current time of the dystopia. That and the calculator.
Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by redwall_hp on Monday January 12, 2026 @12:19PM (#46591428)
For CarPlay, yes. I don't need a virtual assistant to do things I can do but worse; I need reliable voice controls to send messages, start phone calls, change the map destination and such with as little friction as possible.

Siri needs faster and more flexible handling of Spotify, Google Maps and third-party messaging apps, not a slop generator.

Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by rvz on Monday January 12, 2026 @10:50AM (#46590044)
You're using Siri? lmao

That's the Internet Explorer of chatbots.

Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by Angostura on Monday January 12, 2026 @10:55AM (#46590131)
That's where people get confused - it's not a chatbot or an LLM - it's a voice command interface. Adding something to the shopping list, setting a timer, turning up the heating in the back room, playing some music, skipping a track, sending a message - it works perfectly well for - and that's what I use it for virtually every day.

This work is to turn it it into something else, more like a chatbot, presumably

Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by HarHarVeryFunny on Monday January 12, 2026 @02:45PM (#46593235)
Siri is already transitioning from an intent-based NLU system to an LLM.

In iOS 18.1 (on iPhone 15+) Siri is part intent-based, part on-device "Apple Intelligence" small LLM, and in iOS 18.2 it also supports off-device ChatGPT.

This year Siri 2.0 is expected to ditch the legacy intent-based system and instead use just the small on-device Apple Intelligence LLM plus (opt-in) off-device Gemini (running in some private cloud).

Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by Noaidi on Monday January 12, 2026 @10:54AM (#46590099)
Jeez, I only use it for the time and for the calculator, and to ask it to call someone. I am shocked anyone thinks I used it for anything more than that.

Also, I have never turned on Apple "Intelligence".

Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by volemo on Monday January 12, 2026 @10:35AM (#46589827)
You’ve used Siri before?! /j
Re:Apple picks Google's Gemini to power Siri by yohannparis on Monday January 12, 2026 @01:33PM (#46592332)
In the article they clearly mentioned that Gemini model will be used for the Foundation Model running on device or their own Server. They are not sending Siri request to Google servers.