Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Schtibbie

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 13, 2007
441
200
I've noticed a disconnect between Siri's ability to search my on-phone photos and the "search box" ability. I have people's faces identified in my iphone's Photos (ios 10). So, I have multiple pics of each of my kids, identified, plus a bunch of other objects that apparently are searchable (pumpkins, etc).

If I ask Siri "Show me pictures of Anna", it says, "Here are some pictures of Anna I found on the web" and it shows random actresses and people. If instead I go into photos app and TYPE Anna in the search box, it pulls up every pic with the face of my daughter Anna. If I ask siri to show me photos of pumpkins, it DOES show me my own photos of pumpkins. If I ask it to show me photos of Jim, my son, it shows just ONE picture, but if I put Jim in the search box in Photos, it shows me all pictures of him. Oh, and sometimes I have to instead say, "SEARCH for pictures of so-and-so" instead of SHOW.

Anyone able to make this work consistently? Why on earth would I want Siri to search the web for a name that clearly is in my photos (spelled the same, even).
 

Lappen71

macrumors 6502
Nov 16, 2012
290
142
I've noticed a disconnect between Siri's ability to search my on-phone photos and the "search box" ability. I have people's faces identified in my iphone's Photos (ios 10). So, I have multiple pics of each of my kids, identified, plus a bunch of other objects that apparently are searchable (pumpkins, etc).

If I ask Siri "Show me pictures of Anna", it says, "Here are some pictures of Anna I found on the web" and it shows random actresses and people. If instead I go into photos app and TYPE Anna in the search box, it pulls up every pic with the face of my daughter Anna. If I ask siri to show me photos of pumpkins, it DOES show me my own photos of pumpkins. If I ask it to show me photos of Jim, my son, it shows just ONE picture, but if I put Jim in the search box in Photos, it shows me all pictures of him. Oh, and sometimes I have to instead say, "SEARCH for pictures of so-and-so" instead of SHOW.

Anyone able to make this work consistently? Why on earth would I want Siri to search the web for a name that clearly is in my photos (spelled the same, even).

its impossible for Siri to know who Anna is if you don't specify WHERE Anna are.
So you have to specify its photos you have of a person called Anna.
 

Schtibbie

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 13, 2007
441
200
Since Siri is a stubborn assistant, I tend to end up on sites like https://hey-siri.io/ to learn what's it expecting.
Maybe try: Show me my photos of Anna ?

Thanks for the link! However, I'm now getting REALLY inconsistent results. I tried "show me my photos of jim" and initially got a single photo only. Tried same again, except adding our last name, and got all photos of Jim. Tried again with just the FIRST name again and got ALL photos of Jim! Same w/ Anna. So, if your "people" are named with last names in your photos app, Siri doesn't assume you mean THAT person even if you have only one person in your whole album with that first name.
 

Floris

macrumors 68020
Sep 7, 2007
2,382
1,478
Netherlands
Sorry to hear it's not working as it should. In my opinion especially when you need to depend on something like Siri as an interface to the device, it should just work.

I miss steve jobs, his communist style really got stuff done.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.