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Apple Has No Plans to Support Siri on Older Devices

Tuesday November 8, 2011 7:00 pm PST by Arnold Kim

When Apple introduced the Siri voice assistant, the company made it clear that the feature was exclusive to the iPhone 4S alone.

There was some speculation that Siri required the iPhone 4S's faster processor, but recent hack have shown Siri to run quite well on the iPhone 4. Meanwhile, one rumor even claimed that Apple been internally testing Siri on the iPhone 4, raising some hopes for an eventual release.

Unfortunately, Michael Steeber posts an Apple reply to a bug report which states quite clearly that Apple isn't planning on supporting Siri on older devices:
Engineering has provided the following feedback regarding this issue: Siri only works on iPhone 4S and we currently have no plans to support older devices.
Apple generally keeps quiet about their plans, so this is probably as much as we'll hear for an official position on the possibility of official Siri support on the iPhone 4 or iPad 2.
[ 119 comments ]


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samcraig
93 months ago
" Siri only works on iPhone 4S and we currently have no plans to support older devices."

Not entirely accurate. It's even been shown to work on a 3GS.
Rating: 21 Votes
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drwatz0n
93 months ago
And that is why we have the jailbreak community.
Rating: 21 Votes
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DESNOS
93 months ago
It has been discussed that the true reason for them to limit it to one device like that is due to the load placed on their servers. I think that makes sense considering the recent downtime Siri has been experiencing. Perhaps the 4S alone is pushing the limits.
Rating: 13 Votes
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coder12
93 months ago
Siri is great because I can easily set alarms for 3am on other people's phones really quickly :)
Rating: 10 Votes
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caliguy
93 months ago
How has this ever even been a question? It's obviously only going to be available on 4s and newer devices; it's a major selling point, a feature to make people want to upgrade their device. Especially since the form factor of the 4s remained the same.
Rating: 9 Votes
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B777Forevar
93 months ago



You want Siri?? Buy an iPhone 4S. If you don't wanna upgrade then ****!!!!


lol

Somewhere, a cult leader is probably jealous of some people's loayalty to Apple Inc.
Rating: 8 Votes
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clearyjp
93 months ago
Boo!
Rating: 8 Votes
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Rodimus Prime
93 months ago
who is surpised be this. Apple needs some BS reason to encourage people to update to the 4S.

From the past BS blocking
the iPhone 3G could not shoot video (that was 100% BS blocking)
first gen iPhone did not get MMS an I am not even sure it got copy past (again BS blocking)
iPhone 3G did not get voice controls (100% BS)

I believe there were several BS things in the 3GS for iOS 4.

I do not mind the fact that the 3GS did not get Facetime. I can understand that. There was a legit hardware lacking issue but the other crap they pulled is rather insane.

This is funny watching the people defending Apple arguments break down on why Siri is not on anything but the 4S.
First it was need an A5 chip (proven to be 100% bull as it works great on a 3GS)
Then it was Siri is a Beta
Now that Apple has shown that to be Bull they are now trying to defend Apple screwing over the customers. To me this blocking tells me that they are not sure the iPhone 4S could stand on its own for a reason to upgrade with out Siri.
Rating: 8 Votes
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mrsir2009
93 months ago

It has been discussed that the true reason for them to limit it to one device like that is due to the load placed on their servers. I think that makes sense considering the recent downtime Siri has been experiencing. Perhaps the 4S alone is pushing the limits.


Yes, imagine if they chucked all the existing iPhone 4 and 3GS users onto Siri :eek:
Rating: 7 Votes
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SkierDoc
93 months ago
For those who didn't know, Siri was available as a downloadable app on the app store up until the launch of the 4S. Although it didn't have the integration with the native apps, or the dictate capability on the keyboard, it otherwise had the same voice recognition functionality with regards to asking Siri questions. The 4S version did not expand on the voice recognition, it simply added integration to the native apps.

Thus, I would seriously doubt Apple's assertion that older phones are simply not capable of running Siri - they did so just fine before the 4S launch date. The processing power required is not the integration with the other apps, but the processing of the voice (and this it appears is actually done on Apple's servers.)

Furthermore, Apple disabled the old Siri app the day after the iPhone 4S was released. Way to go Apple!
Rating: 7 Votes

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