Apple announced a major upgrade to Siri this year with iOS 15, which is now able to process on-device requests without an internet connection. However, it seems that Apple’s virtual assistant has also lost some functionality, as users have been complaining about Siri no longer being able to send emails or check call history.
There are multiple Siri commands that are no longer working after the iOS 15 update. These include commands related to the Phone and Mail apps, as you can check below:
- Do I have any voicemails?
- Play my voicemail messages
- Check my call history
- Check my recent calls
- Who called me?
- Send an email
- Send an email to [person]
9to5Mac was able to confirm that these commands are not only unavailable in iOS 15, but also in iOS 14.8. While some users may not even notice the missing commands, these are common requests made by blind and low-vision users. Reports about this issue have been shared on the AppleVis forum, which is dedicated to discussing accessibility features in Apple products.
One of the people whom I support told me that she could no longer use Siri to send email from her iPhone 8 with iOS 14. I tried on my iPhone SE with iOS 15.0 and the response from Siri was “sorry, I can’t help with that’. Subsequently, I’ve had the same response on a phone running iOS 12. If this is a deliberate feature removal, it’s certainly a loss to some users with sight loss who find it a convenient way to send a brief email.
It’s unclear if the removal of these commands was intentional or if it’s just a bug, however, as it affects multiple versions of iOS, this may be something that Apple can solve with a server-side update.
It’s worth noting that, beyond the Mail and Phone app commands, Siri actually lost even more functionality with iOS 15. Apple has informed developers that interactions for ride-booking, configuration of vehicles via Siri over CarPlay, and third-party Photo Search were discontinued with the update in favor of Shortcuts app workflows.
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