Siri Add to Reminders Problem in iOS 8.4

Since I’ve updated to iOS 8.4, Siri doesn’t recognize my OmniFocus reminders list. Previously, if I dictated “Add … to my OmniFocus list”, Siri would add to the correct reminder list which would auto-import to my OF inbox. However, now it tells me that “omni focus is not one of my lists” and shows me my 3 reminders lists (e.g. Drafts, OmniFocus and Family). This is an extra (unwanted) step.

Any ideas on how to correct it other than changing the name of the list to Omni Focus?

Keep in mind that previously, Siri recognized OmniFocus without the extra step.

That’s very interesting. I can replicate the same experience. It looks like Siri is hearing “Omni focus” instead of “OmniFocus”

A couple of workarounds:

  1. Rename your “OmniFocus” list to “Omni Focus”. Siri will work with that.
  2. If your “OmniFocus” list is the default, you can tell Siri “Remember to…” and she’ll add the reminder to the default list.

I have always used approach 2 above, but I like the more natural language of “Add … to my Omni Focus list”. I think that might help me think to use Siri more often.

Is there a way to teach Siri a word? This experience feels more like a Siri problem than an OF problem.

Cheers,

ScottyJ

Aaaaaaaaaaaand rereading your post, I caught the last line. Sorry. While it’s not brand standard, I think Omni Focus is probably the best bet.

Sorry for failing to pay complete attention :/

ScottyJ

I think @deturbulence might be right here: OmniFocus’s Reminders Capture feature doesn’t come in until after Siri adds a reminder to a list. If Siri is failing to understand the name of a list, your quickest – and surest – solution is to rename the list, as suggested.

I think, though, that you might be able to teach Siri a word. I don’t believe the procedure has ever been set out formally, but anecdotally, a couple things have had an effect on Siri’s word recognition:

  • After dictating to Siri and seeing her misinterpret, scroll back up and tap the textual transcription of what you said to edit it. Correct “Omni focus” to “OmniFocus,” then press Done. If you do this a few times, Siri might get the hint.
  • Alternately, some people have reported success by adding a contact named “OmniFocus.” Siri looks through your contact names when transcribing a phrase, so that it can get your acquaintances’ names right; having OmniFocus in your contacts list will add it as a word slightly more likely to be spoken. (If you want realistic data, you could add Omni’s phone number, the OmniFocus Twitter handle, or OmniFocus support’s email address to that contact card.)

I hope one of those approaches can help!

My solution is to make the Omnifocus Reminders list the default. So if I say “Remind me to …”, Siri puts it in the right place and OF collects it neatly

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Thanks for all the input. This has been very frustrating. I have changed the spelling of the List to “Omni Focus” for now. The reason I don’t want to default to “Add to my reminders…” is that I add to both my Drafts task list as well as my OF task list and it is easier to remember to specify than recalling which task is my default. I find it odd that it worked fine until this recent iOS update.

When this Siri integration feature first came out, I think I found two things. One is that I could get Siri to recognize the list if I pronounced it like “om-NIF-uh-kis”. The second is that if I remember right, there was a way to get Siri to recognize an alternate pronunciation for a list name, just as there is for a contact name. But I don’t have any resources for that.

Does anyone else remember this? Maybe it’s on the old forum?

I’ve been having the same problem. My solution is simply to rename the linked reminders list to “Focus”. That also sounds more natural when I’m saying it out loud: “Remind me on my focus list to …”

I wonder if Omni is working on the Siri access that iOS 10 provides to third party developers. That would be pretty amazing.

Unfortunately, none of the SiriKit intent domains are targeted at Reminders integration or to-do creation. We’re certainly keeping an eye on that API, though!

@tekl Indeed, though I wonder how messaging could be redefined or ambiguified to encapsulate messages from user to app. Knowing Apple, probably not, but it would be cool. ;)

In any case, thanks for the quick reply!

ScottyJ

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