10 ways to make Siri brilliant

10 ways to improve Siri

Google Translate is great, but still needs an internet connection

With a downloaded language pack installed, Siri could act as an automatic translator without the associated roaming charges. Using a basic command like "Siri translate conversation to French" should allow you to talk freely.

After all, Samsung can (sort of) do it, and Apple loves to be the brand that makes things simple - what's better than international interaction?

Siri should actively translate what you're saying into French (Or other languages) and vice versa, reducing the disjointedness that is associated with communicating abroad.

5. Be 'always on'

Google is pushing its 'always on' feature in both Now and Google Glass as well as on the Moto X, allowing results to be found without manually locating a search app. This element is missing from Siri, and we can't see why.

10 ways to improve Siri

The Moto X comes with an 'always listening' feature

iOS in the car is making Siri safer, bringing it to motorists without the need to hit a home button on your iPhone. This safety feature is then missing to all motorists, being available only to those purchasing new iOS toting vehicles.

Always on features have garnered a lot of negative press; people are increasingly concerned about privacy. Apple would need to address this and by allowing the feature to be manually enabled (or disabled), public fears would be allayed. A better phrase than 'OK Siri' is also needed.

6. Contextual

Google Now's major advantage over Siri is its ability to provide you with relevant data immediately without manual input. This makes it more able to impersonate a human assistant, if Siri can provide relevant data in a similar way it will make searches both quicker and more useful.

10 ways to improve Siri

Google Now can deliver relevant results without input

In order to make the most out of Now, a heavy investment is required in Google's ecosystem; using it to search, Gmail and calendar for instance. Apple doesn't need this, it can tap into the data that we provide from other services via Apple apps.

Steps to make Siri more contextual have already been taken but these need to be implemented quickly. Cue, a service that took data from your daily plans, contacts and emails, has already been snapped up by the Cupertino firm.

7. Individual app settings

Apple excels in its handling of settings menus, making them all accessible in the same place. It is possible to manually change notification settings without having to open each app, as well as view each apps menu.

10 ways to improve Siri

Apple knows how to make a good settings menu, so make one for Siri

The same menu for Siri would allow you to control which apps Siri pulled data from. Siri would become more personal, knowing what you want it to know. This would aid privacy and allow better contextual searching within the device.

8. Give Siri notifications

Notifications are part of the package that Google Now offers, with it able to give live traffic and weather updates when it feels you need to know. This makes it useful, but at the same time is rather annoying.

10 ways to improve Siri

Knowing the weather is great, but not always necessary

Siri should notify us when it has something useful to say, but allowing us to control what and when. Let us know what the weather is like at work, but only on a weekday morning. Let us know we have a shopping list, but only when we're near the supermarket.

The weather and calendar are already in the notifications bar, but if they're irrelevant let us remove them. Apple already has an impressive 'Do Not Disturb' feature, so bring the same technology over to Siri, controlling when apps can be muted.

9. Make features universal

One of the biggest bugbears of any app, device, or just about any big product launch is a lack of global availability. Users are increasingly aware of what features are available in their area, and what is available elsewhere.

10 ways to improve Siri

Availability pages should be a thing of the past

Apple needs to be an industry leader and make features available globally at the same time. Dictation is available in 15 countries, yet movie show times can only be found in Canada, the US and UK.

A lot of Siri's early problems centred around its inability to search for businesses outside of the US, leaving Apple a little red-faced. If features cannot be made global immediately, give a time frame for release or let us know of problems. Openness truly is the key to placating the baying crowd.

10. Downloadable voices

Our last suggestion may seem a little comical, but there is method in our madness trust us. Sat-nav devices have become the kings of third party voices, able to offer a novelty take on something as mundane as giving directions.

10 ways to improve Siri

Celebrity voices would entice more users

Apple may initially be lambasted for the introduction of celebrity voices, but an increase the appeal of the digital assistant could give a whole raft of users the incentive to use Siri.

Couple that with crowd sourcing data, Apple would be able to create a large contextual database that providing the most relevant data to the widest range of people.