Siri could be more important in the living room than anywhere else

Siri could be more useful in the living room than anywhere else, as Apple closes in on offering new TV devices and services there.

That’s because communicating effectively with the television is hard. Our current means of doing so is the standard remote control, which we alternately cherish and abhor. Using the remote feels like trying to carry on a conversation with a vocabulary limited to 20 words.

And the stakes are about to get higher.

While reports say we won’t be seeing any brand new expanded Apple TV set-top box and video service at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (preview) this week, we will be seeing a lot about the existing Apple TV box in connection with Apple’s connected home initiative.

In fact, the little Apple TV box is likely to emerge as the central hub for Apple’s version of the connected home, HomeKit. We may soon be talking to the Apple TV box not only about TV and movies, but about orchestrating all the HomeKit-connected devices in the home.

There may be a new Apple remote with a touchscreen, but it would still be way easier using Siri to talk to the TV — that is, if Siri gets a little smarter.

Right now, Siri isn’t that smart. She can be great for things like setting an alarm on a phone or getting local weather, but she isn’t so smart when it comes to understanding the context in which the user is asking a question or giving a command.

Google arguably jumped ahead in the personal assistant race when it announced its Now on Tap feature, which reads things like your current location or the page you’re currently browsing to understand the context in which you’re asking a question. It might also use the information to proactively make suggestions.

This is the kind of thing Siri will need to learn to do. A viewer might be watching a scene in a movie and simply ask “Who’s that actor?”; Siri should be able to detect what movie is on and which actor is currently on the screen.

Siri will be even more important when searching for content. She will have to have a much better understanding of natural language queries given by voice command. If she doesn’t, navigating through video content may remain a big chore.

The HomeKit stuff seems a little more straightforward. Siri should be able to understand commands like “turn hall lights off” or “monitor security cam two.” But we have yet to see how complicated the interface of TV hub for HomeKit will be.

We’ll find out on Monday.