Siri's launch (2011)
Apple introduced Siri on the iPhone 4S, putting a conversational voice assistant in consumers' pockets for the first time. Hype about a voice-first computing future ran high.
Millions used Siri for timers, calls, and weather checks, but complex tasks stayed rare.
Voice remained a secondary interface for over a decade, mostly limited to short commands, until LLM-based assistants revived it.
Siri's arc is the caution for Google's bet: voice features only stick when they solve real workflow problems, not when they offer novelty.
