Panned by many as a gimmick that doesn't live up to the hype, Apple's Siri voice assistant is actually useful for more than just humour, a new survey suggests.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Parks Associates survey found that of people who own an iPhone 4S – the only device which can run Siri – 87% use the feature at least once a month.

482 iPhone 4S owners were questioned for the survey. The most common tasks reported were making phone calls and sending text messages, while more specialised functions like playing music and scheduling meetings received little usage.

30% of users said they had never used Siri to send an email, while 26% said they used it to send email daily or almost daily.

In terms of overall satisfaction, 55% were satisfied with Siri, 9% were unsatisfied, and the remainder weren't sure.

Earlier this month a New York man filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming the company's advertising for Siri was misleading.

Are you still using Siri, or was it just too hard to make her understand the kiwi accent?