How To

Apple’s virtual assistant Siri has evolved from an extremely limited voice-activated software agent to a much more sophisticated tool, that is capable of triggering tasks, interacting with apps, and, with Apple’s Shortcuts app, launching complex automations. And in the near future, with Apple Intelligence, Siri will get super-powers.

But it has always been difficult to find out exactly what Siri was capable of. In the early days, Siri was quite inflexible, and commands only worked if they were worded in specific ways, but that has improved over time, as Apple has collected huge amounts of data about how people talk to Siri.

Yet you still probably have no idea how many things Siri can do for you. Here are 38 things that you can ask Siri that you might not have thought of.

In this article:

• A brief history of Siri
• Harry Potter spells
• Randomness generators
• Adjust settings, and turn features on or off
• Location-based tasks
• Math and conversions
• Tasks for lost or stolen devices
• Control smart home devices
• Everyday tasks
• How can I learn more?

A brief history of Siri

Siri was launched on the iPhone 4S, in October 2011, and progressively added to other Apple devices, from the iPad to the Mac, as well as the Apple Watch, the HomePod, AirPods, and the Apple TV (via the Siri remote); Siri also works in CarPlay if you have an iPhone connected to a car with the feature.

There are several ways to invoke Siri. On most Apple devices, you can say “Hey, Siri,” and Siri will activate. In the Siri settings on your device, if you’re running iOS 17, you can choose to just say “Siri,” without the hey.

You can turn off the wake words in the device’s Settings or System Preferences, and invoke Siri by pressing the home button, power button, digital crown, or through other methods, such as raise to speak on the iPhone. And you can choose the voice that Siri responds with – in English, these include American, British, Australian, Indian, Irish, and South African voices, in both male and female versions.

There are a number of basic actions that Siri can perform, including:

• Initiating phone calls and sending text messages
• Setting timers
• Adding reminders
• Scheduling calendar events
• Performing web searches
• Performing calculations

Siri’s voice recognition is also used for the dictation engine on Apple devices, which you can use when writing emails, text messages, or longer texts.

Harry Potter spells

Yes, Siri can respond to several Harry Potter spells. Try these:

• 1. Say “Lumos,” to turn on the flashlight on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch. Say “Nox” to turn it off.
• 2. Launch any app with the “Accio” spell. Say “Accio Safari,” to launch Safari on your device. (It’s pronounced like ax-ee-oh or ack-ee-oh.)

Randomness generators

There are many situations where you might want to introduce randomness to your life. Here are some ways to use Siri to help you.

• 3. Ask Siri to “flip a coin,” and you’ll get either heads or tails.
• 4. If you need a random number for a game, or if you want to compose music like John Cage, tell Siri, “Give me a random number.” Siri will give you a random number between one and one hundred. If you want to be more specific, such as for a prize drawing at the office Christmas party, where you want to choose among the number of people present, say, “give me a random number between 1 and n,” where n is the highest number you want.
• 5. Do you need to roll dice for a game? Or to play iPhone craps? Just tell Siri to “roll dice.”

Adjust settings, and turn features on or off

Siri can control settings and features on your devices.

• 6. Open settings: It can be annoying to find specific settings in Settings apps on Apple devices. It’s much quicker to just say, “Open Bluetooth settings,” “Open Battery Settings,” or “Open Time Machine Settings.” Siri will open the settings on any device.
• 7. Enable and disable features on your device: You can tell Siri to “Turn off Bluetooth,” “Put my phone in airplane mode,” “Turn on do not disturb,” and “Turn on the flashlight,” and much more. Siri can control pretty much everything you can enable or disable on an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch. Though there are some settings that Siri can’t turn on; if you try to say “turn on AirDrop,” Siri won’t be able to do that.
• 8. You can use Siri to adjust the volume or brightness of your device. Say “increase brightness,” or “lower volume.”
• 9. If the battery on your device is getting low, ask Siri to “turn on low-power mode” to save some juice.

Location-based tasks

Siri can perform many tasks according to your location, as long as you have Location Services enabled on your device. You can check this setting by asking Siri to “open Location Services settings,” or “enable location services. If you ask Siri to “disable Location Services,” you’ll get a dialogue asking if you’re sure you want to do that. Here are some of the things Siri can do based on your location.

• 10. Have Siri remind you to do something when you get to work, or when you get home. You’ll need to enter your home and work locations in the Contacts app, and you can then say, “remind me to water the lawn when I get home,” or “remind me to call my European sales contact when I get to work.”
• 11. Have Siri give you directions. If your iPhone is connected to a car with CarPlay, these will display in your car. Say, “give me directions home,” and, as long as you’ve set up your home address and set your My Card in contacts, and set up that contact card in the Siri settings (Settings > Siri & Search > My Information), Siri will be able to give you directions home. You can also get directions to any location as you would by searching in the Maps app by asking Siri.
• 12. Find where you parked your car: If your car has CarPlay, and your iPhone is connected, it will remember where you parked your car, and if you ask Siri, your device will show you on a map. You’ll need to enable some settings for this to work. Go to Settings > Maps, scroll down to the Your Car section, and enable Show Parked Location. You’ll also have to make sure Location Services is enabled, in Settings > Location Services, and Significant Locations need to be turned on in Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services. If you don’t have CarPlay, you can tell Siri, “remember where I parked my car” once you’ve parked, and Siri will record its location.

Math and conversions

If you’re not a math whiz, you’ll find Siri to be an invaluable tool for working with numbers. Here are some of the things Siri can calculate:

• 13. Siri can convert just about anything, from temperatures to currencies, from volumes to measurements. This is especially practical if you’re cooking from a recipe using measurements you’re not used to, or need to convert currencies with live exchange rates. Say, for example, “$799 in Euros” to see the current value of that amount.
• 14. If you’re cooking from a recipe using a temperature scale you’re not familiar with, ask Siri “400 degrees Fahrenheit in centigrade.”
• 15. Convert weight and volumes. Say, “how many cups is 500 grams?” Or, “how many milliliters is one half pint?” Siri lets you use recipes from around the world.
• 16. Use Siri as a timer. Say, “3 minutes” or “2 hours;” you don’t even have to tell Siri to set a timer, it understands. Since iOS 17, you can set multiple timers. However, timers don’t sync across devices, so if you set a time or your iPhone, it won’t alert you on your Apple Watch.
• 17. Calculations: From calculating tips to performing more complex calculations, Siri leverages the Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine when needed. Say, “how much is 15% of $40,” when you want to calculate a tip, or ask Siri to perform more complex math.

Tasks for lost or stolen devices

Siri, together with Apple’s Find My network and app, is a great tool for finding your stuff.

• 18. If you want to find your friends, devices, or items that you’ve added to the Find My app, Siri can help you. If you can’t find your keys with an AirTag, just say “Siri, where are my keys?” Assuming that you’ve named the AirTag with “keys,” Siri will instruct the Find My app to make that AirTag start beeping. You can do the same with any other Apple device, such as an iPhone, iPad, or AirPods, and you can also ask Siri where one of your friends is currently.
• 19. If you’re walking in a city and someone grabs your iPhone, you can try yelling “Siri, lock my iPhone” as loud as possible. If you do this quickly enough, Siri may be able to lock the phone.

Control smart home devices

Siri is great for controlling smart home devices that you’ve added to the Home app. You can turn devices on or off, set scenes, and more.

• 20. You can tell Siri to “Turn on the office lights,” “Set the thermostat to 68 degrees,” and much more. Siri can control any devices that are in the Home app, and activate any scenes that you’ve set up.
• 21. If you have a HomePod or HomePod mini, you can ask Siri, “what’s the temperature in the living room?” Siri can also get this information from other HomeKit devices, such as weather stations.
• 22. Some car chargers work with HomeKit, and you can tell them, if your car is plugged in, to start or stop charging.

Everyday tasks

Siri can do all sorts of task that simplify your everyday activities. Here are some.

• 23. Set reminders: Tell Siri, “Remind me to check the oven in 2 hours,” or “Remind me to mow the lawn Saturday” to get a reminder on the day or at the time you request.
• 24. Set alarms: Tell Siri, “wake me up at 7am tomorrow,” or “wake me up in one hour.”
• 25. Add items to a shopping list: If you say, “Add milk to my shopping list,” Siri will add the item to your shopping list in the Reminders app, and create one if there is not already one in the app. And since iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma, the Shopping List can sort your groceries by category. In the Reminders app, tap … then Show List Info. Choose Groceries from the List Type menu.
• 26. Find movies: Ask Siri “What movies are playing near me,” to find movies, along with cinemas and showtimes.
• 27. Check your schedule: Ask “What events do I have today?” to see your calendar events for the day. You can also ask for tomorrow, next week, or a specific date.
• 28. Get the time or weather anywhere: If you’re about to make a call to Tokyo, and want to check the time, just ask Siri. If you’re about to leave on a trip to Paris, just ask “What’s the weather in Paris?”
• 29. Call, email, or text someone by their nickname: If you want to be able to make contact with people using a nickname, go to the Contacts app, find the contact you want, click or tap Edit, then, on Mac, click +, then choose More Fields > Nickname, fill in that field, and save your changes. On iOS or iPadOS, after you tap Edit, scroll down to where you see add field, tap that, then tap Nickname, and enter the name. If, for example, you enter “Boss” for your boss, you can contact them by telling Siri “Call Boss.”
• 30. Call, email, or text someone by their relationship to you: In Contacts, you can add a relationship field to any contact. Edit a contact card, and tap or click + in the add related name section. A menu gives you many options, from mother and father to spouse, son, or daughter; there’s a sub-menu of other relationships, such as cousin-in law; and you can even add a custom field. So you can tell Siri to “call my spouse,” or “text my son.” You might find this works better than some names than Siri doesn’t recognize easily.
• 31. Have your text messages read to you: Tell Siri to “Read my last text,” and your device will tell you who your message was from, and read it to you. This is especially practical when you’re driving.
• 32. View photos of anything: Tell Siri, “Show me photos of a 1965 Ford Mustang,” and you’ll see web images of your request. You can tap the results to see more.

• 33. Ha ha: If you say “Tell me a joke,” Siri will reply with what could be called “dad jokes,” though some are actually funny.
• 34. Translate: You can ask Siri to translate words or phrases from English to a number of languages, and this technology is included in the Translate app on iOS and iPadOS.
• 35. Shazam: With Apple’s acquisition of Shazam, you can ask Siri “What song is this?” when you’re listening to music, even when there’s music you want to know about in a movie or TV show. It’s pretty accurate, but less so with live recordings or classical music.

• 36. Activate shortcuts: Siri can launch any shortcuts you have created in the Shortcuts app on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad. Shortcuts can be very complex automation routines, that involve multiple apps. See this article for more on using Shortcuts.
• 37. Play your personal Apple Music radio station: If you tell Siri to “Play some music,” your device will start playing your personal radio station, if you are an Apple Music subscriber. This is based on music in your library, your play history, and music you have loved.
• 38. Use Siri without your voice: If you go to Settings > Accessibility, scroll down to Siri, then toggle Type to Siri, then, when you invoke Siri by pressing the home button or power button on your device, you’ll see a text field, and you can type so others don’t hear your request. You can always start dictating by tapping the microphone icon below the keyboard.

To discover more things that Siri can do, just ask it, “What can I ask you?” Siri will reply with some suggestions. Apple’s Siri website shows several other Siri requests you can make.

The new Siri, with Apple Intelligence, is coming sometime after the initial release of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia 15 (perhaps in the “.1” updates). It will know more about you, your activities, and your personal context to offer more powerful assistance. But for now, Siri can already do a lot. Try it out and see how it can help you simplify your life.

How can I learn more?

Each week on the Intego Mac Podcast, Intego’s Mac security experts discuss the latest Apple news, security and privacy stories, and offer practical advice on getting the most out of your Apple devices. Be sure to follow the podcast to make sure you don’t miss any episodes.

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About Kirk McElhearn