Calendar commands in Siri

Quick start:

• Please note that Siri calendar commands may give fuller spoken feedback if VoiceOver is turned on but will generally give spoken responses with my recommended settings;

• these Siri commands all worked when tested on an iPhone 15 Pro running iOS 18. You may need to make some adjustments if you are using iOS 17 or earlier.;

• a good way to instruct Siri to place an item in your calendar is to use the prefix "schedule", for example "schedule lunch with Jackie" or "schedule book club".  Siri will then ask you to provide a date and time. You can use words like tomorrow, Saturday or give a full date like February 7th. Speak times using AM or PM or use a 24 hour clock. Saying 4PM or sixteen hundred would both work for 4 in the afternoon. Using noon or midnight can also avoid confusion between lunchtime and dead of night! If you don't follow the date with the time fairly promptly, Siri will assume you want a full day event. If that happens, just instruct Siri to "cancel that" and try again. If you prefer, you can speak everything in one instruction to Siri, for example "schedule lunch with Jackie on Thursday at noon". 

• sometimes Siri will spot the name of a contact in your event and may ask if you want to send that person an invitation. For now, just say "no". There's more detail about this below.

• If you want to set up an all day event, when Siri asks you for the date and time  give just a day as your response like "Sunday" or omit a time if you speak the instruction in one step, for example "schedule visitors on 14 December";

• To ask Siri what you have in your calendar for a specific day, ask "what's in my calendar on Monday" or what's in my calendar on 4th December";

• If you try to schedule an event that clashes with an event that is already in your calendar, then Siri will advise you of this and ask what you want to do;

• By default, events will be one hour long. If you want to be specific about the duration of an event, give a time like "from noon to 2PM";

• If a Siri session goes wrong you can always say "Cancel" before the event gets placed in your calendar. If Siri places an event incorrectly in your calendar instruct Siri to "cancel that" immediately afterwards or if you realise too late instruct Siri to cancel the event by name, for example "cancel lunch with Jackie".

• One final tip. If you want to enter a word that Siri gets wrong then you can spell it to Siri. The result will probably be in capitals but that doesn't matter for VoiceOver users and it's maybe acceptable for the rest of you.

That's the end of the brief quick start guide.  Why not try those commands first and then go on to read the rest of this page for more details.

The detail

I need to begin with a note about change.  Siri commands sometimes change without any announcement from Apple and Apple don't produce a comprehensive list of Siri commands so much of what is written below is learned by experiment. If you find alternative commands that work reliably for you then by all means use them instead.  If you have found commands that you think are simpler and more effective than mine then please let me know via blindiosuk@gmail.com. I have tried to recommend phrases that work both with Siri  and on Google and Alexa assistants since many people use these devices interchangeably to manage calendars.

The calendar can be managed very effectively with Siri but before we go in to the details I need to explain about calendar invitations. If you set up an event that includes the name of  someone who is in your contacts, your iPhone or iPad may spot that person in your contacts and offer to send a meeting invitation to them. Depending on how their calendar is set up, this may automatically appear as an item in their calendar and they will be able to decline or accept the invitation. This is fine if everyone involved knows how to handle calendar invitations, but could be confusing for people who don't work this way. Many people prefer to enter calendar events manually themselves and I usually avoid sending invitations. 

Although iOS 18 seems always to ask for confirmation before sending  an invitation, in iOS 17 or earlier, Siri's behaviour regarding invitations will be different and it may send invitations automatically without requesting confirmation. This can sometimes be avoided by using the phrase "schedule event called" or choosing a different name for the event like using "Jackie lunch" instead of "lunch with Jackie"..

Adding items to your calendar

If your event doesn't include the name of a contact then simpy say something like "schedule Vista Zoom meeting" and give the date and time when requested by Siri. Alternatively you could say something like "schedule Vista Zoom meeting on 4 October at 11am".

If your event includes the name of a contact here are some suggestions that currently work reliably.

"Schedule John Smith" will work fine and place an event called John Smith in your calendar.

"Schedule John Smith lunch" will also work as expected and place those words in your calendar.

However, if you say "schedule lunch with John Smith" Siri will spot that you are having lunch with a contact and may ask if you want to send an invitation to John. If you answer "no", an event called lunch with John Smith will be placed in your calendar. But if you answer "yes" an event called lunch will be placed in your calendar, John Smith will appear as an invitee and receive an invitation. If you subsequently ask Siri about this event, you will only be told that you have an event called lunch and there will be no mention of John Smith.  If you can see the screen, Siri's response on-screen may include John Smith as an invitee but Siri doesn't speak this. You can always check the detail in your favourite calendar app but, if you prefer to use Siri as your main tool for your calendar it is probably best always to avoid sending invitations. If you happen to schedule an event for which Siri asks about sending an invitation, just say "no".

You can be specific about the duration of a calendar event if you wish.

Instruct Siri with something like "schedule babysitting" and when asked for the date and time answer "Friday from 10am to 1pm".

You can create all day events, for example:

instruct Siri to "schedule visitors" and when prompted for the date and time, answer something like "14 April" without specifying a time.

If you attempt to schedule an event that conflicts with an existing event, Siri will let you know and ask if you still want to schedule the event.

Repeating events can be set up, for example, ask Siri to "schedule event pick up Holly from school" and when prompted for the date and time answer something like "3:15pm every Friday".

Siri may not always get calendar requests right. If an attempt to enter an event results in something unintended you can usually remove it by immediately instructing Siri to "cancel that event".

How to ask Siri about calendar events and make changes

If you want to know what's in your calendar for the day you can speak

"What am I doing today?" or "What's in my calendar for today?"

or you can ask what you are doing on any specific day by saying:

"What's in my calendar on 10th May?".

You can ask about specific items, for example:

"When am I meeting John?"

Calendar events can be changed, for example ask Siri to "move my 4pm appointment tomorrow to 2pm".

Events can be removed from your calendar using Siri.

Use something like "Cancel lunch with John" or ask Siri "When is lunch with John", listen to the reply and then give Siri the instruction  "cancel it". Siri will always give you full information about the event you are trying to delete before you confirm the cancellation, so there's no risk of accidentally deleting the wrong event.

A note on birthdays

The calendar can show birthdays and I haven't found a way of entering birthdays using Siri. If you want items to appear in your calendar, you need to provide a birth date in Contacts and the birthday will then automatically appear in your calendar.

And finally, Siri can do much more than handle your calendar. Take a look at the many other things Siri can do.

Back to navigation page