The Power of Siri

Vista Digital Dynamos Zoom session

Brian Negus, updated 7 February 2022 for iOS and iPadOS 15.3

What is Siri?

It’s Apple’s digital assistant, similar to Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant and Microsoft’s Cortana.

It’s not as feature rich as Alexa but it offers a lot of ways to control and operate iPhones and iPads as well as being able to tell you a joke or whether Boris Johnson is still Prime Minister.

On recent iPhones and iPads, many Siri commands, including those to make phone calls or send messages, can operate when there is no data connection, e.g. when you have a very poor mobile signal. On these devices, Siri commands aren’t sent to Apple for interpreting; they are interpreted on your device.

Siri settings

Options in Settings / Siri & Search

Listen for “Hey Siri” - I suggest one device only!

Press Home (or side button) for Siri

Allow Siri when locked

Siri responses - I suggest you set spoken responses to “always” (for spoken responses)

My information - choose your personal contact (create one if necessary)

Summoning Siri with VoiceOver on

Three choices

1. Say “Hey Siri” followed by your instruction. (There will be double ping, but you don’t need to wait for it). Don’t pause for too long in the middle of your instruction - Siri will think you have finished

2. Press the Home (or side) button and wait for the double ping. Release the button and speak your instructions.

3. Press the Home (or side) button and wait for the double ping and continue holding the button until you have finished your instructions to Siri and then release the button. This allows hesitation. Siri keeps listening until you release the button.

Whenever Siri asks a question, wait for the double ping and then speak your reply.

End a Siri session by saying goodbye to Siri or by going home by clicking the Home button or performing the home gesture. We’ll learn why Siri stays around a little later.

Summoning Siri with VoiceOver off

Three choices

1. Say “Hey Siri” followed by your instruction. (There will probably be double ping, but you don’t need to wait for it). Don’t pause for too long in the middle of your instruction - Siri will think you have finished

2. Press the Home (or side) button and check that the swirly Siri icon appears. Release the button and speak your instructions.

3. Press the Home (or side) button, check for the swirly Siri icon and continue holding the button until you have finished your instructions to Siri and then release the button. This allows hesitation. Siri keeps listening until you release the button.

Whenever Siri asks a question, wait for the question to finish and then speak your reply. (You may notice the swirly item expands slightly when Siri is listening)

End a Siri session by saying goodbye to Siri or by going home by clicking the Home button or performing the home gesture. We’ll learn why Siri stays around a little later.

Why does Siri remain on screen after it has responded?

When Siri responds to a request, the response, as well as being spoken, is shown as text on the screen. (VoiceOver users get more spoken responses than non-VoiceOver users)

This gives sighted users another chance to review the response and VoiceOver users can touch the text to hear it spoken by VoiceOver.

Sometimes it’s possible to interact with the text. For example, if you’ve asked Siri for your missed phone calls, sighted users can tap an item to return the call and VoiceOver users can swipe through the list of missed calls and double tap on one to return the call.

Phone calls

Call Ian Watts

Call 07000123456

Call Tesco (will find the nearest one and check with you)

Call Ian Watts using WhatApp

Facetime Jim (if there is more than one Jim in your contacts, you will be asked to choose)

Facetime audio Jim

Checking phone calls

Check missed calls

Check my calls

Check VoiceMail

This works only if your mobile service provider offers visual voicemail and, if necessary, you have set it up: it lets you check your list of VoiceMail messages and decide which to listen to. I have BT mobile, which doesn’t provide this service.

Messaging

The command can be either “text” or “message”

Message Brian Negus good morning

Message Brian Negus (and you will be asked for the message)

Message Jim using WhatsApp

Read my messages will speak unread messages (and you will be invited to reply) (“unread means you haven’t looked at them in the messages app)

Read my messages from Fred will include messages you have already read

More generally, check my notifications

Email

Siri is great for sending brief emails

Mail Ian Watts - and you will be prompted for a subject and message.

Read my mail

Read my email from Norman

There seem to be issues getting Siri to read a complete email at present; you only get to hear the subject.

Basic iPhone stuff

Change media volume “volume 80 per cent” or “volume up” and “volume down”. (Media volume is music, etc. and VoiceOver)

Change Siri’s volume “set your volume to 80%”, “speak louder”, “speak softer”

“Screen brighter” or “screen darker”

Torch on or off

Battery - to hear the battery level

“Turn on do not disturb” or “turn off do not disturb” - but check your Focus settings to be sure it does what you want

Take a screen shot

Opening Apps

Open Mail or Launch Mail

Open Settings or

Open General settings (not entirely reliable)

Finding Apps

Find Seeing AI or

Find Seeing AI in the app store (to be sure)

(You probably know that the search results often start with a relevant advertisement followed by what you really want)

Find vegan recipe apps

There’s no guarantee that these will work with VoiceOver. You can always easily get a refund if apps don’t work for you. See www.blindios.uk

The usual digital assistant stuff

What’s the time?

What’s the weather tomorrow?

When will it rain tomorrow?

What’s the temperature outside?

Set a timer for 3 minutes

Set alarm every weekday at 8:15

General information

When is the next full moon?

When is sunrise?

When do the clocks change?

What day of the week was 17 February 1947?

What date is Easter next year?

General knowledge

How do you spell manoeuvre?

What is the population of Leicester?

When was Leicester Town Hall built?

Siri is still a little more prone than other digital assistants to answer with “I found this on the web. Check it out.” You will need to slide a finger on screen to find the web link and then double tap to open the web page that Siri found.

Some cool ways of using apps with Siri

Notes

Make a note (and you will be prompted for the note
If you want to make a long note consider using holding down the Home or side button to ensure that Siri keeps listening.

Read my note about cheesecake

Read my notes from yesterday

Some cool ways of using apps with Siri

Reminders

Remind me to ring James at 8pm on Saturday

Remind me at 4pm every other Tuesday starting next week to put out the garden waste

If that’s a bit long winded, split it like this:
Remind me at 4pm every other Tuesday starting next week;
You will will be prompted to say what you want to be reminded of.

Add eggs to my shopping list (you’ll need to create a shopping list in Reminders first)

Some cool ways of using apps with Siri

Calendar - possibly my favourite Siri thing

Calendar systems like to send invitations to events that mention other people.

Often you don’t want that to happen but it’s easy to avoid. Just use the formula

Schedule event called lunch with Diana

It’s the word “called” that does the trick: it stops Siri from checking for Diana in your contacts and sending her an invite to lunch.

Some cool ways of using apps with Siri

Calendar

Schedule event called lunch with Diana - and you will be prompted for date and time.

If you change your mind immediately after you place it in your calendar, you can say “cancel that” to Siri

If you need to cancel the event later, ask Siri to “cancel lunch with Diana”

You can give the time of an event as “from 10am to 2pm”, otherwise it’s 1 hour

Also try “schedule all day event called”

Some cool ways of using apps with Siri

Calendar

“What’s in my calendar today?”

“What’s in my calendar on Friday 10th June?”

“When am I going to the dentist?”

“When am I meeting Diana?”

“What am I doing next week?”

Full details on Siri calendar commands atCalendar Commands In Siri

Some cool ways of using apps with Siri

Music

Best if you are an Apple Music subscriber at £9 per month

Play album Blue by Joni Mitchell (sorry, I don’t know much modern popular music)

Play Lady Madonna

Play Beethoven’s fifth symphony

This works, but it’s hard to choose a particular orchestra or conductor

Shuffle my happy playlist

Some cool ways of using apps with Siri

Music

When you’re listening to a track you like on Apple Music, pause it and say “add that to my happy playlist” (or whatever playlist you like, of course.

If you hear something playing on your radio or TV, ask Siri “What’s that music” and, if it’s a commercial recording, it will be identified and spoken to you. This uses a service called Shazam which Apple recently bought.

If you find the item near the top of screen and double tap, you will be taken to the track you were listening to on Apple Music.

There is a “Shazam and save” Siri shortcut which listens to music, identifies it and then adds it to your music library. You could build a shortcut to add it to a playlist, too. Teaser for the forthcoming Siri Shortcuts session!

Some cool ways of using apps with Siri

Camera

Take a photo - now hold the phone in landscape and click a volume button to take the shot. You may have th volume up button set to burst - check Camera Settings.

Take a selfie

Open QR code scanner, not ideal since you have to position the code in a box. (Camera app can locate QR codes automatically, but not easy to activate for VoiceOver users).

Some cool ways of using apps with Siri

Any suggestions for apps or anything else?

Back to tech talk and tea notes