“Siri, Call me an ambulance”. “Yes Sir, from today I will call you ambulance”. We have all heard Siri jokes and the funny things Siri does when you ask something cheesy. For many iOS10 and macOS Sierra users, Siri is their virtual personal assistant – making their everyday life so much easier and convenient. Although Siri has not seen considerable changes over the years, it’s now poised for the next level of AI. Siri is finally open to third-party developers, allowing them to integrate their apps. This integration will make the Siri even more useful and user-friendly. The third party apps are likely to make Siri more responsive, intelligent and less annoying (Yes, we all know Siri can be very annoying at times).
One of the most important features of macOS Sierra is the presence of Siri. Apple finally brought the much-awaited feature on macOS Sierra. And it looks like the Siri – macOS Sierra has been received very well by Apple fans. We are aware that you have a fair understanding of how to use Siri. But Siri can do so much more for you. And this post will cover all about the cool stuff you can ask Siri to do for you. Why wait? Let’s get started!
1. Use Siri for your Music Needs
Siri for music? Seriously? Yes. We aren’t kidding. You can actually use Siri to assist you in recognizing songs. At times you happen to come across a really catchy tune or a song and try as hard as you may, you simply cannot recognize the song. This is when Siri comes to the rescue. Siri can hook into Shazam (the app conventionally used to recognize songs) and instantly recognize songs using Shazam’s database. Why go through the hassle of installing Shazam while Siri can do the job for you?
To get Siri to recognize the song, all you have to say is – “What song is this?” and Siri will instantly start listening to the music and after processing the Shazam database, give you the result. Pretty cool, isn’t it?
2. Use Siri As Your Personal Assistant for Reminders
Reading something really important but have to head out for urgent business work? Well, chances are that you will forget to continue reading the content after you return. To make sure you don’t miss out on important content, you can always use Siri as your Personal Assistant who reminds you of important things to do or stuff that you left incomplete. For example, to continue reading after you return and have Siri remind this for you, just launch Siri and say “Remind me about this later“. Siri will promptly follow your orders and set a reminder. If you want Siri to remind you at a specific time, you can fine tune your request and say “Remind me about this at 8 PM today” and Siri will promptly remind you at 8 PM sharp. At 8 PM, just tap on the reminder to continue reading!
3. Use Siri To Place Calls Instantly
Gone are the days when people used to remember phone numbers to place calls for their near and dear ones. These days, people hardly remember their own number! Even with smartphones making the fundamental task of calling people so very easy, we often feel very lazy to search through our contact list and make the appropriate call. Siri is here to help you out. Siri can easily call any contact on your phone. Not just that, you can get Siri to enable speaker phone during calls. This feature is all the more handy when you are driving. All you need to say is – “Call John on Speaker” and Siri instantly dials John and puts the call on Speaker mode so you don’t have to go through the hassle of making your hands free and turning on speaker mode. That’s Siri at its best!
4. Use Siri To Call Uber
Wish to reach home soon and want to book an Uber cab? Siri helps you out with this as well. Uber already supports Siri in its iOS app. Just make sure you have the latest updated version of Uber app. Before you ask Siri to call an Uber for you, you have to follow these steps –
- Head to Settings -> Siri
- Under App Support, turn on the toggle beside “Uber”
You are now all set to ask Siri to call Uber to your place. To do this, launch Siri and say “Call an Uber“. Siri will respond by asking you the type of Uber you wish to call. Continue the conversation by telling Siri which cab you wish to hire. Siri will then inform you about the estimated amount of time it will take for the Uber to reach your place. Siri will also provide you the approximate fare details. If you are fine with the time of arrival and the fare details, you can confirm by responding “Yes“. If on the other hand you changed your mind and do not want to call Uber, you can always say Siri “No“. And yes, telling Siri “No” won’t make it sad.
5. Use Siri To Send Whatsapp Messages
People have been using Siri to send messages over default messaging apps like iMessage. But now you can command Siri to send messages over Whatsapp. These days, Whatsapp has become the go-to app for all our messaging needs, including sharing media and other files. To get Siri to send messages on Whatsapp, you will first need to follow these steps –
- Head to Settings -> Siri -> App Support
- Turn on the toggle beside “WhatsApp”
Now Siri is all set to send messages on Whatsapp. All you need to do now is to launch Siri and say “Send a message to John with Whatsapp“. Siri will instantly bring up Whatsapp contact details of John and ask you for the message. Simple speak out the message and Siri will do the typing for you. After you have finished compiling the message, Siri will ask you to confirm if you wish to send the message. When you say “Yes” the message will be sent. The message will be discarded if you choose to say “No“.
6. Use Siri to search for Tweets
Using a twitter account on your iPhone? Whenever you wish to search for a particular tweet, Siri can save you the trouble of logging into twitter and searching for the tweet all by yourself. Just say “Search for tweets from Tom Cruise“. Siri will instantly bring up the list of latest tweets from Tom Cruise’s twitter handle. The results will be displayed in Siri window. You can choose to read the full tweet inside this window. Siri also provides an option to view the tweet on Twitter.
7. Use Siri To Schedule Events
Residing in China but madly in love with one of the TV shows being aired in the United States? Things can get really confusing when you watch a lot of TV shows, especially when these shows are aired across the world in different timezones. Siri can help you schedule an event for the specific time zone where the TV show is aired. For example, if your favorite US Television show starts at 10 AM in the United States, you can launch Siri and say “Schedule an event at 10 AM PDT” and Siri will automatically schedule the event according to your local time. This way, you will no longer be confused about different TV shows in different time zones.
8. Use Siri to Change Settings
Sometimes it can get really annoying to head to settings and toggle a particular setting ON or OFF. Siri can help make your life simpler by toggling the settings, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Launch Siri and say “Toggle Bluetooth” and Siri will toggle it for you. If you are sure that Bluetooth is ON and want Siri to turn it off, you can be more specific and say “Turn Bluetooth Off“. Similarly, you can toggle Wi-Fi settings as well. If you wish to know if your Wi-Fi is really ON, you can pose a question to Siri – “Is the WiFi ON?”. Siri will promptly answer. Siri can also help you with brightness adjustments. If you wish to increase the brightness of your display to the maximum value, just say “Increase brightness to the highest value” and Siri will do it for you.
9. Use Siri To Have Some Fun!
Boring Saturday afternoon and finding it difficult to spend time? You turn to your smartphone and catch up on e-mails, listen to music, play games and then you are bored again. Why not have some fun with Siri to lighten up your mood? If you think Siri AI is very serious, it’s not! Try asking “When is the world going to end” and wait for the witty response. Or just say “Sing me a song“. It’s nice to have fun with the myriad responses Siri gives, every time you ask a question!
10. Running Low on Gas? Use Siri To Find The Nearest Gas Station
We’ve all been in situations where, try as hard as we might, we always end up short of gas for that those few extra miles we need to cover. Never mind. Siri can help you out. Just launch Siri and say “Find me a gas station nearby” and Siri will do it for you. Not just gas, if you are wondering where to find a plumber for repairs, Siri can help you find one. Basically, you can use Siri to find out about services that are located nearby. The next time you run out of gas, you know what to do!
That’s it folks! Know about any other cool Siri trick for iOS 10? Feel free to post about them in the comments!