11. Working with Siri

Siri gives you the ability to talk to your iPhone to control it, get information, and to dictate text. Siri also works with lots of iPhone apps—this feature enables you to accomplish many tasks by speaking instead of using your fingers on the iPhone’s screen. For example, you can hear, create, and send text messages; reply to emails; make phone and FaceTime calls; create and manage events and reminders; and much more. Using dictation, you can speak text into any supported app instead of typing. And, Siri can make suggestions as you perform tasks, such as searches, based on what you have done before.

In fact, Siri does so many things, it’s impossible to list them all in a short chapter like this one; you should give Siri a try for the tasks you perform and to get the information you need, and, in many cases, Siri can handle what you want to do.

Think of Siri as your own personal, digital assistant to help you do what you want to do more quickly and easily (especially when you are working in handsfree mode).

You don’t have to train Siri very much to work with your voice either; you can speak to it normally and Siri does a great job understanding what you say. Also, you don’t have to use any specific kind of phrases when you have Siri do your bidding. Simply talk to Siri like you talk to people (well, you probably won’t be ordering other people around like you do Siri, but you get the idea).

Your iPhone has to be connected to the Internet for Siri and dictation to work. That’s because the words you speak are sent over the Internet, transcribed into text, and then sent back to your iPhone. If your iPhone isn’t connected to the Internet, this can’t happen, and if you try to use it, Siri reports that it can’t complete its tasks.

Because your iPhone is likely to be connected to the Internet most of the time (via Wi-Fi or a cellular network when you have cellular data enabled), this really isn’t much of a limitation—but it is one you need to be aware of.

Just start speaking to your iPhone and be prepared to be amazed by how well it listens! You’ll find many examples in this chapter to get you going with specific tasks; from there, you can explore to learn what else Siri can do for you.

If you decide you want to make changes to Siri’s settings, you can use the information in the table that follows to understand the options available to you.

To access Siri’s settings, tap Settings on the Home screen and then tap Siri & Search. For each of these settings, you see a description of what it does along with options (if applicable). (Siri must be enabled by setting the Siri switch to on [green] and then tapping Enable Siri before the rest of the settings become visible.)

Siri Settings

Setting	Description
Listen for “Hey Siri”	When this switch is on (green), you can activate Siri by saying, “Hey Siri” (along with the other options). The first time you turned your iPhone on, you were prompted to speak the five phrases Siri uses to recognize when you want its attention. When this switch is off (white), you can only activate Siri with the other options. When you enable it again, you might have to go through the recognition process again.
Press Home for Siri	This switch enables (green) or prevents (white) you from activating Siri by pressing and holding on the Touch ID/Home button. This setting doesn’t apply to the iPhone X since it doesn’t have a Touch ID/Home button.
Allow Siri When Locked	When this switch is on (green), you can activate and use Siri without unlocking your iPhone. This can be convenient, but it also makes your phone vulnerable to misuse because someone else may be able to activate Siri (for example, to send a text message) without using a passcode or providing a recognized thumbprint. For some tasks, Siri requires the phone to be unlocked to complete them, but some can be done while the phone is still locked.
Language	Set the language you want Siri to use to speak to you.
Siri Voice	Choose the accent and gender of the voice that Siri uses to speak to you (the options you see depend on the language you have selected).
Voice Feedback	Choose when Siri provides verbal feedback as it works for you. When Always On is selected, Siri provides verbal feedback at all times. If you want to control Siri’s voice feedback with the ring (Mute) switch, choose Control with Ring Switch. If you want voice feedback only when you are operating in handsfree mode, such as when you are using the iPhone’s EarPods or a Bluetooth headset, tap Hands-free Only. Regardless of this setting, you always see Siri’s feedback on the screen.
My Information	Choose your contact information in the Contacts app, which Siri uses to address you by name, take you to your home address, etc.
Suggestions in Search	When enabled (green), this switch allows Siri to make suggestions to you when you search. If you prefer not to have Siri make suggestions, set the switch to off (white).
Suggestions in Look Up	When enabled (green), this switch allows Siri to make suggestions when you use iOS’s Look Up feature, that looks up information about a word or phrase you have selected on the screen. If you set this switch to off (white), Siri won’t make suggestions when you use Look Up.
Apps	Toward the bottom of the Siri & Search screen, you see the list of apps installed on your iPhone. For each app, you can enable or disable Siri & Search Suggestions. When you enable this switch for an app, Siri can work within that app to make suggestions or learn from how you use the app. When you disable this switch, Siri is not able to work within the app for suggestions and search.

There are a couple of other settings that affect how you can speak to your iPhone:

• Enable Dictation—To access this setting, open the Settings app, tap General, and then tap Keyboard (you have to swipe up the screen to see it). At the bottom of the screen, you see the Enable Dictation switch. When this switch is on (green), you can tap the Microphone key on the keyboard to dictate text. When this switch is off (white), the Microphone key is hidden and you can’t dictate text.

• Cellular Data—When enabled, this setting, located on the Cellular setting screen, allows your iPhone to access its cellular data network to connect to the Internet. This must be turned on for Siri to work when you aren’t connected to the Internet via a Wi-Fi network.

If Siri is already active, tap the Listen icon at the bottom of the screen. Otherwise, activate Siri using one of the following methods:

• On all models except the iPhone X, pressing and holding the Touch ID/Home button until the Siri screen appears, you hear the Siri tone, and you feel the phone vibrate.

• On the iPhone X, pressing and holding the Side button for a couple of seconds until the Siri screen appears, you hear the Siri tone, and you feel the phone vibrate.

• Pressing and holding the center part of the buttons on the EarPods until the Siri screen appears and you hear the Siri tone.

• Saying “Hey Siri” (if you’ve enabled this setting).

This puts Siri in “listening” mode and the “What can I help you with?” text appears along with a line at the bottom of the screen that shows when Siri is hearing you. This screen indicates Siri is ready for your command; if you used the “Hey Siri” option to activate it, you don’t see this text because Siri goes directly into listening mode. If you don’t speak within a second or two, Siri starts prompting you for a request and presents examples of what you can do.

Speak your command or ask a question. As you speak, the line at the bottom of the screen oscillates to show you that Siri is hearing your input, and Siri displays what it is hearing you say at the top of the screen. When you stop speaking, Siri goes into processing mode.

After Siri interprets what you’ve said, it provides two kinds of feedback to confirm what it heard: It displays what it heard on the screen and provides audible feedback to you (unless it’s disabled through the settings you learned about earlier). Siri then tries to do what it thinks you’ve asked and shows you the outcome.

If it needs more input from you, you’re prompted to provide it, and Siri moves into “listening” mode automatically. If Siri asks you to confirm what it is doing or to make a selection, do so. Siri completes the action and displays what it has done; it also audibly confirms the result (again unless audible feedback is disabled as described earlier). If you want Siri to do more for you, tap the Listen icon at the bottom of the screen and speak your command. If you want to work with the object Siri created for you in its associated app, tap the object Siri presents.

In some cases, you can edit the information you spoke to Siri to change it. For example, suppose you are sending a text message to Sir William Wallace but Siri didn’t get the name quite right; you can tap Tap to Edit on the Siri screen and then change the name; this can sometimes be easier and faster than redoing the task from the beginning. You can also change the content of actions, such as what you are texting via Siri; if it isn’t what you intended, you can tap the message to edit it before you send it.

Also, how Siri interacts with you can depend on how it was activated. For example, if you started the interaction using the verbal “Hey Siri” option, Siri assumes you want to interact verbally and might respond with other options than you would see or hear when you activate Siri manually. When you ask Siri to show you your appointments for the day in this mode, you see the summary, but then Siri asks if you want to hear the details; if you say yes, Siri reads each event to you. When you activate Siri by using the Touch ID/Home button with the same request, Siri stops after showing you the summary.

When you’re done with Siri, press the Touch ID/Home button (all models except the iPhone X) to move back to the Home screen or to the app you were using. When you’ve finished with Siri on an iPhone X, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to move back to your previous location.

Siri uses this pattern for all the tasks it does, but often Siri needs to get more information from you, such as when there are multiple contacts that match the command you’ve given. Siri prompts you for what it needs to complete the work. Generally, the more specific you make your initial command, the fewer steps you have to work through to complete it. For example, if you say “Meet Will at the park,” Siri might require several prompts to get you to tell it who Will is and what time you want to meet him at the park. If you say “Meet William Wallace at the park on 10/17 at 10 a.m.,” Siri can likely complete the task in one step.

The best way to learn how and when Siri can help you is to try it—a lot. You find a number of examples in the rest of this chapter to get started.

Following are some other Siri tidbits:

• If Siri doesn’t automatically quit “listening” mode after you’ve finished speaking, tap the oscillating line. This stops “listening” mode and Siri starts processing your request. You need to do this more often when you are in a noisy environment because Siri might not be able to accurately discern the sound of you speaking versus the ambient background noise.

• If you are having trouble with Siri understanding commands, speak a bit more slowly and make sure you firmly enunciate and end your words. If you tend to have a very short pause between words, Siri might run them all together, making them into something that doesn’t make sense or that you didn’t intend.

• However, you can’t pause too long between words or sentences because Siri interprets pauses of a certain length to mean that you are done speaking, and it goes into processing mode. Practicing with Siri helps you develop a good balance between speed and clarity.

• If Siri doesn’t understand what you want, or if you ask it a general question, it often performs a web search for you. Siri takes what it thinks you are looking for and does a search. You then see the results page for the search Siri performed, and you might have to manually open and read the results by tapping the listing you want to see. It opens in the Safari app. In some cases, Siri reads the results to you.

• When Siri presents information to you on the screen, you can often tap that information to move into the app with which it is associated. For example, when you tap an event that Siri has created, you move into the Calendar app, where you can add more detail using that app’s tools, such as inviting people to an event, changing the calendar it’s associated with, and so on.

• When Siri needs direction from you, it presents your options on the screen, including Yes, Cancel, Confirm, or lists of names. You can speak these items or tap them to select them.

• Siri is very useful for some tasks, such as creating reminders, responding to text messages, getting directions, and so on, but not so useful for others, such as inputting search criteria, because it can take longer to use Siri than to type your input.

• Siri is not so good at editing text you speak. You have to manually edit what Siri hears you say by tapping Tap to Edit and then using the keyboard to change what Siri heard or by selecting an option that Siri recommends. When you’ve finished making changes, tap Done. If you changed a command, Siri replaces the prior command with the edited version. If you changed content, Siri updates the content. After you’ve made changes, you can continue with the task.

• Siri might ask you to help it pronounce some terms, such as names. When this happens, Siri asks you to teach it to pronounce the phrase. If you agree, Siri presents a list of possible pronunciations, which you can preview. Tap the Select icon for the option you want Siri to use.

• To use Siri effectively, you should experiment with it by trying to say different commands or similar commands in different ways. For example, when sending email, you can include more information in your initial command to reduce the number of steps because Siri doesn’t have to ask you for more information. Saying “Send an email to Wyatt Earp home about flying” requires fewer steps than saying “Send email” because you’ve given Siri more of the information it needs to complete the task, and so it won’t have to prompt you for who you want to send it to, which address you want to use, or what the subject of the email is.

• When Siri can’t complete a task that it thinks it should be able to do, it usually responds with the “I can’t connect to the network right now,” or “Sorry, I don’t know what you mean.” This indicates that your iPhone isn’t connected to the Internet, the Siri server is not responding, or Siri just isn’t able to complete the command for some other reason. If your iPhone is connected to the Internet, try the command again or try rephrasing the command.

• When Siri can’t complete a task that it knows it can’t do, it responds by telling you so. Occasionally, you can get Siri to complete the task by rephrasing it, but typically you have to use an app directly to get it done.

• If you have a passcode set to protect your iPhone’s data (which you should), Siri might not be able to complete some tasks because the phone is locked. If that happens, Siri prompts you to unlock your phone, (which you can do by touching the Touch ID/Home button, using Face ID, or entering your passcode) and continue with what you were doing.

• Siri is really good at retrieving all sorts of information for you. This can include schedules, weather, directions, unit conversions, and so on. When you need something, try Siri first, as trying it is really the best way to learn how Siri can work for you.

• Siri sees all and knows all (well, not really, but it sometimes seems that way). If you want to be enlightened, try asking Siri questions, such as these:

What is the best phone?

Will you marry me?

What is the meaning of life?

Tell me a joke.

Some of the answers are pretty funny, and you don’t always get the same ones so Siri can keep amusing you. I’ve heard it even has responses if you curse at it, though I haven’t tried that particular option.

Because Siri works proactively in this mode, you don’t do anything to cause Siri to take action. It works in the background for you and presents information or options at the appropriate times.