Siri is a virtual assistant available on virtually every Apple device, including iPhone, iPad, iWatch, iPod Touch, Mac, Apple TV and HomePod.
I was a little late to the Siri game, but I have since made up for it. “Hey Siri” is a tool I now use nearly every day to simplify my life. If you haven’t used Siri much, below are some ideas which demonstrate the versatility of this feature.
First off, make sure “Hey Siri” is enabled on your settings, then synch your device with your voice by pressing the home button to open the Siri feature and saying “Hey Siri” so your phone can identify your voice. Once enabled and synched, you can simply say “Hey Siri” (from across the room, even when your iPhone is locked) and it will turn on, hands-free! From there, your virtual assistant will scour the internet for any information you need, call or text any of your contacts, or execute countless other tasks:
- “What will the weather be like tomorrow in San Diego?”
- “Set an alarm for 5:00 am tomorrow”
- “Set a timer for 15 minutes”
- “Flip a coin”
- “How many ounces are in a gallon?”
- “Text Mom, ‘How are you today?’”
- “What’s the score of the Pirates game?”
- “Where is the nearest gas station?”
The following are some examples of how I’ve used Siri in just the past two weeks. While I was cooking, I used up the last of the kosher salt seasoning my steaks, so I simply called out, “Hey Siri, add course kosher salt to my grocery list.” My hands may have been covered in marinade, but that didn’t stop me from making sure we all enjoyed buttered, and salted, corn on the cob at the cookout a few days later.
My kids were arguing over who should get the last cookie, “Hey Siri! Flip a coin.”
Or when my kids were playing outside at the neighbor’s house, but we hadn’t had dinner yet, and they really needed baths, “Hey Siri, set a timer for 5 minutes.” And, to my kids, “Thor, Cyborg, we have to head home in 5 minutes, the countdown has begun”.
We were having dinner with my dad, and during the conversation the conversion rate for US Dollars to Yen came up, “Hey Siri, convert Dollars to Yen”.
Siri is a virtual assistant who follows voice commands to operate the features of your Apple device and searches for whatever information you need. I haven’t even scratched the surface of the potential applications you can come up with, but I hope this brief overview provides some scope of the creative ways you can use “Hey Siri” to simplify your life.
