Siri 101
How To: Do This to Make Siri Use Deezer for Music & Podcasts Instead of Apple's Apps
With its emphasis on well-rounded audible entertainment, Deezer gives all music and podcast fans the best of both worlds. As great as the app is, it's inconvenient to constantly tell Siri to play your music and podcasts through Deezer so that it doesn't default to Apple Music or Apple Podcasts instead. But as of iOS 14.5, you can set Deezer as your iPhone's "default" music player for Siri.
How To: Get Siri to Remember Pandora as Your Preferred Music Player in iOS 14.5
If Pandora is your primary music app on your iPhone, you know it can be frustrating to use with Siri. The digital assistant always wants to use Apple Music instead, so you need to specify that you want to play through Pandora with almost every request. That's now a thing of the past because iOS 14.5 allows you to set Pandora as your Siri's preferred music player.
How To: Make YouTube Music Siri's Preferred Music Player in iOS 14.5 Intead of Apple Music
A new feature in iOS 14.5 lets you change your preferred music player for Siri requests. So if you primarily use YouTube Music over Apple Music and other services, Siri will learn so that you never have to tell the virtual assistant to play a song, artist, or album "on YouTube Music" again.
How To: Apple Saves Your Siri & Dictation History — Here's the Easy Way to Delete It
Apple has an excellent reputation for its privacy and security policies. That said, it isn't a perfect reputation. Take Siri, for example. The helpful iOS assistant isn't just communicating with you — Apple saves and listens to a history of your Siri interactions. If you don't want Apple storing your Siri history forever, there's something you can do about it.
How To: Miss When Siri Used to Display On-Screen Transcriptions of Everything Spoken? You Can Get That Back in iOS 14
With iOS 14, Siri no longer takes up the entire display unless you want it to. That may be a good thing, but the update also axed the live feedback when listening to you and responding. Siri used to transcribe your words in on-screen text before answering, and it would transcribe its own answers as well. While it looks like those are gone, you can bring them back to life at any time.
How To: Bring Back Full-Page Siri in iOS 14 So You're Not Distracted by Any Apps Underneath
Full-page interfaces are so iOS 13. With Apple's iOS 14, alerts such incoming phone and FaceTime calls now appear as small banners instead. The same goes for Siri. Instead of using your iPhone's full display, Siri now exists in an unobtrusive overlay. But if you miss the focus that full-screen Siri used to bring, you're in luck because the feature still exists — it's just hidden.
How To: 9 Ways iOS 14 Improves Siri on Your iPhone
According to Apple, Siri serves 25 billion requests per month — an enormous number for a feature that was only released nine years ago. But when you think about how much work Apple has put into Siri over the years, it makes sense that the virtual assistant is being used more and more by users with iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, AirPods, and HomePod.
How To: Use Siri to Send Audio Messages via iMessage or Texts in iOS 14
Siri has slimmed down in iOS 14. The assistant now appears as a compact icon at the bottom of the screen instead of hijacking your entire iPhone. It's a welcome change to a user interface that has always felt a bit clunky, but just because Siri's UI has simplified doesn't mean that its capabilities have too. On top of several new features, Siri now lets you record and send audio messages using only your voice.
How To: Stop Your iPhone from Making Irrelevant Suggestions
Siri Suggestions is one way Apple makes your iPhone work better for you. These recommendations offer helpful actions and shortcuts based on how you use iOS. Still, they can frequently get things wrong, suggesting irrelevant shortcuts to apps, contacts, and other items repeatedly. Here's how to stop them.
How To: Set Spotify as Siri's Preferred Audio Player in iOS 14.5 for Music, Podcasts & Audiobooks
It's no secret that Apple and Spotify haven't exactly gotten along in the past, but things are looking better than ever in iOS 14.5.
How To: This HomePod Setting Keeps Other People Out of Your Notes, Reminders & Calendar for Good
HomePod and HomePod mini are excellent smart speakers if you're entrenched in the Apple ecosystem. They even offer ways to protect your sensitive information from friends and visitors who try to ask Siri to spill your secrets. But there's an extra layer of privacy you can put in place to make sure nobody gains access to any important notes, reminders, and calendar events.
How To: Stop Your HomePod from Spying on You
While Apple's reputation for privacy and security is nearly unmatched, it'll never be perfect when Hey Siri is always listening. Aside from iOS devices, Hey Siri always listens for questions and commands on the HomePod and HomePod mini smart speakers. If you rarely use Hey Siri on those speakers, it's worth disabling the feature for some extra privacy.
How To: Remove Annoying Contact Suggestions in Your iOS Share Sheet Completely or Temporarily
Apple has always strived to make the share sheet in iOS as useful a tool as possible. It has action extensions, share extensions, shortcuts, activities, and Siri suggestions, and you can even customize the order of the buttons to a certain degree. One thing you couldn't change was Siri's suggested contacts at the top. If you've always hated seeing those bubbles, iOS 14 has a way to get rid of them.
How To: Organize Your Smart Home, Rooms & Zones in Apple's Home App to Streamline Siri Commands
Every home is a little different, and for a smart home app to work, it has to be able to be customized to work with each person's unique setup. With the iPhone's Home app, everyone can set up a smart home just how they want, including the number and names of rooms, and where those rooms are in the house.
How To: Use Apple & Google's COVID-19 Screeners on Your Phone to See if You Might Have Coronavirus
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a frenzy for news and information that is nearly unprecedented in the smartphone era, with a major side effect of misinformation. Now, major tech companies are making it easier to ask for advice about novel coronavirus from their respective digital assistants. Results may vary, but Apple and Google are the most useful at the moment.
How To: Reply to Texts on Your AirPods Without Siri Reading Out Your Messages
Your iPhone's "Announce Messages with Siri" feature is pure Apple. If you have a pair of connected AirPods (2nd generation or newer), Siri can read your messages to you as they come in, and you can say "Reply" to send one back. However, that natural flow is disrupted once Siri reads back your drafted text — but you can disable it to make the process smooth all the way through.
How To: Type to Siri Without Changing a Setting in iOS 13
One of my favorite iOS hacks is Type to Siri. This lets you type your queries to the iPhone digital assistant without needing to use your voice. Unfortunately, Type to Siri replaces the typical Siri voice prompt on the Home or Side button, meaning you need to choose between one or the other. That is, until iOS 13.
How To: Tune in to Your Favorite Radio Station by Just Asking Siri
As much as streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify have dominated the music industry, radio is still alive and well. And why wouldn't it be? Free music, 24/7? It's a great deal. That's why it's so cool that your iPhone can instantly tune in to your favorite radio station, even one across the country.
How To: Use Siri to Play Spotify Music (All the Commands You Need to Know)
Finally, Spotify now works with Siri! It's been a long time coming, but as of Spotify Music version 8.5.6 for iOS 13, you can make Siri or Hey Siri on your iPhone play and control music in your Spotify account. But what commands can you use? We've built a list of everything you can tell Siri to do on Spotify right now, and as time goes on, the list may grow even more powerful.
How To: Announce Messages with Siri Not Working on iOS 13.2? Here's the Fix
Apple added "Announce Messages with Siri" with the release of iOS 13.2, and it came as a welcome surprise for me; I missed the feature from its initial run during iOS 13 beta testing. However, while users online gleefully showed off their newfound Announce Messages with Siri capabilities, I was frustrated to see that I didn't have the setting, even though I just updated my iPhone to 13.2. So, what's the fix?
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