Siri 101 « iOS & iPhone

How To: Use Google Maps or Waze with Siri Instead of Apple Maps

When driving, you can get directions hands-free by asking Siri. You can also make general map searches, show a location's details, call a query's phone number, and view traffic details. However, Siri defaults to Apple Maps for all those. If you prefer Google Maps, Waze, or another third-party navigation app, the map-based Siri commands won't work. But that doesn't mean you can't still use Siri.

How To: Use Siri with a Third-Party Email Client Instead of Apple Mail on Your iPhone

Until very recently, Apple apps were among the only ones that would play nicely with Siri on iPhones. If you wanted to take advantage of the digital assistant to, say, compose an email, you would need to go with Apple Mail instead of the email client you actually use. As of iOS 12, this is no longer the case.

How To: Use Siri with a Third-Party Weather App Instead of Apple's on Your iPhone

If you ask Siri to check the weather on your iPhone right now, you'll get information from the stock Weather app in iOS — even if you have and prefer other weather apps installed. But that doesn't have to be the case. Thanks to Siri Shortcuts in iOS 12 and later, you can set specific phrases that Siri will respond to for any compatible weather app you want.

How To: Use Siri to Play Spotify Music & Start Playlists

With the Shortcuts app, you can build workflows to automate complex tasks, most of which can you can activate with a simple, customized Siri command. You can download videos from Instagram and open links in Chrome instead of Safari with just your voice, for instance. But a more popular discovery is using Siri to control music streaming apps like Spotify, not only Apple Music.

How To: Use the Shortcuts App on Your iPhone in iOS 12 for Custom Siri Actions & More

One of the most exciting additions to iOS 12 for iPhones is called Shortcuts, a tool integrated with Siri to help you get things done faster. While there are a few recommended shortcuts available to you in Siri's settings in iOS 12, the Shortcuts app brings the functionality of Workflow to Siri so you can build your own custom actions or select from the gallery of available shortcuts.

How To: Change Siri's Accent on Your iPhone to Australian, British, Irish, or South African

Apple's iOS assistant has an undeniably iconic voice — you know Siri when you hear her. As memorable a voice as it may be, you don't need to stick with her default American accent. In iOS 11, you can choose from two other vocal deliveries, and in iOS 12, there are two more accents at your disposal for a total of four more.

How To: Create Your Own Shortcuts in iOS 12 to Get Things Done Faster with Siri

Apple is putting their Workflow acquisition to use with the new Shortcuts feature, integrated right into Siri. It allows you to connect commonly-used actions to a phrase that you activate with Siri. In addition to some of the other speed improvements in iOS 12, Shortcuts helps streamline your mobile experience.

How To: Activate Siri on Newer iPhones Without a Home Button

In its never-ending quest to innovate its flagships, Apple's newer iPhone models with Face ID do away with the iconic Home button present since the first iPhone back in 2007. That means screenshots, force-restarting, switching apps, Apple Pay, and the home screen all work differently on the iPhone X, XR, XS, XS Max, 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max. One of the more important aspects, Siri, is also slightly different.

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?

News: The Best New Siri Features & Commands in iOS 13 for iPhone

Apple's latest update for iPhones, iOS 13, introduces over 200 new and exciting features. Many of those changes come to Siri, resulting in a better, more useful version of the digital assistant we've known for years. If you simply look at iOS 13's webpage, however, you wouldn't realize just how much Siri has changed this time around. We're here to fill in the blanks.

How To: Make Siri Run Google Assistant Commands on Your iPhone

Using Siri to perform tasks on your Google Home device was never possible until Apple released Siri Shortcuts in iOS 12. Actually, it wasn't possible until Google added support for Siri Shortcuts for Google Assistant in Nov. 2018. No matter the timing, the important thing here is that you can use Siri to command Google Assistant which, in turn, can command Google Home.

How To: Turn Off Voice Feedback for Siri (Aka Mute Siri)

Siri can definitely be helpful when you need it, but you may not want the entire world hearing Siri's responses in certain situations. If you're in a library, meeting, class, or another scenario where your iPhone's voice assistant would do more harm than good, there's a way to keep Siri silent ... but it's tricky.

Siri 101: How to Use 'Hey Siri' Hands-Free on Your iPhone

The primary method of activating Siri is done by pressing and holding either the Home or Side button, depending on the iPhone model, but there's a much better way to ask a question to Siri or command it to do something — and you don't need to touch your iPhone at all to do it.

Siri 101: How to Type Requests to Siri When You Can't Speak

Brace yourselves, because Siri has a trick up its sleeve that iPhone users have wanted for some time. Yep, that's right, I'm talking about the ability to use Siri without having to talk out loud for the whole world to hear. It's great for privacy, Siri-ing on the down-low when you're not supposed to, or ... you know ... if you have a speech disorder.

Siri 101: How to Completely Turn Off Siri on Your iPhone

Not everyone digs Siri. Some of you probably can't live without the personal assistant on your iPhone, and some of you probably never even use it — and likely never will. If you fall into the latter category of iPhone users, you can simply disable the feature altogether, which will prevent accidentally triggering her or him anymore and will keep your iPhone nice and secure overall.

How To: Type to Siri on Your iPhone When You Don't Want to Talk

Back in May 2017, Apple filed a patent application for a way to communicate with Siri by writing her questions and responses using iMessage. While that didn't make it into iOS, thankfully, something even better did — a way to ask Siri things with the keyboard directly in the Siri interface. This works in iOS 11 and iOS 12, and it will likely continue to work for future iOS versions.

Siri 101: How to Disable Siri on Your iPhone's Lock Screen

If you like having Siri available to answer a quick question every now and again but don't want everyone who picks up your iPhone to also have access to your personal assistant, there's an easy way to disable her from working on your iPhone's lock screen. This is also something you can do if you're always activating Siri accidentally in your pocket.

Siri 101: How to Make Siri Correctly Recognize & Pronounce Contact Names on Your iPhone

Siri makes it easy to call almost any contact on your iPhone with just a quick verbal command. I say almost because counterintuitive name pronunciations such as Caoimhe, which is actually pronounced "Keeva," will confuse the hell out of Siri. Luckily, there's a way to get Siri to understand pronunciations for the tricky names in your contact list ... it just takes a little grunt work on your part.