Useful Siri Commands You Might Not Know About
Using Siri, your iPhone’s voice assistant, can be a quick and easy way to perform various tasks if you know how to use it. Many of Siri’s features aren’t as well known as they should be, so here’s a chance for me to tell you about some of the most useful commands that you probably haven’t used yet. A more comprehensive list of Siri commands can be found on GitHub , but I’ve highlighted a few of the most useful and interesting commands below.
Change iPhone Settings
Siri can control many useful iPhone settings. You can use it to toggle features like brightness levels, flashlight, dark mode, night shift, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and many more. You can even ask Siri to change the volume or take a quick selfie.
Toss a coin or roll a dice
Want to flip a coin to decide who does the dishes, but are too lazy to bring the coin? Ask Siri to flip a coin and she will do the honors for you. Siri can also roll the dice for you, which can be great if you’re playing board games in the evening but someone loses the dice.
Give information on promotions
Siri can be a good assistant in the stock market. You can ask it for information such as the current price, P/E ratio or market capitalization of any stock. Of course, you’ll have to do more research to make informed investment decisions, but Siri can be a good starting point.
Solve math problems
When you’re out with friends and want to figure out how much to tip, Siri can help you. You can ask Siri to calculate 20% of any dollar amount, and it will do the job. It’s also great at basic math problems, so feel free to do some arithmetic when a calculator isn’t available.
Help with music streaming
You probably know that Siri can be used to control music playback, but it’s also great for precise forward or backward control. When you play a song, ask Siri to find the timestamp of your choice and it will do so instantly. If you don’t know the timestamp, you can ask Siri to rewind, for example, 15 seconds or forward a minute.
Listen to your favorite podcasts
Those who listen to podcasts using Apple Podcasts should try using Siri to play their favorites. You can also ask Siri to adjust the playback speed as you listen.
Read articles out loud
In iOS 17, Siri has a useful new feature that allows her to read articles out loud. If a webpage is open in Safari and supports reading mode, you can ask Siri to read the entire article to you .
Help you manage alarms
There are people who only have a few alarms set on their iPhone, but there are many others who have set multiple alarms in the Clock app. If you want to whittle down a list, without Siri it’s a huge task. You can ask Siri to remove all alarms, or even turn them all off or on.
Find your Apple devices
Siri is also the fastest way to ping your Apple devices. You can ask Siri to ping your Apple Watch , MacBook, or other Apple devices listed in the Find My app.
Cast Harry Potter Spells
Siri won’t make you a powerful wizard, but it will let you pretend to be one. You can use it to cast some Harry Potter spells , which allow you to open apps or turn on the flashlight.
The fastest way to open Apple Wallet
“Hey Siri, show me my wallet” is the command needed to quickly open the Apple Wallet app on your iPhone. It’s faster than opening the app manually, and convenient if you want to quickly access your boarding passes or concert tickets.
Improve your relationship to make Siri work faster
When you know five different people named Jim and one of them is your significant other, it can be a bit of a hassle when you call or text them using Siri. To solve this problem, you can say something like, “Hey Siri, Jim Smith is my boyfriend.” Next time you want to contact these people, you can ask Siri to call your boyfriend and it will contact the right person. Similarly, you can tell the voice assistant that certain contacts are your relatives or other professionals with whom you communicate regularly.
Find out what things sound like
Siri can play the sounds of various animals, birds and traffic sounds. If you don’t know what a fox sounds like, you can ask Siri to tell you. It will play an audio file of birdsong or car noise.
Use Siri to translate
If you want to say something in another language, Siri can say it for you. You can ask Siri to “say hello in French” or replace “hello” with any other phrase that comes to mind. If Siri supports the language you want, it will translate and play the audio. You can use this to communicate with people who don’t speak your language.
Have fun too
Not all Siri commands are meant to be useful. Sometimes you can chat with Siri and have fun. Here are some examples of fun Siri commands:
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Tell me a joke
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Rock Paper Scissors
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I love you
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Tell me a riddle
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Beatbox for me
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Sing me a song
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Dance for me
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Tell me a haiku
Even more useful commands
This is just a small part of what Siri can do for you. There are many other features, such as controlling your Tesla , that are just as useful. This GitHub page mentioned at the top of this post has a comprehensive list of even more useful Siri voice commands that we won’t cover here. However, keep in mind that this list is four years old, so some commands may not perform as expected.