I remember when Siri first came out. Previously I thought you had to train a computer to recognize your specific voice, and even then, voice dictation was irregular and inaccurate. Then Siri came along and provided basic data with haphazard results. I remember it being one of those things which showed a glimpse of the future.
Of course, over time, Siri’s progressed slowed and Google brought out it’s voice assistant in Google Now. Siri didn’t seem as cool and the fact that it worked about 70% of the time made it not worth constantly using.
Well with iOS 9, Siri has had a dramatic improvement in accuracy as well as adding some cool new feature that are worth trying out.
Hey Siri
“Hey Siri” is the activation command for your iPhone. On older iPhones it only works when they are plugged in (perhaps to save battery power), but on the latest 6s and 6s Plus models, it will work without being plugged into a charger. This will activate Siri without even needing to touch the screen.
This is great for doing simple tasks when your hands are busy, such as setting a timer when you are cooking or sending a text you travel in a car.
[Note: I know some Android phones have had similar functions before, but this is about new things that have come to Siri.]
Launch (App)
This is a simple but surprisingly cool function, instead of scrolling through pages of apps or folder yeah there are only two kinds of people you can simply say “launch” followed by the app name and the app will launch. Sure, you might not want to do this in public, but when walking along or at home this can save you a few seconds and just make your device feel more friendly.
Show/Find X Photos
The new photos app on iOS added some interesting new features and some nice Siri functionality. Things such as asking Siri to show you images from specific dates or places are a great way to make sure that your images are viewed as they were designed to be.
Add this to Notes
The new notes app is one of the greatest updates in iOS 9 and El Captain that everyone is exposed to (I’m not sure if that reflects on the quality of the new Notes app or the lack of quality of other updates. Other features can be quite hardware specific like Force Touch and Split view on the iPhone 6S and iPad air 2/Pro). With the new ability to add pictures, embedded links, text, sketches and more from almost any app, Siri has added that ability too. Just ask Siri to “Add this to notes” in an app or page that you want some data from and it will create a note with that data.
Remind Me About This
In a similar vein to adding items to notes, you can now set some really amazing reminds to information from nearly any app. Just ask Siri to “remind me about this…” and then either a time OR location (yes locations). Now when you get to work, you’ll get a reminder about that email you need to look at or you can set a reminder to check out that webpage someone sent you about when you do your morning/evening reading.
This is really powerful and a strange habit to get used to but very helpful. Sure you could add a link or set a normal reminder, but having a link in the reminder which you can just add from within the app you are in is really great.
Where’s
If you are a fan of find my friends, then you’ll love this feature. Now you can ask Siri a quick question “Where’s name” and it will show you, on the Siri screen, where that person is.
Transit Directions
As Apple maps now has transit directions for subways, buses and trains. You can ask for directions somewhere and get directions using transit as well as by driving. This would be really useful with the Apple watch to get the hap-tic direction and not even have to reveal the location of your expensive phone (and watch).
Restaurant/Local Area Reviews
With the new Siri and Spotlight features in iOS 9, you can get local place recommendations for lunch, coffee and so on. Admittedly, I don’t find this function as useful as some of the other features as the recommendations can easily be found on the far left panel.
There you have it, a handful of new Siri tricks that you might want to give a try and see how iOS has evolved. They aren’t revolutionary, but they might make a few tasks a bit nicer.
What do you use Siri for?
Eric Dye says
Cool! I’ll have to try some of these. 😀
Chris Wilson says
Even cooler with the newest phones, you can start speaking before you even press the siri button and it will still catch it (as long as you don’t start speaking like a minute before you press the homebutton). I love doing the remind me to… and make a note functions.
MICHAEL says
Thought we could launch apps from siri since iOS 8?
Also, there may be new hooks available for developers, but having Siri remind me things at times and location is not new either.
chris wilson says
Hum I’ll double check about siri launching apps (maybe its just third party apps which is new) but the remind me feature has been extended so that from (almost) whatever app you are in you can set a reminderb about that data. I.e. you’re in safari, you add a reminder about that page, when the reminder comes it will link to that page again. Same for contacts and a lot of other apps. Hope that clarifies things