Apple devices are powerful tools, especially when you know how to fully utilize Siri, the company’s digital personal assistant available across iOS devices like iPhone and iPad. However, some people fail to realize that Siri is a capable technology that can do more than just look stuff up online. Here are useful things you can do with Siri to make life easier. 

Useful Things You Can Do With Siri

Siri can be quite difficult to get used to but once you’ve realized its full potential, it is an incredible tool that can do simple but useful things and tasks. 

On older systems, Siri can be activated with a long press on the home button and the interface appears. However, starting on iOS 9, Siri is voice-activated and can be used with a simple “Hey Siri!” 

After your initial greeting, here is a list of things you can ask this digital personal assistant to do! 

Internet search

Siri is most used for looking things up online and it does this job very well. It uses different web services that pull data from other sources so the results it gives are more extensive than the simple list of websites you can visit. 

Create reminders

A simple “Hey Siri, remind me to…” automatically prompts it to add it to your Reminders app. 

If you have other iOS devices, it also syncs such reminders across your devices so you have access no matter what iOS device you’re using. You can also give Siri specific timely reminders such as asking the personal digital assistant to remind you of your doctor’s appointment at 11 AM. 

Additionally, you can ask Siri to read your to-do list, as well as location-oriented reminders like notifying you to perform a specific action when you leave the house, return home, or when you are at a certain place. 

Call people

We’ve all been there. Driving or carrying tons of items on each hand can prove to be difficult when you are trying to navigate your phone to call someone. Thankfully, Siri does a good job at calling people. 

With a “Hey Siri, call Mom” the assistant calls the one named “Mom” on your contact list. You can also ask it to call her on speaker so there’s no need to turn your eyes away from the road or take a hand off the steering wheel. 

You can also ask Siri to call specific numbers, bring up your call history, see if you have missed calls, redial the last number, check your voicemail for you, or FaceTime someone. 

Identify songs

There are specific apps out in the market that can do this but Siri can too! You can ask it to listen to the song and identify it. It’ll give you the title and the artist. The results are provided by SHAZAM but this digital assistant makes it extra easy to use. 

Make reservations

Through OpenTable, Siri can integrate with the online service and make a reservation for you. Once it finds available reservations, you’ll be able to decide and tap on the time you want to reserve the table and specify how many people will be joining you for this reservation. 

Mapping

Personal digital assistants like Siri are really useful, especially when you are driving. Since all it needs is voice activation, there’s no need to take your eyes off the road or your hands off the steering wheel to use your phone. 

Siri is smart when it comes to mapping as well. You can ask it to show you directions, simply ask it how far is your destination, or how to get from one location to another. 

Aside from that, you can also ask it for directions home, ask for your estimated time of arrival, find the nearest fast-food chain or gas station, and even show you landmarks. 

Find and read emails

Let’s admit it. Our email is just a black hole of important emails, insignificant emails, promotions, socials, and newsletters. And we don’t have all the time in the world to sort them out and delete the ones we don’t need. Thankfully, Siri also listens well when you want to hunt for a particular email. 

The personal digital assistant can search by subject, sender, date, and more. Once it finds the email, it can read it for you if you ask it to. Siri can also perform other email-related tasks, such as checking your email, replying to an email, and even composing a new one. 

Locate cinemas and what movies are playing

With Siri being able to tell you where the nearest cinema is and what movies are playing, it is a big timesaver. You can simply ask Siri where a specific movie is playing, where is the nearest cinema, and what types of movies are playing in a particular cinema you want to go to. 

What’s more interesting is Siri can also provide information on the movie, such as telling you who the leading actors and actresses are.