iPhone 4s – Comprehensive Siri Voice Commands

If you are simply looking for a list of Siri commands and examples, scroll down.  If you want to learn about Siri and the iPhone 4s, read on.

I am not a gear-head.  When I start working on my car, and do simple things like change the oil and rotate the tires, I enjoy the sense of accomplishment.  I am not a finance nerd.  I don’t sit down and scour books on investing and read the Wall Street Journal’s financial pages everyday, but I do enjoy hearing about it.  I am a tech-head, a complete and utter nerd.  When I find something new related to computer, or electronics gadgets, I read as much on it as I can.  I learn all the nuances and how to use it perfectly, and then I incorporate it into my workflow until something better comes along.  Since I spend 8 hours a day on my  computer, it’s in my advantage to streamline my process.

For that reason, my wife is probably ready to throw my new iPhone 4s out the window.  You see, I just got the new 4s to replace my iPhone 3Gs which I have had since it came out in June 2009.  I put iOS 5 on my iPhone 3Gs and spent the Wednesday through Friday playing with that.  So when I got the 4s, I already knew what I was doing.  But, the iPhone 4s has something that none of my iDevices have, Siri voice control.  So basically, to the chagrin of my family, I have spent the last two days talking to my phone, and learning the ins and outs of Siri.

So, my intention with this long post is to teach you all the little gems I could discover about Siri.

Siri Voice Control Explained

Apple purchased the Siri about a year and a half ago and everyone was waiting to see what they would do with them. At the iPhone event a few weeks ago, we finally found out what Siri was for.  Siri is basically an advanced voice control system for your iPhone 4s.  It is still in Beta, so expect it to get better, but as of now, Apple has integrated Siri into the iOS framework in a pretty major way.  You can use it for everyday tasks like scheduling meetings and checking your calendar, finding restaurants near by, and sending messages to people.  The nice thing about it is they have integrated voice recognition into every app that uses the keyboard. So if you are in an email, instead of typing it out, simply click on the microphone icon on the keyboard and dictate your message.  No more hopping around between apps like Dragon Dictation to dictate a message.

The first day I had the phone, there were a few issues.  It seemed like every time I moved across cell towers or jumped to a different network, it would have a problem.  Siri would come back and say “Sorry, I cannot find the network at this time”.  The reason for this is that Apple is sending some of your voice commands off to its servers to be processed, so a network connection is mandatory.  Usually, restarting the phone fixed it.  But today, I have only received that error once, and it has been pretty solid.

Siri Prerequisites

There are no real “Prerequisites” to use Siri on your iPhone 4s.  Just go to Settings->General->Siri and turn it on.  What I mean by prerequisites is there is some due diligence you should do to make Siri run better.

1. Turn on location services - Go to Settings->Location Services and turn on location services for the Maps, Safari, and weather apps at a minimum.  This will make life easier when you are searching for something in your area.
2. Set your personal information - If you haven’t already done so, create a contact for yourself and put in as much information as you can.  Put in all your email addresses, work and home addresses, Related People, etc.  Then go to Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendar.  Scroll down near the bottom to the “Contacts” section and select “My Info”.  Find yourself in the contact list and select your contact.  Now Siri will know who you are when you ask things like Take Me Home.
3. Clean up your contacts - Go through all your contacts on the iPhone and tune them in the following way.

• Ensure first and last names are in the correct place – My work uses Exchange and many of the contacts I imported from Exchange had the first and last name entered wrong
• Use phonetic speech – Edit a contact and scroll to the bottom and select “add field” , and select Phonetic First or Last name.  Phonetically sound out the name to help out voice recognition for tough names.
• Use names – Edit a contact and scroll to the bottom and select “add field” and add Nickname.  Enter the Nickname for the person.  For example, enter Mom for your mom or Boss for your boss.
• Use Relationships – Edit a contact and scroll to bottom and select “add field” and add Related People.  If you have contact entries for your spouse, boss, or assistant, select the blue arrow by the field and pick out their contact information.  This will help you when you say things like “Call my wife”
• Use favorites – If Siri finds multiple matches, it tries looks at your favorites to find the best one.  Open a contact, scroll to the bottom, and select “Add to Favorites”.  It will ask you which phone number or email to add to your favorites.

Taking the time to correct errors will make Siri a much more enjoyable experience. Besides, it is a kind of cathartic experience to occasionally clean out your contacts.

Siri Commands

To use Siri, press and hold the Home button until you hear the tone. Then speak your command to the iPhone.  If you are using a bluetooth headset, you can hold the call button for the same amount of time and speak into the headset.  Siri can perform the following actions (plus many more that I haven’t discovered I’m sure).

Make phone calls

• “Call John” or “Call John Smith” – If you don’t use the full name, Siri will ask you which John, and ask you which phone
• “Call John Smith’s Mobile” - This will pretty much short-circuit any questions and take you right to the call.
• “Call Mom’s home phone” – If you have a nickname setup for someone and it is unique, it will take you right to the phone.

Send Text Messages

• “Message John Smith I am headed to the meeting in 5 minutes.” - Siri will find John Smiths Mobile number and send a message saying “I am headed to the meeting in 5 minutes.”
• “Tell my wife I will pick up milk” - Siri will find your wife’s mobile number and send a message saying “I will pick up milk”

Email

• “Send Email to John Smith about the Meeting” – Siri will create an email for John Smith with the Subject Meeting. It will ask you what you want the body of the message to say.
• “Search for emails from John Smith” – A list of emails from John Smith will appear, if you have any in your inbox.
• “Search for emails about the migration meeting” – A list of emails about the migration meeting will appear, if you have any in your inbox.

Calendar

• “Schedule lunch for Tuesday at noon” - Schedules an appointment for Tuesday with the title Lunch
• “Schedule coffee with Bob Smith for Wednesday at 2pm” – Schedules a meeting with Bob Smith for Wednesday at 2pm
• “Move meeting at 2pm on Wednesday to 3pm” - Moves the Wednesday meeting from 2 to 3pm
• “Search Calendar for Dentist” - Searches your calendar for your dentist appointment

Clock, Alarm, and Timer

• “Set alarm for 7am” - Sets an alarm for 7am.
• “Change my 7 am alarm to 7:30 am” - Changes the alarm
• “Clear 7:30 am alarm” – Clears the 7am alarm
• “Wake me up in 8 hours” - Sets an alarm for 8 hours from now
• “Clear all alarms” - Clears all the alarms
• “Set a timer for 5 minutes” - Set the timer for 5 minutes
• “What is the time” – Tells you the current time
• “Whats the date this Saturday” – Tells you the date on Saturday
• “What is the time in Singapore” – Give you the current time in Singapore

Reminders

• “Remind me to call mom” – Sets a reminder to call your mom
• “Remind me to call mom Tuesday at 9am” – Sets a reminder for Tuesday at 9am to call your mom

Maps

• “Find Chinese restaurants near me” - If you have location services turned on for maps, you will see a list of Chinese restaurants nearby.
• “Directions to Bob Smiths work” - It will give you directions to Bob Smiths work address, if you have it entered
• “Take Me Home”  - Directions to your house.  You need to have your info entered for this to work.  Check out the Prerequisites section

Weather

• “What is the weather” - If you have location services turned on for the Weather app, it will bring up the weather forecast in your area.
• “What is the weather in Cincinnati at 2pm” - Will show you the weather forecast at 2pm for Cincinnati
• “What is the high temperature on Tuesday” - Will tell you the high for Tuesday
• “Will it rain today” – Tells you if it will rain.
• “Will it be hot today”  - This is actually a little funny.  I ask it this and it said “No, 63 degrees doesn’t seem very hot (but then, I’ve never been in Cincinnati)”

Stocks

• “Whats Apple’s Stock Price” – Gives you a lot of detail on the stock
• “How are the markets doing” - Tells you how the markets did or are doing
• “What is the P/E Ratio of Apple Stock” – Tells you Apple’s P/E ratio

Address Book

• “Show John Smith” - Tells you John Smiths information
• “What’s my mom’s mobile number” – Shows you your mom’s mobile number
• “What’s Bob Johnson’s home address” - Shows you Bob’s home address
• “Find people named Bob” - Shows you all the Bobs in your address book
• “My mom is Diana Spruance” - Sets your mom to a contact

Notes

• “Note: Spent $20 at lunch” – Creates a note saying you spent $20 at lunch
• “Find my lunch note” – Finds your note about lunch
• “Create a reading list note” – Creates a reading list
• “Add War and Peace to reading list note” – Adds War and Peace to your reading list

Internet Search

• “Search for the web for pictures of 1965 Mustang” - Performs a search on the internet for Images of 1965 Mustang
• “Search Wikipedia for Steve Jobs” – Searches Wikipedia for the Steve Jobs entry
• “Search for news about the iPhone 4s” – Will search the internet for news about the iPhone 4s

Wolfram Alpha

• “How many ounces are in a gallon” – Will search Wolfram Alpha to give you the answer
• “How many calories in a bagel”  -  Will return nutritional information on a bagel
• “What is 15% of 42.25″ - Will compute 15% of 42.25

Music control

• “Play songs by Seether” – Will play songs by Seether
• “Play Black Hole Sun” - Will play the song Black Hole Sun
• “Play Playlist Workout” – Plays the workout playlist
• “Play me rock music” – Plays songs with Genra Rock
• “Play Podcast Buzz out loud” - Will play the podcast Buzz out loud
• “Play” – Plays whatever is in the now playing list
• “Pause” - Pauses
• “Skip” – Skips to the next track

Fun

• Ask Siri something fun and see if it comes up with an answer.  Ask it things like “What are you wearing” or “What is the meaning of life”