While Apple has added dozens of unique capabilities to Siri during the past few years, many are hidden under the surface, or just not very well known.
To that end, here are ten Siri tips and tricks that will help you get the most out of Apple’s digital Assistant.
Best Siri tips and tricks
1. Restart your iPhone using Siri
Thanks to iOS 16, you can now tell Siri to restart the iPhone, a feature that previously required holding a combination of buttons, or digging into the phone’s Settings. Those still work, but we often go for the easier route to get things done.
Simply tell Siri to “restart iPhone,” and the digital assistant will get the job done as long as your phone is unlocked.
2. Use Siri to hang up calls on iPhone
Another cool Siri trick to remember while you’re using your iPhone is the command to hang up a call. It might not sound like a big deal, and your friends and family at the end of the line will hear you tell Siri to hang up. They also might make fun of you for some time to come.
This Siri trick can come in handy when you’re driving and the phone is on speaker. Or anytime the phone is on speaker or you’re using Bluetooth earbuds and you’re not close to the device.
3. Hidden Siri trick: Convert text to emoji
Another hidden Siri trick that can prove useful while driving is using the iPhone assistant to turn text into emojis. All you have to do is dictate your text as you’d typically do with Siri. When you need to add an emoji, just say the emoji name followed by the word “emoji.” That should be enough for Siri to turn the text into emoji.
You need an iPhone XS or newer running iOS 16 or later to take advantage of this Siri trick.
4. Enable automatic message sending for Siri
Another hidden Siri trick lets you send a message automatically, which means you won’t have to manually confirm that you want the message to go through. To enable this setting, follow the steps below:
- Head to Settings.
- Select Siri & Search.
- Tap Automatically Send Messages
- Enable Automatically Send Messages toggle.
From there, you can choose where to have messages sent with Siri automatically. You can mix and match three options: CarPlay, headphones, and hearing devices.
5. Use Siri even when iPhone is face down or covered
iPhones have a feature called Facedown Detection, which prevents Siri from listening to the “Hey Siri” hot phrase when the phone is facedown on a table or its front is covered with cushions or a flip cover (unless connected to power). This trick makes it possible to temporarily prevent Siri from responding to the hot phrase without changing any settings or turning Siri off completely.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Go to Accessibility.
- Select Siri.
- Slide the switch for ‘Always Listen for Hey Siri‘ to the ON position.
Now, iOS will always listen for the “Hey Siri” wake-up phrase, even when your iPhone is facing down, or its front has been covered with something.
6. Announce notifications on hearing devices
Another cool Siri trick makes it possible for you Announce Notifications on Speaker. You can activate the feature by following the steps below:
- Go to Settings.
- Tap Accessibility.
- Select Siri.
But the feature has an even better accessibility tool for people who are hearing impaired. You can have Siri announce notifications on Made for iPhone hearing devices. Just follow the steps below to enable this setting:
- Go to Settings.
- Tap Siri & Search.
- Select Announce Notifications.
Please note, this setting will only show up if you have hearing aids connected to your iPhone.
As you can see above, the Siri Accessibility menu is another place where you can customize some of the Siri skills in this post.
7. Run iPhone Shortcuts with your voice
Another neat Siri trick available to iPhone and iPad users who are running iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 is the ability to run premade shortcuts from your apps. If developers preload apps with shortcuts you can use them right after installing the apps. Just tell Siri to run them.
All you need to do is invoke Siri by voice or via the iPhone’s side button. Then ask the digital assistant to run whichever shortcut you want.
8. Silence Siri on your iPhone
If you can’t always receive spoken responses from Siri or don’t like the experience, you can switch things up in iOS 16. Follow the steps below:
- Go to Settings.
- Tap Siri & Search.
- Tap Siri Responses.
- Choose Prefer Silent Responses.
9. Take a screenshot on your iPhone using Siri
One of cooler Siri trick is its ability to to take a screenshot on iPhone. If you ever come across something that you need to capture as a screenshot, just bring up the Assistant and say “take a screenshot.”
10. share items using Siri
The iPhone offers many intuitive ways to share everything from photos to web links, and even if that doesn’t work for the app you’re using, you can still take a screenshot and share your content that way.
This still involves multiple steps, however, but the good news is you can make the whole process a lot smoother just by asking Siri to help you out.
If you’re using an app that supports direct sharing, such as Safari, Apple News, Music, or Photos, you can instead have Siri share a link to the actual web page or article that you’re reading, or the photo that you’re looking at.
- On your iPhone, open a webpage, news article, song, or photo that you want to share.
- Hold down the Side Button to activate Siri, or say Hey Siri.
- Say “Share this with,” and the name of the contact you’d like to share the current screen with. For example, “Share this with John”
- A new Messages window will open with the shared item attached, addressed to your intended recipient.
- Siri will ask if you’re ready to send it. Either say “Yes” or tap the Send button to send the screenshot without further comment.
- Alternatively, you can tap in the Add Comment box if you would like to type a message to go along with the screenshot, and then tap Send when done to send it on its way.
Apps that support direct sharing include Safari, Music, Podcasts, Photos, TV, News, and Maps.