I’ve created a monster. Hectic-Grandson was on the iPad for a 30 min session, complete with timer. When I told him to get off there were still four minutes left. The little rascal said, “Hey Siri, show me the timer”. I ended up giving him the full-time.
The kid can’t read or spell, but can use a computing device!
Hectic-Grandson is a great example of the power of voice, especially in the Apple ecosystem. Over the past year I’ve become much more adept at using Siri for all sorts of tasks. I started slowly, using Siri for the simplest tasks. One was opening apps. For instance, I use the OneTouch diabetes tracking app to record my blood sugar readings. While I’m getting the glucometer ready, wiping my finger with alcohol prior to drawing blood, and inserting the test strip, I say “Hey Siri, open OneTouch”. In less time than it takes me to prep my finger, the app up and running. Sure, I could swipe to the screen where the app resides, touch on it, wait for it to pop up, and then authenticate into it…but I’m able to layer those steps on top of prepping my finger. It saves a couple of seconds, and lets me focus on the other manual steps. It’s not a huge time saver, but every little bit matters.
The same goes for weather. With our crazy weather in Kansas you never know what you’re going to get. I’ve say, “Hey Siri, what’s the weather” and I immediately get an abbreviated forecast for the rest of the week. If I want to go more in-depth, I’ll ask Siri to open the Dark Sky app. Rather than searching for the app, Siri does the heavy lifting and I’ve got it on my screen in nothing flat!
I also use it to make most of my phone calls now. Instead of bringing up the phone app, searching for the contact to call, and then selecting…I just say “Hey Siri, call Hectic-Mom”. Boom…the call is made. The same goes for messages. I can carry on a conversation totally hands-free. It’s pretty cool to not have to even pickup my phone to do that.
I’m also using my voice to check sports scores, translate phrases between languages, and get the Maps app to send me places. I also use it to play music through both Apple Music and Pandora.
My use of voice has become so ingrained that I honestly had to sit and think about all the ways I use it.
And that’s just scratching the surface of what Siri can do. With the advent of Siri Shortcuts, it’s possible to string together actions that normally wouldn’t be part of the system. And in some cases the app developers have enabled extensions to Siri that allow you to do things via voice.
For instance, I track all my time into a number of categories (which I call my Areas of Focus). In the past, I would have to remember to unlock my phone, open aTimeLogger, select the Area of Focus, and then select the task I was doing. It only took a few seconds, but I change tasks constantly throughout the day. I realized I wasn’t tracking my time as granularly as I wanted. But the time it took to track was impeding my ability to get work done…so I lived with the half-baked tracking. With the introduction of Siri Shortcuts, I’m able to say things like “Hey Siri, I’m doing housework” and the timer switches to housework. Then I can say “Hey Siri, I’m writing” and the housework timer stops and the writing timer begins. Using my voice to direct aTimeLogger what to track has increased the accuracy of my time logging. Plus I can interact with the app while I’m hauling a load of laundry from one end of the house to the other…entirely hands-free!
But probably the most commonly used feature of Siri is setting reminders. I’m really bad about forgetting to do things. From moving the laundry between the washer to the dryer to picking up Hectic-Grandson at school…I’m as likely to remember as I am to forget. Honestly, it’s embarrassing how forgetful I can be. Most of this forgetfulness is caused by trying to do too much and being busy. For instance, later today, I need to pickup some books at the library. I don’t know when I’m going to be leaving the house, but when I do, I want to be reminded to go to the library. While it’s not difficult to setup this reminder using the Reminders app directly, it’s so much easier to say “Hey Siri, set a reminder to go to the library when I leave home”. The reminder is set and through the magic of location-based reminders, this will pop up on my phone (and buzz me on my appleWatch) when I’m 325 feet from my front door. Setting and using reminder like this has made me seem so much more together…and I’m not nearly as prone to having to make a second trip as I used to be.
If you haven’t used Siri much, think about giving it a try. If you’ve been using Siri, consider how many other ways you could use it. Honestly, I’m constantly astounded by all the things I can do with my voice and iPhone!