? Compose Messages
While you obviously can’t send messages if you have no internet or cellular connection, Siri will actually let you compose one, even when you’re offline.
Siri can recognize your contact names on-device, so you can simply say “Send a message to…” followed by the person’s name. Siri will then go through the normal steps of prompting you to dictate the message and confirm that you want to send it. The standard Siri requests all work here, too, and it can even recognize your family relationships. For example:
- Hey Siri, send a message to Victoria.
- Hey Siri, tell Nora I’ll be there in five minutes.
- Hey Siri, tell dad to give me a call.
If you’re still offline at that point, Siri will tell you that it will try to send it later. However, just keep in mind that if you’re sending an iMessage and stay offline too long, it will either be sent out as an SMS text message or fail entirely, depending on your Messages settings.
What’s great about this particular feature, however, is that SMS text messages don’t require a data connection — just access to a cellular voice network. This makes the ability to use Siri to send messages very useful in those situations where you may have poor data coverage, or even be travelling in another country and want to avoid paying high data roaming fees.