5 Things You Didn’t Know Siri Could Do for You

When iOS 9 came out, Apple boasted that Siri would be much more proactive and almost akin to a proactive personal assistant.

The new updates for Siri has exceeded our expectations and seriously impressed us with all of the shiny new things she can do for us. Not only is Siri more helpful and intelligent, but she can help make your life easier in ways that you would never imagine.

Here we review all of the things Siri can do now that she hasn’t been able to do before.

1. Predict the Future

Remember those cool little black eight balls that you used to tell your fortune as a child? You can actually use Siri in the same way to tell your personal fortune. If you preface a specific question with “Hey Siri 8 Ball” she will give you any number of cryptic responses to questions like “will I win this month’s lottery?” or “will I find my true love?”

Not only does Siri lend a helpful hand, but she is a source of entertainment for you and your friends!

2. Give You Personalized Recommendations

The cool thing about the newest version of Siri is she takes time to really get to know you personally. After a while, Siri will be able to predict what you are going to do next based on your usual schedule or who you are in constant contact with. All you need to do is swipe right when you are on the home screen to see Siri’s suggestions based on your previous behaviors at certain times and locations.

Perhaps you always call your spouse around 1pm on your lunch to check in, or maybe around 5pm you usually use Waze to see what the traffic is like. Siri will have these apps and contacts ready to go when you swipe. Siri has your life organized for your convenience!

3. Control Your Entire Home

You can actually sync all of your Apple controlled smart home products to work with one another when you give Siri a specific command, even if you are not at home. For example, if you want to stay in and have a relaxing night, just say “Movie Night”, and you can have your lights dimmed, Apple TV turned on, and all of your blinds closed (if you have all of these products as smart home accessories).

You can also have your doors locked, your thermostat turned down, and all of your lights turned off. Siri does all the hard work for you so when you get home all you need to do is relax and unwind. Perhaps you’ve read our article on How to Setup and Control Apple’s HomeKit Accessories from Your iPhone using Siri. If not, you can check it out here for a full tutorial.

4. Ask Where Someone is

One of the most interesting (or creepiest) features you can use iOS 9 for is tracking the whereabouts of your friends and family. If you have the Find my Friends feature enabled on you and your friend’s iPhone, you can now use Siri to help you find them without pulling up the tracker.

After you have added someone to the app, just ask Siri where they are and she will show on the screen their exact location.

5. Contextual Questions

One of the best improvements in Siri is her ability to understand what you mean when you ask specific questions based on recent actions or the app you are in. For example, you can ask Siri to “Remind me about this restaurant” when you have it opened in Yelp or Foursquare.

You can also ask Siri to remind you about something you need to grab once you get to work, or home, etc. Or, say you come across an interesting article on your commute, but you don’t have time to read it right now. You can ask Siri to “Remind me about this later” and she will be able to determine what you mean when you say “this.”

Siri has really proven herself as a proactive assistant, and we love how much she can learn after just a short time with you.