Siri: The Complete Guide to Apple’s Voice Assistant in 2024

As iPhone or iPad users, we’re probably already familiar with Apple’s virtual assistant Siri. If for some reason we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting it yet, it’s time to be introduced to it.Apple’s artificial intelligence, Siri, is ready to make our interactions with our devices more effective and simple.

Since its debut in 2011, Siri has become an essential part of how we use Apple products. Over the years, the assistant has perfected the ability to recognize our voices and understand our requests, and learns new features with every update. Thanks to Siri, the easiest way to perform many actions on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac is to talk to it.

What is Apple’s assistant Siri
Siri is a voice-enabled virtual assistant created by Apple and originally launched in October 2011 with iPhone 4S. Since then, it has become an essential element of how we interact with Apple devices.

Siri recognizes voice commands to perform a variety of tasks. From making calls and sending messages to searching for information online, scheduling alarms or controlling music playback. In addition, Siri is compatible with a wide range of third-party apps, enabling us to interact with them using our voice.

Siri’s evolution over the years has been remarkable. Its ability to understand and respond to our requests and interact with other devices and services has improved dramatically. For example, in 2014, Siri was integrated with HomeKit, Apple’s smart home system, enabling us to control our home devices with our voice.

Siri has also made advances in understanding the context of our questions and providing more accurate answers. For example, if we ask about today’s weather and then add “What about New York?” Siri will understand the change in context and provide us with weather information for New York.

How to change and customize Siri’s voice
We can customize Siri’s voice to our liking. In addition to the language, we can choose between different accents and genders so that the assistant is better suited to our region. Changing the voice of Siri is very simple and we do it this way:

Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
Type Siri and search.
If necessary, touch Language and select the language we’re interested in.
Touch Siri Voice.
Choose a variety.
Select the voice we prefer to use.
How to easily activate and deactivate Siri
Clearly, Siri sees itself as a tool of great value. However, there are times when we may wish to deactivate it temporarily or permanently. Fortunately, we can do so and, of course, we can reactivate it when needed. Here’s how we do it:

Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
Type Siri and search for it.
When we address it by voice, slide the “Listen” “Hey Siri” switch to activate or deactivate the assistant.
When we press a button on our iPhone or iPad, slide the “press side button” of the Siri switch to activate or deactivate the assistant.
How to activate and use Hey Siri on iPhone
The Hey Siri feature allows us to use specific keywords (“Oye Siri” in Spanish) and “Siri” in English to activate the Assistant on our device without physically interacting with our device. This is especially useful when our hands are busy or we need to use the device from a distance. In English, we have the option of calling the assistant with “Siri” or “Hey Siri”, while in Spanish the only available option is “Oye Siri”.

What Can I Say to Siri: 10 Very Useful Commands and Some Ideas
With its natural language recognition capabilities, Siri allows us to perform a very wide range of tasks. From sending messages and making phone calls to scheduling reminders and playing music, there are many commands available and different ways to request them. Here are 10 very useful examples:

“Hey Siri, what’s the weather like?”
“Hey Siri, what’s the best Japanese restaurant nearby?”
“Hey Siri, play music by [artist or song].”
“Hey Siri, call [contact name]” or “Hey Siri, call [contact name] via FaceTime/Telegram/WhatsApp”
“Hey Siri, send a message to [contact name] saying [message]”
“Hey Siri, how do you say [word or phrase] in [language]?”
“Hey Siri, how much is [amount] in [currency]?”
“Hey Siri, how do I get to [place]?”
“Hey Siri, remind me of [task or event] at [time]” or “Hey Siri, remind me of [task or event] when I arrive at [location]”

Siri has become an essential tool on our Apple devices, simplifying tasks and answering questions in the most comfortable way possible. After this introduction, all that’s left is to chat with our personal assistant and see its potential for yourself.