What is Siri?
Apple’s Siri is a voice-controlled personal assistant. She resides in all modern iPhones and iPads, Apple TVs, Apple Watches and MAC computers.
What Can Siri do?
She can send emails and messages, place calls, search the internet, provide directions, set reminders and more. On top of that, Siri is very funny and can entertain you when you are bored.
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Siri Facts
- Siri is an acronym which stands for “Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface”
- Was introduced by Apple on October 4th, 2011 as an exclusive feature of iPhone 4S
- Is used by more than 375M devices each month
- Is a fan of Freddie Mercury. Tell her: “I see a little silhouette of a man” and watch the results
- Can’t sing songs
How does Siri work?
There are several ways to talk to Apple’s digital assistant:
- Hold down the home button until Siri opens, then ask your questions
- If you own an iPhone 5 SE, iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, 7s or 7s plus you can enable the “Hey, Siri” function and get her attention without pressing the button – Settings > Siri > Allow “Hey Siri”. If you own the earlier versions of the iPhone, “Hey Siri” will be available only if your device is plugged in
When you ask Siri a question you get an answer instantly. The process of getting an answer seems effortless from the user point of view, but in reality Siri performs a set of consequent actions:
- When you say something to Siri, she immediately converts your speech into digitized text;
- She analyzes this text and identifies the keywords – “send”, “write”, “find”, etc. It helps Siri to understand your command and find a relevant solution;
- She looks for the solution either in your device or on the Apple servers. The source depends on the command. If you say “Call mom”, Siri would just need to browse the contact list in your phone and dial your mom’s number. But if you ask Siri “How old is Julia Roberts?” she won’t find this data in your gadget so Siri would connect to Apple servers and get the answer there.
- Using Text-to-Speech Technology, Siri would transform the text answer into synthesized speech and would tell you with her pleasant voice: “Julia Roberts is 49”.
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4 Helpful Features of Siri
1. Hands-free calling, texting and emailing. If you want to contact your spouse, parents or a friend, you don’t need to take your phone. You can just say “Hey Siri” and tell her the necessary command – “Call Andrew”, “Text Mom” or “Email Sandra”.
Learn more how to call, message, and email your contacts using Siri
2. Taking pictures, selfies and videos. She is exceptional at helping you take selfies. This feature becomes especially handy when you are using a selfie stick. Just say “Hey, Siri! Take a selfie” and she will take the photo. You can also say “Hey, Siri! make a slow-motion video” and she will open camera app in a “slow-motion” mode. Just tap the button to record.
3. Using Apps. She can access the apps you have installed on your device. To make this possible you just need to allow her to do so – Settings > Siri > Apps Support > allow access for the apps. With this feature you can order Uber or Lyft, reserve a table with OpenTable without opening any of the apps. For example: “Siri, I need Uber”:
Learn more how to use apps with Siri
4.Funny things to ask Siri.
Literally. She definitely has a sense of humor. Here are a few things things to ask her.
- Will you marry me?
- Read me a poem
- When is the world going to end?
- Where did I put my keys?
- What came first, the chicken or the egg?
- Why did the chicken cross the road?
- What’s your favourite animal?
- Do you have a boyfriend?
- Is Jon Snow dead?
With the launch of iOS 11 last month, Siri got some improvements and can perform the following actions on the iPhones:
- Translate from English into 5 different languages – Chinese, German, Italian, French and Spanish;
- Sound more natural and expressive with human like intonation and tempo;
- Get and execute typed commands. With the new “Type to Siri” function available, users can write their queries rather than saying them out loud. It’s a convenient feature when you need answers in a quiet place. Google’s Assistant and Microsoft’s Cortana have been offering both text and voice interfaces for quite a while
In Conclusion
Siri is a great addition to your Apple device. She saves your time by eliminating all unnecessary steps you need to take to perform an action on your iPhone or iPad. On top of that, she can recite a poem, tell you a joke, and answer goofy questions in a funny manner. Because of this she is the most human of all of the digital assistant.
