Siri was introduced on the iPhone 4S all the way back in 2011, only four years after the release of the first iPhone. In the dozen or so years since, Apple’s digital assistant has made it easier for all of us to complete actions with only our voice.
Whether you’re sending a text message while driving, making metric conversions while cooking, or trying to start your white noise app while rocking a crying baby, the hands-free power of Siri can be a huge benefit.
Apple’s own documentation of the things Siri can do for you is brief and doesn’t cover nearly all of the possible iPhone actions you can achieve with voice commands. For example, did you know you can now restart your iPhone with only your voice?
If you want to learn more about what you can do on your iPhone with just your voice, check out these nine hidden Siri voice commands.
For more about Siri and the iPhone, check out the coolest new features in iOS 17 and how you can replace Siri with Amazon Alexa on your iPhone home screen.
No more ‘Hey, Siri’ needed
As long as you’re running iOS 17, you no longer need to say “Hey, Siri” to activate Siri on your iPhone. All you need to do is say “Siri,” and your iPhone will begin listening for any voice commands you tell it. For example, you can just say “Siri, set an alarm for 8 a.m. this coming Thursday” — no “Hey” needed.
Turn off an annoying alarm
Your alarm is going off, but you’re either not near your iPhone or maybe you just can’t find it because it’s underneath your sheets or lost in your couch cushions. An iPhone alarm will persist for 15 minutes if you don’t cancel or snooze it, but there is a way to stop it with just your voice.
Even if your alarm is blaring loudly, you can tell Siri “Turn off my alarm” to silence it. In fact, you can even just say “Hey, Siri” and that will also stop your alarm from ringing. Unlike the snooze feature, using either Siri command will permanently turn off the alarm.
Find family or friends using the Find My tool
The Find My feature allows you to track not only your Apple devices but also those of your friends, family and loved ones. If you’re tracking someone’s location via Find My, like your significant other or your sibling, you can use Siri to quickly check where they’re at.
Ask Siri “Where is (contact name)?” and a small Find My window will appear at the top of the screen, showing you exactly where the person is. Siri will also announce how far they are and the approximate address of their location. If you tap the Find My window, you’ll be redirected to the Find My app, where you can contact the person, get directions to their location and more.
Translate foreign words or sentences
Besides the stand-alone app, Apple’s Translate feature is built into your iPhone, allowing you to quickly translate languages from pretty much anywhere on your device, including within your text messages, in your web browser and with Siri.
You can ask Siri to translate a single word or entire sentences with just your voice. For example, you can say “Translate ‘My head hurts. I think I’m going to sleep’ in Spanish” and Siri will read out your sentence in the original language and then in the translated language. If you want to hear the translation again, you can hit the play button in the Translate window.
Currently, 17 languages, including Spanish and Chinese, are supported with Translate, but not all of them can be used with Siri.