Life can get pretty hectic sometimes. You have a major report due and you’re juggling meetings, dates with your S.O. and rendezvous with your besties, all on top of scheduling a time to bring your dog into the vet for her annual dental appointment. It’s during these moments when having a personal assistant to help you keep your schedule straight and book your appointments while remembering to send your loved ones holiday cards would certainly be a great help. While we can’t promise the sending holiday cards part, many of us already DO have a personal assistant. Her name is Siri and she lives in your iPhone (or Cortana if you have an Android) and most of us definitely aren’t using her to her full capabilities. Here are some pretty awesome things Siri can do that will make your life easier, so next time you’re juggling a thousand and one things, Siri could help!
1. Hands-free activation: One of the coolest things iOS 9 implemented was handsfree “Hey Siri” activation anytime anywhere. Yeah, you no longer need to be connected to a power source to summon your virtual assistant. Just go to Settings > Siri and toggle on “Allow ‘Hey Siri'” and once you’ve programmed Siri to recognize your voice, you can call on her any time.
2. Get directions: Don’t know how to get from point A to point B? Siri can tell you. She can map directions to the nearest location matching the name of the business, or you could even have her navigate you to a specific address.
3. Get restaurant recs: If it’s lunchtime and you’re not sure where to eat, Siri’s loaded up with plenty of recommendations. Just ask her for some suggestions with “Where should I eat?”
4. Text your BFF with your voice: Sometimes you just can’t use your hands to type out a message — like, say, when you’re driving. Other times, you’re just waaaay too lazy to text. You can dictate messages to Siri and have her send them for you too.
5. Get the weather report: When you’re trying to figure out if today is the day to take those new suede boots out for a spin, don’t forget to consult Siri about what it’s like outside. According to Siri, today might not be the day.
6. Convert measurements: Asking Siri to convert measurements might be the most painless way to get from centimeters to inches or fluid ounces to liters. Seriously, this comes in handy when you’ve got two things on the stove and something in the oven and your hands are covered in flour.
7. Remind you of your to-do list: Set reminders easily using Siri. You can even set a specific time you’d like her to remind you about something and a notification will pop up on your phone when the time comes.
8. Set your alarm: You’re dozing off, and in your hazy state, you can’t recall whether or not you remembered to set an alarm for tomorrow. Rather than waking up fully and picking up your phone, just ask Siri to set it for you with your voice. You can never be too safe when it comes to phone alarms.
9. Play DJ: If you’ve got an earworm circling around in your head, sometimes the best thing to do is to just hear it out loud. Plus, Siri makes a great DJ. Just ask her to play the song for you.
10. Update your Facebook status: Sharing a status has never been easier. Download the Facebook app and link it to your iPhone (which can be done by going into Settings > Facebook) first. Then, if you want to tell the world you just sneezed, Siri can do that for you. Just ate an apple and want to post about it? Tell Siri.
Do you have any tech tricks you’d like to tell us about? Share with us in the comments below!