Siri, the virtual assistant came into existence in 2011. With every succeeding year, Siri improved in many ways be it the interface or its responsiveness. Now Siri can do a lot of things for you! Siri suggests a few common tasks on her own, but this is not it there is a lot more.
In this post, we have discussed some of the things that you can ask Siri to do with Voice Commands.
Before going forward, if you are new to Siri, there are a few basic points that you should know.
You don’t need to verse line to line commands. Siri understands natural language. However, it performs better on iOS than macOS.
Siri is similar to Spotlight, the only difference is, instead of typing in the box, you use your voice to give commands.
Siri doesn’t get the given command, she informs you about the same. You can fix the pronunciations if she gets anything wrong.
You can also make changes in settings, with the help of Siri.
Note: You can also type the query to Siri if don’t want to speak it out. To do that you can go to Apple icon-> System Preferences. From System Preferences window, select Accessibility. Now click Siri and then put a checkmark beside “Enable to Type to Siri”.
Let’s check out what Siri can do on Mac –
1. Open Files or Launch App With Siri
Siri is efficient to open the files or folders on your mac, irrespective of the location of the file or app in Finder. However, if you just want to check whether the file exists or not, tweak the command, ask Siri to show the file in search results instead of opening it.
Siri is a digital assistant and shows results according to the keywords mentioned. So, you need to clear while giving the command and make sure you use file or folder with the name of the file to narrow down the search. You can even launch websites with Siri on Mac given the condition the phonetics are right. You can even go to a certain page on the website by reading or spelling out the website name to the point.
2. Use Siri To Change System Settings
Isn’t it easy to bring up System Preferences panels by asking Siri for it? You can say, Users & Groups, Security and Privacy Settings or Display Settings, Siri will open them for you.
Increase or decrease brightness or reduce the transparency with Siri. You can also ask Siri to mute your speakers or put your Mac computer to sleep. Moreover, you can control your Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, Wifi settings with Siri. You can turn on or off the settings by toggling the switch right from the results shown. You can also make Siri remember the relationship with contacts stored. So, that when you want to mail your brother, you just need to ask Siri to mail your brother, then Siri will send it an email to your brother. To do that, you need to tell Siri certain contact is your brother. Let’s say John is your brother, then tell Siri that John is my brother. Siri will ask, do you want her to remember this name? If you respond positively then Siri will mark the relationship brother to certain contact in Contacts app.
3. Siri Is Mini Wiki for Mac
Siri not only follows your commands but also provides information about things. Whether it is on your computer and the data stored on it. Let’s say if you want to know about Mac configuration, RAM capacity, or its serial number, Siri can help you with that. You can ask Siri about the used and free space on your disk. Moreover, it can search for apps no matter there are installed on your Mac or not.
Siri also gives you search results and suggestions on the basis of location. Let’s say if you search for a restaurant which serves Thai food, it will search and give results according to the area you are in. You can also get weather information about anywhere in the world irrespective of the location.
To get the results like that you need to enable your Location Services. Follow these steps:
- Go to Apple icon and then System Preferences.
- From the System Preferences window, select Security & Privacy.
- Under Privacy, look for Location Services.
- Now put a checkmark beside Siri & Dictation and Enable Location Services
4. Create Notes or Set a Reminder with Siri
To create a note on Mac with Apple Notes, you don’t have to redirect to the app. You can ask Siri to do so. So, create notes or create an event in Calendar by commanding Siri. Siri can so far make notes, send messages, draft an email but can’t work on iWork documents. Also, Siri on iOS is more advanced than the one on macOS, it offers integration with note-taking apps like Things.
5. Search Files on Mac
Siri can help you search anything on your Mac, be it photos, chats, emails if other documents. You can also narrow the search area by mentioning the time frame like this month, or year. To refine the search and get faster results, you can mention name, type or location of the document or image, it will help Siri to respond quickly.
6. Search Information on Web
If you want to extend your search to the web as your MAC is not able to display desired results, then Siri will help you with that. Type speak the command or the query that you have such as Which Movies were nominated for Oscar last year? Or is Google Chrome better than Firefox? You even ask about the latest events happening around the world. Following latest trends on Twitter can be easy with Siri.
7. Take a Screenshot, Pin, & Preview Results
To take a screenshot, grab any of the results’ title bar and drag it to your desktop and drop to take a screenshot. The file would be saved as PNG.
To pin the search results, click + icon located at the top-right corner of the search results. Once pinned, the items will come up in Today’s tab.
To preview, select the search result, press Spacebar, you can take a look at the result.
8. Book A Ticket, Call A Contact With Siri
Siri is a perfect personal assistant, as mentioned above it can take notes, FaceTime, send messages, call, and draft an email by going to the respective app. To send a message, you can dictate the message to Siri and ask her to send it. Similarly, you can draft an email or call a contact. You can book an appointment with a doctor, or you can book a movie ticket for you. With the responses that Siri can give, it feels like you are talking to someone human.
9. Organize Your Music
You can ask Siri to play music from iTunes library and your Apple Music Collection. You can ask her to play pause, switch to next song and more. She can also play music apart from your iTunes library, for that you need to specify the folder in which the song is stored. You can also ask Siri to play from an album, band or artist, even from the year as well. No matter on which player the song is playing, Siri can identify it for you.
10. Use Siri to Tweet and add Facebook Updates
Yes, you heard it right! You can send tweets and post-Facebook updates using Siri. To enable that, you need to setup your Facebook and Twitter accounts under System Preferences. Go To Apple icon-> System Preferences and then choose Internet Accounts.
So, these are the things that your digital assistant Siri can do on Mac. Try them and let us know in case we have forgotten to mention any task that Siri can do.