Siri commands that work well

I have never been a big user of Siri on iOS. Mainly timers, reminders, and parlor tricks. Now that I have a HomePod I use Siri all day.

Dealing with Siri on HomePod had a big learning curve, especially with Apple Music, which was new to me, and Podcasts. I found the simpler and briefer the command the better. I started a note in Notes for commands that have worked well. By ‘well’ I mean ‘successfully every time.’

What commands work well for you?

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Shuffle [playlist name]

I found that asking Siri to play a playlist and shuffle it either got me twisted into knots or Siri very confused. Whose playlist was the biggest stumbling point. Shuffle combines play and shuffle and, it seems, assumes one of my playlists.

I use “what have I got on today?” to have Siri read out my calendar appointments; works every time through CarPlay.

The most common I use is add x to my shopping list or OmniFocus. I also say “Play my music” a lot to get it to shuffle my entire music collection.

Worked for me too, thanks. I find tapping/typing new events in the Calendar app clumsy. It took a while to refine a Siri command that works, here’s what I came up with:

Create an event called [name] on [date] at [time]

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Lol, can’t blame Siri this time, Discource interpreted my bracketed date and time example as attempts at real dates. Sorry!

Rob, that’s good to know. Once I asked the HomePod to play a specific song by a specific artist. Siri just threw up her hands and shuffled my entire library! I didn’t mind that.

I fixed it for you! If you add a ` to the start and end of a word/line then Discourse will interpret it as code - if you add 3 before and 3 after a block then it will interpret all of the text between those as code (including line breaks). Markdown :heart_eyes:

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Thanks for fixing my post, Rosemary. I knew there was markdown for quoting but forgot. My bad.

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Those are backticks, rather than quotes (found on the same key as the ~ on a British keyboard, on the key above the return on US keyboards), they’re going to be very useful here I can tell! :slight_smile:

Mine is “Run a timer for X minutes” on my Apple Watch when I’m cooking. Call x person also works well. Part of my every morning habit now is to ask Siri, "Is it going to rain today?

Also, “Play Chvrches” now works perfectly and finds the right band.

English is my second language, btw. I had to change my diction back then to replicate how Americans do it :joy:

Nate, don’t worry, Siri doesn’t always understand me either. Whereas I have to repeat myself and speak deliberately, Siri understands my partner first time every time.

‘Hey Siri weather’ also works as does ‘hey Siri news’

Yeah, Siri understands me at times. I think my usage will change too when Homepod becomes available in my country. My usage of Siri jumps up when I acquired an Apple Watch since Series 0.

I quite like using it on my Mac but I only use it when I’m at home. I’m too embarrassed to invoke Siri at work. But what I noticed it that I can just whisper my command on my Mac and it instantly gets it.

I found an environment that totally confuses the Homepod’s ability to hear Hey Siri: cicadas on a summer night. Last night I moved the HomePod to the screened porch where we enjoyed dessert. I bet the neighbors laughed when they heard the two of us yelling Hey Siri dozens of times. In the end I had to get up, cross the room, and long press the top of the HomePod like some kind of caveman.

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