7 things Siri can do you probably didn’t know about

If you own an Apple device, you’ve undoubtedly encountered its AI assistant, Siri. You can use it for all kinds of excellent functions that streamline your daily life. Many of Siri’s features are apparent: you can send text messages, call people, play music, and do all sorts of other things. But Apple’s assistant has some less noticeable features hidden under the surface.

Do you think you know everything you can do with Siri on your Apple devices? It’s time to think again because we’ve dug through all of Siri’s features to bring you seven exciting things it can you probably had no idea Siri could do. Knowing these useful functionalities might change how you use your iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or other Siri-toting Apple devices for the better.

1 Siri can restart your iPhone

“Siri, restart my phone”

Suppose your iPhone needs to be restarted for any reason. In that case, you can try to remember which volume button and side button you need to hit simultaneously to make it happen, or you can ask Siri to restart your device with the Restart my phone command. Siri will ask you to confirm that you want to restart the device. Once you confirm by saying Yes, the assistant will send your device through the restart process, fixing any weirdness your phone is currently experiencing.

2 Use Siri to translate words or phrases

“Siri, translate…”

Siri is a powerful communication companion if you know how to use it. Apple’s assistant can translate just about any phrase from one language to another. All you need to do is say Translate [whatever you want Siri to translate] to [the language you want it translated into], and Siri will tell you the phrase in the other language. For example, you could say, “Translate ‘where is the closest library?’ to French,” and Siri will show the translation on the screen and say it aloud.

3 Siri can find your parked car

“Siri, get my directions to my car”

Let’s say you’re in an unfamiliar city and have been searching for a parking spot. You finally find a decent one and struggle through the parallel parking process to nestle your car safely into the space. You walk the remaining distance to your destination only to realize you didn’t make any kind of note regarding where you parked. Are you now forced to wander around an unfamiliar city until you stumble on your ride? Nope, use the Siri command Get my directions to my car, and it’ll use the data available to help you get back to your parked car. It uses things like your phone’s connection to your car stereo and your traveling speed to approximate your car’s location so it’ll get you on the right track.

4 Tell Siri to remind you of “this”

“Siri, remind me of this”

Siri is more intelligent than you might think. The assistant uses context to figure out what you mean based on what’s currently displayed on your phone or tablet screen. As such, you can say Remind me of this, and Siri will create a reminder about whatever is currently on your device, be it a text message, website, or any other supported app. The feature doesn’t work with everything, but many common apps are supported. I tried using it to get a reminder about a Reddit post, and it didn’t work, but it worked perfectly with a webpage. Test it out and see what apps it can remind you about by simply saying, “Remind me of this” when you have an app open and see what happens.

5 Use Siri to roll some digital dice

“Siri, roll some dice”

This is simple, but it’s cool if you need to turn something over to chance. You can use the Roll some dice or Flip a coin commands to turn your fate over to the digital dice. The dice rolling feature seems to have been scaled back, as you used to be able to tell Siri to roll difference-sized dice, but now it appears only to roll two six-sided dice with the command. It’s still a cool feature if you need to make a quick roll, but it’s not as robust as it once was since iOS 17 launched.

6 Ask Siri to show you photos from the web

“Siri, show me pictures of [something]”

Siri can show you pictures of just about anything you can think of quickly and easily. It can make it happen if you want to see photos of a specific type of dog or your favorite car. All you need to do is say Show me pictures of [something], and Siri will load up a grid of images from the web, allowing you to tap any one of them to see them in full size. I tried it out with several different search terms, and the images shown were accurate to what I was looking for 100 percent of the time, so it’s definitely a helpful command.

7 Tell Siri to look up and show you a password

“Siri, show me my [website] password”

If you use iCloud to store your passwords, you can ask Siri to find and show a password in seconds (you will need to be able to unlock your phone for this to work. Otherwise, it would be a security nightmare). Just say Show me my [website] password and let Siri do the rest. For example, you could say, “Show me my Apple.com password,” and Siri would load the Password portion of Settings, scan your FaceID, or ask for your PIN to make sure you’re actually you, and then it would show you the page for Apple.com in your iCloud password chain.

FAQ

Q: How to invoke Siri

If you’re a new iPhone user, all of these commands sound awesome, but you might not know how to use them. Fear not; accessing Siri on an iOS device is easy. You can hold down the side button (or the Home button, if you have an older iPhone) for a bit, and Siri will start listening for your command. You can also say “Hey Siri” to wake the assistant up with your voice.

If either of these isn’t working, you may need to set Siri up in the Settings app on your iPhone. Here’s how to enable Hey Siri:

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Tap Siri & Search in the middle of the third block of options.
3. Tap Listen for at the top of the screen.
4. Tap “Siri” or “Hey Siri” if you want both, “Hey Siri” if you only want it to listen for that, or Off if you don’t want to use Siri with voice.

Here’s how to enable Siri through the side button:

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Tap Siri & Search in the middle of the third block of options.
3. Tick the button next to Press Side Button for Siri.