What Is Siri and How Can Siri Help Me? (2024)

Did you know your iPad comes with a personal assistant? Siri can schedule events, set reminders, set timers, and even book reservations at your favorite restaurants. The virtual assistant extends a lot of the iPad's functionality to your voice, including the ability to skip typing on the keyboard and take voice dictation instead.

How Do I Turn Siri On or Off?

Siri is probably already turned on for your device. If not, you can activate or modify Siri byopening your iPad's Settings app and then selecting Siri & Search from the left menu.

You can also turn on Hey Siri, whichallows you to activate Siri by saying, "Hey Siri," rather than pressing down on the home button. For some iPads, "Hey Siri" will only work when you connect the iPad to a power source, and some older models do not have access to Hey Siri at all.

You can also use the Siri settings tochange Siri's gender. You can even change its accent or language.

How Do I Use Siri?

You can activate Siri by holding down the Home Button on your iPad. After you press down for a few seconds, the iPad will beep at you, and the screen will change to the Siri interface. The bottom of this interface has multicolored lines that indicate Siri is listening. Ask it a question to get started.

What Should I Ask Siri?

Siri is a human language personal assistant, so you should talk to it just like it was a human, and if it can do what you are asking, it should work. You can experiment by asking it almost anything. You might be surprised at just what Siri can understand or even some of the funny questions it can answer. Here are a few of the basics:

• Find nearby restaurants and events: Say or ask, "Find nearby pizza" or "What movies are playing?"
• Set a reminder: Say, "Remind me to take the dog for a walk at 9 PM."
• Set a timer: Say, "Timer 30 seconds." This one is great for cooking.
• Check the weather: With one word, say, "Weather."
• Update your social media status: If you say, "Update my Facebook status to 'Just watched Bridgerton and loved it'," it will do precisely that. Siri can also tweet.
• Calculate a tip: "What's the tip for twenty dollars and seventeen cents?" Siri will give you the tip amount at 15 percent, 18 percent, and 20 percent.
• Answer complex questions and search the web: "Who wrote Harry Potter?"
• Open apps and play music: "Play Ed Sheeran" will play popular Ed Sheeran songs you have on your iPad. And if you have Apple Music, it will play a selection from the streaming service. You can even ask it to "play popular songs from the 60s."

How Can I Use Siri for Voice Dictation?

The iPad's keyboard has a key with a microphone on it. If you tap this microphone, you will turn on the iPad's voice dictation feature. This feature is available anytime you're using a standard on-screen keyboard. And voice dictation doesn't stop with words. You can insert a comma by saying "comma" and even command the iPad to "start a new paragraph."

How Does Siri Work?

Siri works by sending your voice to Apple's servers to interpret and then turn that interpretation into an action. Unfortunately, this means Siri will not work if you are offline.

One significant benefit of sending your voice to Apple is that the engine interpreting your voice commands is much more potent than could exist on the iPad. It can "learn" your voice, picking up on your accent to better understand what you say, the more you use the service. You can evenget your Mac to activate Siri by voice if you want.

Is Siri Better Than Google Personal Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, or Amazon Alexa?

Apple is known for setting trends, and Siri is no different. Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have all developed voice recognition assistants. There's no easy way to judge which one is better, and for the most part, there's no real reason to pit them against each other.

The "best" personal assistant is the one you can access. If you mainly use Apple products, Siri will win out. It's tied into Apple Calendar, Notes, Reminders, and other iOS apps. On the other hand, if you mainly use Microsoft products, Cortana may work out better for you.

Perhaps the most significant factor is the device you are using at the time. You aren't going to use Siri to search your Windows-based PC. And if you have your iPad in your hands, opening up the Google app to do a voice search is one step too many when you can ask Siri.