A couple of years back, the iPhone felt like it was just constantly attached to you. It would never be more than a couple of feet from you. But now that we’ve got iPads, Apple Watches and AirPods, the iPhone now acts as a “base station” for all our connected devices. This means that it’s really easy to lose track of where your iPhone is. It’s somewhere in your home or office, but where exactly? Usually, you spend a couple of minutes frantically looking for your iPhone before heading out the door. Now, you can just use Siri to find out where your iPhone.
Hey Siri, Where Art Thou?
If you’ve got an iPhone that supports the Hey Siri functionality (iPhone 6s and later), all you have to do is say “Hey Siri, where are you” and Siri will get back to you and she will say something. It might be a snarky joke (classic Siri), or just something to guide you where your phone is. But by the time Siri starts to say something, the battle will be won. As long as you’re in the same home or office, you should be able to hear Siri’s voice and it should guide you to the general location of where your phone is.
If your phone’s volume is too low, say something like “Hey Siri set a timer for 10 seconds”. Like clockwork, your phone will start buzzing in 10 seconds.
If it’s not working on your iPhone, you might not have turned on the Hey Siri feature when setting up your iPhone. To enable this feature, go to Settings -> Siri & Search -> Listen for “Hey Siri”.
Other Ways to Get There
If Siri won’t listen to you, there are other ways you can use to find your iPhone in a couple of seconds instead of a couple of minutes.
Apple Watch: If you’ve got your Apple Watch, just swipe up to get to the Control Center and tap on the Ping my iPhone button. It will start buzzing your iPhone, even if you’ve got the silent mode turned on.
Find my iPhone: Log in to iCloud.com from your computer, go to the Find my iPhone section and ping your iPhone. It will start buzzing loudly. This will work even if your iPhone is not in the same area as you are.
Siri Actually Does a Lot
Writing off Siri as a dumb snarky virtual assistant is very easy. While Siri is clearly lacking when it comes to knowledge-based questions, it’s actually quite reliable for specific things you do on your iPhone. When it comes to calling someone, reading you the news, drafting a message, changing settings, adding things to a shopping list, Siri will do get it right almost every time.
Read more: 9 Cool Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do with Siri
Do you use Siri often? Will you start using it more now that you know it does quite a lot? Share with us in the comments below.
