With this week’s “old” news circulating about using magical spells on your iPhone, I thought I’d look and see what other things you can ask Siri to do.

I say “old” news, because the Harry Potter spells were discovered back in 2016 but rediscovered early in January 2022. If you missed the news, saying “Lumos” will turn your flashlight on, “Nox” will turn it off, and “Silencio” will silence your phone. (I’m having an issue with “Nox” since I have a friend with the last name of Knox. It keeps opening her contact info! And once I got chemical information for Nitric Oxide. It might be a pronunciation problem. When I enunciate the “x” at the end, my phone turns off the flashlight.)

Many of my readers will think this is interesting but are wondering “How often do I really need the flashlight? What are some tips I’ll actually use? Now THAT would be magical!”

Privacy Alert:

First, we don’t recommend activating the “Hey Siri” feature because of privacy concerns. Instead press the “Home” key on the right side of your phone. That will activate Siri to listen to your one-time request.

Voice Commands:

On your iPhone, you can open any of your apps by scrolling to the proper page and clicking on the app. Or you can use any of these voice commands. Note: you should be able to use all these commands on any Apple device with Siri installed.

Calculations: If you’re quickly trying to figure out your car’s MPG ask, “What is 427.3 divided by 12.8?”

Weather: “What is the current temperature? or “What is the current wind speed?”

Phone Calls: “Call Mom” or “Call Mom’s mobile on Speakerphone” or “Facetime Joe”

Text messages: “Send Joe a text”. Then you can use the microphone to dictate your message. You can also say “Text Joe and Mom. What’s for dinner?”

Open apps: “Open Twitter” or “Open Facebook”

Research: “Siri: What was the name of Hagrid’s brother on Harry Potter?” or “What’s the elevation of Death Valley?” or “What are the highest and lowest points in Colorado?”

Take a picture: “Open Camera”

Look at your photos: “Open my photos”

Open webpages: “Open Geek For Hire Inc dot com” or “Open Ned Weather dot com”

Directions: “Where’s the nearest coffee shop?” or “Directions home”

Find your Apple devices: “Siri, where is my iPad?”

SmartHome: If you have iHome set up, you can also use Siri to control your lights, house temperature, open the garage or unlock the front door, or activate the front door camera to see who is ringing the doorbell.

Information about Geek for Hire Inc.

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has provided computer service to families and small businesses with Macs and PCs for the past nineteen years. Angie’s List and the BBB rate Geek For Hire very highly. You can find more on our website or give us a call at 303-618-0154.

Gail Eddy writes most of these articles. She’s the manager of Geek For Hire and is who you’ll likely talk to when you call for an appointment.

Our Covid Policy can be found here: https://geekforhireinc.com/covid19-policy. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3 support) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.