Siri isn't just another voice control system, it remembers context and it can understand relationships. That means, for example, you can tell Siri to call your wife's iPhone, and Siri will know who that is and which phone number to dial.
Not only that, Siri can send SMS or iMessages and even email any of your friends, family, or co-workers simply by speaking their name -- or their relationship to you -- before the command.
How to establish contact relationships with Siri
Siri will need to either learn who your wife, best friend, boss, or other relationships are before it can associate them with the proper contact. You can edit the Contact to enter that information, but what fun is that? The easier, faster way is simply to tell Siri what your relationships are.
- Hold the Home button to activate Siri.
- Tell Siri "Dad Mazo is my father". (You need to use the exact name in your address book, so if your brother's name is entered as "John Smith", that's what you need to say."
- Siri will then ask if you want it to remember the relationship.
- Say "Yes" or tap the Yes button and Siri will confirm that the relationship has been added.
Now, this works well for those "unique relationships" in your life such as mother, father, husband, wife, boss, etc. It is still not perfect when the relationship is not as unique – for example your child.
My wife and I have six kids. When I ask Siri to call my daughter, she again asks me who my daughter is. The difference is that there is no "daughter" in the relationship field in the iOS Contacts app – only "Child." So, my daughter gets put in the "Child" field.
If you have more than one child, or any multiple relationships, you will need to enter that data manually in your Contacts app.
How to manually add relationship data to Contacts
When Siri does get confused by multiple relationships, it is possible to manually add in the proper data in your Contact card so that Siri can make use of it.
- Launch Phone and tap the Contacts tab, or launch the Contacts app
- Scroll down and tap on your Contacts card (the one listed in Settings, General, Siri, My Info)
- Tap the Edit button in the top right-hand corner.
- Scroll down to the very bottom and tap the Add Field tab.
- Choose from one of the relationships listed; mother, father, brother, sister, child, friend, spouse, partner, assistant, manager or other.
- Type in the exact name or tap the Blue arrow to choose a Contact to put in that field.
- When you are done, tap the Done button.
- The contact is now stored as a relationship in your Contact card and you can ask Siri to "Call my mother" or whichever relationship you added.
This works like a charm EXCEPT for the Child category. I found that if I said "Call my daughter," since she is listed as the first "Child" it works fine. But I have two daughters and there is no way to get Siri to call a specific daughter. The same goes for the sons. If I say "Call my son" it goes to the first male child listed – but there is no way to differentiate between the sons.
So, Siri is not perfect with that relationship, but with others, it is a nice way to "personalize" the experience.
Privacy warning
Any relationships you add to your Contact card are now part of that card which means that if you email or message someone your contact card, all of your relationships will be part of that information. You may want to create a second, relationship-free Contact card to share with others.
How to get Contact information with Siri
Siri can quickly find you the Contact information for anyone on your iPhone -- far more quickly than tapping, scrolling, and visually picking them out typically allows.
- Hold the Home button to activate Siri.
- Say "[Contact/relationship name]".
- If you don't say the full name, and you have more than one Contact with the same first name or family name, Siri will ask you which one you want. You can save time by saying the full name to begin with.
- Siri will then pull up a widget containing the Contact information.
How to phone call a contact with Siri
Siri can place calls to someone by name, or simply by relationship, and to any phone number you have. Especially when driving, and with a proper hands-free setup, it's incredibly easy to say "call my wife at home".
- Hold the Home button to activate Siri.
- Say "Call [Contact/relationship name]" or "Phone [Contact/relationship name]"
- If the contact has more than one phone number, Siri will ask you which number you want to call. If you know you want to call to someone's work phone, you can make it faster by saying "Call [Contact/relationship] at work."
- Siri will then place the call
How to send an SMS or iMessage with Siri
Composing an SMS or iMessage with Siri is very convenient; it is also the ONLY way anyone should ever send a text while driving – assuming you use a handsfree device to dictate the message.
- Hold the Home button to activate Siri.
- Say either "Send a text" or "Send a message." To make the process even faster, say "Send a text to [Contact/relationship name]" or "Send a message to [Contact/relationship name].(
- If you don't say the Contact or relationship immediately, Siri will ask you for a phone number, contact name, or iMessage-associated email address.
- Wait for Siri to ask you "What would you like to say?"
- Dictate your message clearly.
- When you stop talking, Siri assumes you are done and asks you if you are ready to "Send" it.
- Just say "Yes" or "Send", or tap the equivalent button, and your message is sent to the recipient.
How to send an group SMS or iMessage with Siri
Siri can also send text messages to a group of people. All Siri needs is to hear the word "and" in between the names.
- Hold the Home button to activate Siri.
- Then I say "Send a text to [Contact/relationship name] and [Contact/relationship name] and..."
- Siri adds them all into the recipient field of the text message.
- Dictate the message and then tell Siri to "send" it.
How to send an email using Siri
Messaging with Siri is not limited to just sending text messages; Siri can also send emails, both to individuals and to multiple recipients.
- Hold the Home button to activate Siri.
- Say: "Send an Email to [Contact/relationship name]"
- If the contact has more than one email address, Siri will ask you which address. If you know you are sending an email to someone's work address, you can make it faster by saying "Send an email to [Contact/relationship] work."
- Wait for Siri to ask you the subject of the email.
- Dictate the subject of the email
- Wait for Siri to ask "What do you want to say"
- Dictate the body of your email and then tell Siri to "Send" it.
How to send an email to multiple recipients using Siri
Like with SMS and iMessages, you can use Siri to send out group emails; you just need to know which email address to use if your Contacts have more than one email address.
- Hold the Home button to activate Siri.
- Say "Send and email to[Contact/relationship name] and [Contact/relationship name] and..."
- If you have more than one email address for any of the Contacts, Siri will ask which address to use.
- Dictate the subject and then the body of your email, and tell Siri to "Send".
Remember, Siri is only as smart as you set it up to be, so, if you have three email addresses for one person, don't label them all "work" in Contacts or Siri will say: "Which address, work, work or work?"
If you intend to use Siri, take the time to make sure your Contacts are set up properly -– that is all Siri has to go on.
Find my Friends is a free from Apple and available on the App Store.
In order for Find my Friends to work with Siri, you have to have set it up and added contacts to the Find my Friends system. Once that's done, simply ask away.
- Hold the Home button to activate Siri.
- Say "Find [Contact/relationship name]
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Siri will launch the Find my Friends and show you the location of your friend, family member, co-worker, etc. right on the map.
How to get more help with Siri
If you still need help with setting up or using Siri with your iPhone Contacts, or any other Siri feature, head on over to our Siri Forum and ask away!
Rene Ritchie and Georgia contributed sections of this guide.
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