When it comes to Siri for Mac, it goes a lot deeper into the software as compared what we have on iPhone/iPad. It can do everything from searching for the files, checking system settings as well as understanding contextual language. You can simply ask a question which can be followed by something related right afterwards. So, here is how to use Siri on the Mac and what you can can use it for.
Jump To Section:
- How To Use Siri On The Mac
- How You Can Use Keyboard Shortcuts For Activating Siri
- How You Can Pin The Siri Results In Notification Center
- What Siri Can Do On Your Mac
- You Can Ask Siri Almost Anything You Like
How To Use Siri On The Mac
At the time of installing and setting up macOS Sierra, you’ll be asked whether or not you’d like to utilize Siri on your device. But if you leave it for later, you can be able to set it up manually from your System Preferences whenever you like. If you don’t know how to use siri on the mac, here are the steps you need to follow to set it up manually.
- Click on Apple Icon that you can see in top left of the screen
- In dropdown list choose System Preferences
- Now choose Siri
- Enable Siri by click the checkbox right beside it
- Select your language
- Select the Siri Voice that you want
- And, if you don’t want to let Siri speak, turn Voice Feedback off
- Choose Mic input option from internal or external accessory.
How You Can Use Keyboard Shortcuts For Activating Siri
It is possible to click Siri in the Menu bar or app Dock on your Mac Screen in order to activate your digital assistant. But if keyboard shortcuts are preferable for you then you are not out of luck either. Here is how you can use keyboard shortcuts for activating Siri.
- Click Apple icon towards to left corner on your Mac screen
- In dropdown list that opens up, choose System Preferences
- Choose Siri
- Select your desired keyboard shortcut that you want to use for activating Siri in Keyboard Shortcut section. The default setting is Command-Space and the alternates available for you include Function-Space, Option-Space, or any other custom key combination as you like. You can use whatever you like for activating Siri.
After assigning the new keyboard shortcut to your Mac’s Siri, it is now possible for you to press the designated keys and hold them for activating Siri.
How You Can Pin The Siri Results In Notification Center
All the search results that Siri throws back to your Mac screen can be pinned in Notification Center. It can prove to be quite helpful if you’re tracking certain documents for your work. Here is what you need to do for getting the results pinned in Notification Center of your Mac.
- Click Siri in app Dock or Menu bar. (You can also use designated keyboard shortcut for activating Siri as well.)
- Ask Siri to perform some web search or find a document or file for you.
- When search results show up in the Siri window on your Mac screen, click ‘+’ button that you see in front of the results that appear on your screen.
This will pin desired search results in Today view in Notification Center of your Mac. If you want to remove those search results, you can simply hover over search section and click on the small X button.
What Siri Can Do On Your Mac
If you want to make full use of Siri on your Mac, here is the list of things that Siri can perform for you. Take a look and make the most of your Siri experience.
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Siri Can Find Files For You
All the documents and files on your Mac are accessible to Siri. You can make a search according to date on which the files were created. It is also possible to narrow your search down with some second query. Here is an example.
- “Find files that were created in last week.”
- “Select only those from Saturday.”
- “Select Pages documents only.”
It is also possible to find emails, calendar events, contact information, notes, directions, etc. Here are a few examples.
- “Are there any new mails?”
- “What’s scheduled for today?”
- “Find [Name of the note] Note.”
- “How can I open Apple Store?”
- “What’s the address of my mom’s house?” (Remember, when you ask the contact information of some relative, Siri asks for the name of the person.)
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Siri Can Give You More Information On Your Mac
Siri can access System Preferences as well as storage information for your Mac among many other things. For instance, if you’re looking for the storage space left on your Mac or the serial number of your device, Siri has got you covered. Here is what and how you can ask Siri.
- “How much of my iCloud space is left?”
- “What’s the memory of my Mac?”
- “What’s the size of my Hard Disk?”
- “How quick is my Mac’s processor?”
As of now, what you can’t ask Siri is your display resolution, screen size, etc.
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Siri Can Make Your Social Networking Experience Even Better
When you login to your Facebook and Twitter accounts on Mac, you can tell Siri to tweet, update Facebook statuses, and find everything happening on social media for you. Here is how to tell Siri what to do.
- “Post on Facebook ‘Enjoying Siri experience on My Mac’.”
- “Tweet, ‘Loving my new #Mac!’”. (When you want to use # you need to say hashtag and Siri will insert it into your tweet.)
- “What’s the latest trend on Twitter?”
- “How are people responding to #iPhone8 on Twitter” (When you want to use # you need to say hashtag and Siri will insert it into your tweet.)
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Siri Can Make A Search Through Photos Library
Your Photos Library can have tens of thousands of photos inside and it may be hard for you to find some of your old memories that you may be looking for. Fortunately, Siri can do the digging for you and find any specific content that you may be looking for such as a cat, lake or some food. Pictures can also be searched depending on particular date and location. Here are a few things that you can say to Siri for finding desired content.
- “Show the photos of my cat.”
- “Show the photos from my Disneyland trip.”
- “Show the photos of all my kids.”
- “Show the photos of my family trip to the Niagara Falls.”
If the Photos app has your photos indexed, they will be shown by Siri in its results.
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Siri Can Make An Online Search For Finding Your Desired Images
Siri can’t just search through the pictures you have in the Photos Library,it can search for images online as well. You just need to tell it that the search has to be made on web so that it doesn’t keep digging through the Photos app only.
- “Search for Photos of Narwals on the web.”
- “Show me the photos of Hilary Clinton available on web.”
One good thing is that Siri allows you to directly drag/drop any of the photos from search results into your documents. It’s certainly a great feature for those who often have to make some presentations.
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Siri Can Also Adjust The Settings Of Your Mac
With Siri, you can easily control quite a few of the Mac settings such as screen brightness, Wi-Fi Settings, Volume Controls, etc. Here are a few things you can try with Siri on Mac to control settings.
- “Turn off Wi-Fi.”
- “Lower the screen brightness as it’s too bright currently.”
- “Turn the screensaver On.”
- “Turn ‘Do Not Disturb’ Mode On.”
- “Make the Mac Go To Sleep.”
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Siri Can Launch Apps On Your Mac
Name any app that you have on the Mac you are using and Siri will open it. The functionality even works with the third-party apps as well. All you have to do is to say “Open [app name]” and it will open the desired app for you.
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Siri Can Send Messages For You
Yes, Siri can send messages on your behalf. It doesn’t just open the Messages app,it can type whatever you want in messages for you and send it to the desired contact.
You have to say “Send a message to [contact name]” first and then tell Siri what you want to type in the message. It will do exactly as you say.
Siri is compatible with FaceTime as well. Just activate Siri and say “FaceTime [name]” to connect automatically.
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Siri Can Keep You Posted With Latest Scores
Have you ever thought of a personal assistant that is also a big sports fan too? Well, Siri is! You can ask Siri to predict the winner of the next major event, or provide you with the upcoming schedule of games for your favorite team, or current team standings in a major league, team roster for tomorrow’s game, or player stats, among other things. Siri can give you all such information about major sports such as Football, Basketball, Baseball, Soccer, and Hockey. Also, it gives you such details on cricket as well if you are running macOS 10.2.4. Here are some events that Siri can tell you about
- Soccer: English Premier League, Italian Seria A, Dutch Eredivisie, French Ligue 1, Major League Soccer,Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga
- Football: NCAA Football, NFL
- Baseball: Major League Baseball
- Basketball: NBA, NCAA Basketball, WNBA
- Cricket: ICC and IPL
- Hockey: NHL
For all the events mentioned above corresponding to each sport, Siri can give you updates on:
- Scores
- Schedules
- Standings
- Player Stats
- Team Rosters
When looking to talk to Siri for knowing the latest in sports, you can say something like:
- “When is Australia’s next tour scheduled?”
- “What are the current team standings in NHL?”
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Siri Can Also Play Anything You Like On Apple Music
Both Apple Music and the music library you have on your Mac are accessible to Siri. So, if you are planning on listening to some particular song or an entire album, Siri is right there to help you with that. Here are a few phrases that you can try:
- “Play some interesting tunes for me.”
- “Play 80s metal songs.”
- “Play top ten songs on 2007.”
And, with the integration of Shazam, Siri can also tell which song is currently playing. It simply makes sure that you don’t need to go to iTunes just to check that out.
Also, as Siri can access settings of your system, you can also instruct it to adjust volume, skip, pause or even replay different songs on your playlist.
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Siri Can Be Your Evening Planner Too
As the Siri is compatible with Maps, Find My Friends and Safari, it can actually help you plan the evening as you like. You can ask Siri about the movies that are playing in nearby Cinemas – including their ratings– find out about the best restaurants in the area that you must try, and find friends who are enjoying an evening hangout as well.
Here are a few things you can try.
- “Name the movies that are playing at Hamburgtonight”. As soon as you click a particular movie name, it will take you to Fandango website.
- “How good is ‘White House Down’.”Your query will yield ratings for the movie from Rotten Tomatoes and there will also be a link for watching movie’s trailer on movietrailers.apple.com.
- “Search some dinner reservations for tonight at 7.” Though Siri cannot book any reservations for you, but selecting a restaurant will show you info card from Maps app and from there you can visit restaurant’s website or make a call for getting a table reserved.
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Siri Can Set Some Smart Reminders For You
There is no need to be specific when you are setting reminders using Siri. As Reminders application on your Mac works with the times, dates and locations, it can notify you in several different ways. Here are some options for setting your reminders using Siri.
- “Remind me of taking the medicine as I reach home.”
- “Remind me that I have to take the dog for a walk at 7:00 AM.”
- “Remind me of completing my resume on Sunday.”
With Siri’s strange ability of recognizing the app being used, it can set reminders depending what you’re currently doing. It’s all due to Siri’s machine learning capabilities. Here is an example of setting such reminders using Siri.
- “Remind me to check this tonight.”
- “Remind me to answer this mail after lunch.”
You Can Ask Siri Almost Anything You Like
With Siri’s wealth of information and its increasing intelligence, you can ask it just about anything you want. It can give you any information you want about sports, geography, music, astronomy, etc. In case, if it can’t answer something outright, it will try to make an online search in order to find more info on the topic and present it back to you quickly. You can, literally, ask Siri anything you like and with every query you make it will get better and better in times to come. And, hope you won’t have to ask again that how to use siri on the mac.