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Welcome to Tech-Knowledgy, where your tech questions are answered!
Q. I love Siri! I’m using Siri every day and wonder how I got along without her. But as much as I love Siri, she doesn’t seem to know who I am! She keeps calling me Bob, but my name isn’t Bob, it’s Alice.
I’m beginning to think Siri hates me! How can I get Siri to love me like I love her?
A. Sorry, but Siri is an inanimate object and can’t love or hate you. But I can help Siri recognize you.
Siri doesn’t know who you are when you take your new iPhone out of the box. Here’s how to introduce yourself to Siri.
Make sure you have added a contact for yourself to your Contacts App. You should have your full name, home address, office address and home and office phone numbers listed.
Then, go to Settings => General => Siri => My Info and select yourself as a contact.
Siri should then know that you are the owner of the phone.
Q. I see the Siri commercials with a guy riding in the car saying, “Tell my wife I’ll be late.” I would love to do that but I can’t even get it to call my husband. We have a long, complicated last name that Siri doesn’t understand. If I try to just use his first name, Jack, Siri pulls up all five listings for Jack in my address book and I have to pick which one I want. If I try to say his full name, Siri has no idea who I’m talking about.
How do I get Siri to know who my husband is?
A. Good news, you have three different ways to let Siri know who your husband is.
First, you could add another entry to your Contacts list, “Jack Cell” or “Jack Office”.
Second, you could tell Siri who your husband is. Say, “Siri, my husband is Jack.” Siri will then ask you which Jack is your husband and you choose from the list of five Jacks in your Contacts. After that, Siri will know who your husband is, so you can say commands such as,
“Call my husband at work.”
You can designate people with the following relationships:
- mother
- father
- parent
- sister
- brother
- child
- friend
- husband
- wife
- partner
- manager
- assistant
After you tell Siri who someone is, Siri will remember so you don’t have to tell it again.
Third, you can set a nickname for a contact. Go into Contacts, find the contact you want to add a nickname to, and go to the bottom “Add Field” and add a nickname.
I caution you not to give someone a nasty nickname. No matter how you feel about your boss, don’t give him a name like “Dirty Rotten Scoundrel.” You never know when a nasty nickname could come back to haunt you.
Have you told Siri who you are? Have you told Siri about your relationships? Have you added nicknames to your contacts? Do you love Siri? Let us know in the Comments section below!
* Image by Blake Emrys
Nice post Carolyn!
I love the way you have explained things so well through the means of question and answers! Makes it easier to follow things.
The best part of course was the husbands and hope it doesn’t mix up the names (lol)- that would surely be something worth looking out for!
Sure seems like something worth keeping a look out for.
Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
Hi Harleena, Thanks for your very kind words. You’re right, Siri mixing up names could be very embarrassing. Best to take a few minutes to tell Siri your relationships to avoid any confusion!
Have a super weekend, Harleena! 🙂
Siri has made adults to kids. Seen kids talk to inanimate objects as if they were an intimate friend. I see adults doing the same …
20 yrs, 30yrs from now, when these kinda interfaces would have become normal to expect, we’ll look back at this day, and be proud that we lived the moment when Siri, the first *usable* human-computer interface was launched.
Hi iRewardChart, You have an excellent point. It’s hard not to think of Siri as a person, just as children regard their toys.
Someday we may be explaining to the next generation, “When I was young, there was no Siri…” Imagine their confusion! 🙂
No, I think Siri has been kind of diggin’ on me; she thinks I’m special. I think she is actually getting used to my accent and I didn’t have to include any special apps or anything……….:).
I have been ‘exploring’ with my phone a lot, and the battery is not lasting all day………yuck……..and I have even downloaded the so called ‘fix’. I heard this was a shortcoming, and it’s true.
Having said that however, I still love the phone; too cool for school.
Hi Bill, I heard that about you and Siri. She has a big crush on you, from what I hear. I think the other Wonder of Tech readers might be a bit jealous?
I don’t think you have a battery issue with your phone, Bill. If you did, your battery would be dead by noon, not towards the end of the day. You need to be mindful of your apps. If you leave them open, they can drain the battery. Just a few moments of app maintenance will greatly enhance your battery life.
When you open an app, it will run in the background until you close it. Here’s advice on closing your apps from The Wonder of Tech: to close your apps, double click the Home button at the bottom of your device. A bottom toolbar will appear showing icons of your open apps. Hold your finger down until the icons jiggle and the red circle appears with the minus sign. Click on the minus signs to close the apps. Don’t worry, this will not delete the apps from your device. The apps will not be running in the background until you open them again. Your device will run more smoothly and your battery life will be extended when you take this extra step to manage your memory.
Also, check this article from The Wonder of Tech on push notifications and location services: To Push or Not to Push?
I’m so glad you’re enjoying the iPhone! 🙂
Carolyn, aloha. Great Headline! When I first saw it, I thought “no way, can anything tech hate you because you love tech.” Then I started reading and realized that it was you being brilliant and clever.
Carolyn, this post was a delightful and fun read. And, if I had the iPhone, I know it would have been a big help. Like training an animal, it sounds like people have to take a clear and disciplined approach with Siri.
Best wishes, my friend, for a terrific weekend. Aloha. Janet
P.S. Carolyn, I think you should create a scoop.it of your posts on iPhones which you could then tweet or send to people. Moments ago I created one on Klout with perspectives as well as how to disable and already it has received many clicks.
Hi Janet, You would be surprised at how much tech has hated me over the years. If you ever tried to get an app onto a Palm Treo cell phone from a website, you would understand completely. Because I have wrestled with tech often through the years (mostly successfully which is why I love tech), I deeply appreciate when tech works. Tech hurdles such as a bug or unfriendly user interface can be very frustrating. Even if there is an easy fix, you need to find it. Much better not to have the problems in the first place.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this article, including the title. I’m not sure if we’re training Siri or Siri is training us! 🙂
I loved your article on the tech tools. I will have to check out Twylya and Scoop.it. Could you post your link here with your Scoop.it on Klout? I would like to read that. There is a lot of controversy about Klout now and I find the articles on both sides very interesting.
Have a restful and fun Sunday, Janet! 🙂
Carolyn, aloha. You will love scoop.it Yesterday I made a couple and I will be doing more on different topics this week.
Here is my scoop.it on Klout. Pam’s post has many links to other posts. Happy reading. Carolyn, I feel very good about deleting mine.
http://www.scoop.it/t/klout-or-clout
Best wishes for a spectacular day. Aloha. Janet
Hi Janet, I will definitely be over to check it out. Thanks for posting the link! For any reader who is interested, here is a link to Janet’s very helpful article on scoop.it and two other social media tools: 3 EZ Tools to Expand Your Presence.
Hey Carolyn,
I agree with Harleena, not only do you explain things well, you find the sense of humor in it as well. The husband bit cracked me up.
You know if I did have an iPhone, you would be the one I would come to for advice and help. Oh heck, you are the one I continue to come to for advice on all things tech.
Thanks for making this post so enjoyable Carolyn!
~Adrienne
Thanks, Adrienne! I’m glad you and Harleena enjoyed the article, even though you don’t have an iPhone! Isn’t it amazing how much fun tech can be? 🙂
Good way of explaining how to use SIRI, though title suggested somethin else. nice post.. 🙂
Thank you, Faran! 🙂