Siri may not be known as the smartest digital assistant, but with a little help from you, it can remember nicknames. That makes it easier to reach your best friend, mom, dad, or other family member.
This way you can make Siri remember nicknames
Siri is regularly criticized, with crazy answers that do not do what you as a user expect. Luckily, there are some ways to make your iPhone and Apple Watch Assistant smarter, though they’re so hidden you probably don’t even know they exist.
From now on, by teaching Siri nicknames, you can quickly call your dad by simply shouting ‘Hey Siri, call my dad’. You can use this trick for all your family members, but also for colleagues, friends and any other relationship you can think of. This works as follows.
- Activate Siri and say ‘X is my Y’ where you indicate the name of the contact person in the place of the X and the relationship in the name of the Y;
- Siri asks if what you just said is correct;
- Say yes to confirm the relationship and associate the name with this contact.
In practice, you give a contact person from your address book a nickname and they are linked to you. This way Siri knows exactly when you mention that name, who to call or send a message.
Did you accidentally nickname the wrong person? Then you can easily undo this by saying ‘X is not my Y’, where you again state the name of your contact person in place of X and the nickname in place of Y.
Also read: Siri Beginner’s Guide: You Should Know About Apple’s Smart Voice Assistant
An even smarter Siri? That’s how you do that
Looking for more ways to take Siri quality to the next level? Then take a look at the Assignments app. With Siri Shortcuts (or Shortcuts in English) you can add all kinds of ways to have the assistant perform multiple tasks at the same time. View our overview of the most useful Siri Shortcuts and see how this works in the video below.