Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Most Useful Siri Commands on macOS
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Completely agree with this sentiment. As an aside, people tend to forget that there's an entire generation that are growing up with voice assistants on mobile platforms. Having Siri integrated will lessen the friction between platforms by providing something more intuitive.
Last edited:
The one and only use it is capable of doing on my iPhone is missing entirely on the Mac: setting a timer.
but you can have her set a reminder for that task....when you ask for a 10 minute timer she will offer a reminder in 10 minutes. Same result in the end.
Siri, hide all the trolls on MR.
A thread full of avowed Apple fanatics dislike Siri and your answer is to flame with an accusation of trolling. Alrighty then.
Can I suggest Macrumors to write an article "Why I don't use Siri on macOS"? Then all the people feeling the need to say they have disabled Siri can post their comments there, leaving this space for those who want to suggest useful ways of using Siri and for those who want to learn about it.
Siri can be frustrating, agreed. But complainers on Macrumors are way more frustrating.
Siri can be frustrating, agreed. But complainers on Macrumors are way more frustrating.
It's way better to use Siri on an Apple TV than trying to "type" using the remote. I also get the feeling that in the context of that device it's listening more specifically for the names of TV shows and movies -- it gets them right the overwhelming majority of the time in my experience.
I'd love to use some of these. If only Siri would work on my computer. Smh
[doublepost=1524717279][/doublepost]
[doublepost=1524717279][/doublepost]
This comment is golden.
You're not an Apple fanatic. Your signature is literally "I own products from Apple, Samsung, Google, MS, and a ton of other companies. All of it works and does exactly what I want it to do. Personal use case. Nothing else matters.".
What makes you think I'm claiming to be an Apple fanatic? Certainly nothing in that quote you replied to. Thread full of Apple fantatics... implication being lots of people.
Last edited:
They don't think that you are.
Read their message again. Says quite clearly:
"You're not an Apple fanatic."
Context is our friend.They don't think that you are.
Read their message again. Says quite clearly:
"You're not an Apple fanatic."
It's a negative accusation. He thinks I'm claiming to be an Apple fan who dislikes Siri. To counter my "claim" of being an Apple fan, he quotes my tag line as evidence. To be fair, I could have been a bit more clear in my response. So I did edit for clarity. Even with my edit, doesn't change what he meant.Maybe you should read that message again.
Last edited:
Fair enough.Context is our friend.
Maybe you should read that message again.
I’d love to use Siri. But it often ends up taking more time to use it. As you point out you have to think how to formulate your request in Siri terms. Often I stumble while doing that or pause long enough that it stops listening. It then is just frustrating.
Occasionally I have used it successfully to set a reminder. And it is always fun to see what Siri determines I want if I ask her to play some specific music. It is usually comically wrong despite being something that should be easy. This is not my iMac but my iPhone from yesterday. Mac Siri would be just as bad.
I use Siri to get directions in my car ("Take me to 123 Main St" is much easier than fumbling w/ GPS inputs), but that's about it. Not sure when/why I would ever want it on my desktop.
It seems WAY faster to use the third-party Alfred 3 (or even the built-in Spotlight functionality) to handle any of the tasks mentioned in this article.
It seems WAY faster to use the third-party Alfred 3 (or even the built-in Spotlight functionality) to handle any of the tasks mentioned in this article.
I think it is very user and use case specific. I have started wiring up my home and I quickly have gotten used to saying "Alexa, turn off the bedroom light." Especially since my bed is across the room from the light switch.
Likewise, I have a Logitech Harmony hub. I say "Alexa, turn on Home and Garden." That turns on my TV, sets it to the right input, turns on my surround receiver, sets it to the right surround settings and changes the channel on my Xfinity box. If I happen to have the remote in my hand, I can just press one button to do the same thing, but remotes seem to crawl away from me when I'm not looking.
One of my favorite things is for watching movies. I have a theater room with blackout curtains and watch in the dark. Sometimes, someone needs to pause. I would fumble to find the remote, which usually ended up upside down in my hand. Now all I have to do is day "Alexa, ask Plex to pause" and it happens. And my regular guests can just pause the movie instead of asking me to do it.
So, I agree that telling a Mac "Hey Siri, open MacRumors.com" is not any easier than clicking on favorites, but "Hey Siri, open the garage door" while I am driving up is superior to using a garage door remote. I will admit that my biggest frustration with voice assistants is when I'm trying to do something while other people are talking. I find myself wanting to say "Shut up! I'm trying to turn up the music" but that would be rude.
I actually find Siri on my mac useful for doing simple numeric calculations when I'm working on a document. The fact that it leaves a results window up makes it more handy than on iOS since I can scroll back to the results to verify the numbers.
It's also (through the Wolfram Alpha connection) for looking up scientific constants (I'm an astronomer and do occasionally need to reference those things) and performing unit conversions (again, amazed that it can support even astrophysical units like AU, light years, etc.).
It's also (through the Wolfram Alpha connection) for looking up scientific constants (I'm an astronomer and do occasionally need to reference those things) and performing unit conversions (again, amazed that it can support even astrophysical units like AU, light years, etc.).
Siri on the Mac would be useful if it could construct complex search queries for files, but I just asked, "Show me all files bigger than 1GB", which is a pretty normal Finder search operation, but Siri replied, "That's beyond my capabilities at the moment."
Like most things that have come from iOS land to the Mac, it's a half-assed implementation.
Like most things that have come from iOS land to the Mac, it's a half-assed implementation.
That use case with plex is both a great example of how voice control is both great but has a long way to go in the same stroke. Having to say that dense and unnatural activation is precisely what John Gruber explained “is the problem with verbal interaction with Alexa is stilted. We have to say “Alexa, turn on «name of predefined scene»”. For example, “Alexa, turn on kitchen shades down” or “Alexa, turn on living room shades up”, where “kitchen shades down”, “kitchen shades up”, “living room shades up”, and “living room shades down” are all predefined scenes created in an iPhone app from Lutron, the maker of our shades and light controls. But we can’t just say “Alexa, open the kitchen shades” or whatever else one might say naturally. It’s very much like a verbal command line, linguistically stilted, and generally less convenient and certainly more error-prone than using the hardware remote controls for the shades and good old-fashioned wall switches for the lights.”
Last edited:
Same as me. My number one use of Siri on my iPhone has to be when I say “directions home!”. Cuts right to the Navi starting the route home.
