More Tips to Make Siri Work for You

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Safari

The other day I was speaking to someone who had just gotten a new iPhone 4S. They love the phone but were complaining that Siri doesn’t seem to work very well. We spent a few minutes going over some of the Siri ins and outs and, would you believe, he now loves Siri. Because of that, I thought I would circle back and share a few more tips that can make Siri a more effective productivity tool.

Talk to Me: As is the case with all voice recognition, you need to speak in a particular manner if you want Siri to transcribe text accurately. In fact, if others hear me talking to Siri they give me a funny look. I deserve it since I sound like a robot but it pays off in excellent transcription quality.

It is absolutely worth the investment of time to try a few different ways of speaking to Siri to find the one which works best with your voice. It may mean you need to go a particular speed, it may mean you need to leave a certain amount of space between each word, or it may simply be the fact that you need to speak at a certain volume. Small things make a big difference when it comes to the accuracy of voice transcription and this is especially true with Siri.

My suggestion is simple. Take a piece of text, open the iOS Notes app and “type it” using the iPhone 4S’ voice recognition. Do this a few times and change your speed, intonation etc each time. Then see which piece of text is most accurate.

Punctuation Matters: Punctuation is actually quite simple and accurate with Siri so long as you do it the proper way. When you want to add punctuation, you need to pause before you state the character you want to insert, state it “period, comma, semi-colon etc) and then briefly wait a second time before continuing to dictate. Speaking this way is a bit awkward at first but it works almost perfectly once you get the hang of it.

Headsets Matter: I found that using the right corded or Bluetooth headset can help tremendously when using Siri in an environment with even a small amount background noise. So far the headset that works best for me with Siri is the Plantronics Voyager Pro HD. I’m not sure why this is the case but it is. In addition, when using a Bluetooth headset I find that there is an initial beep when the headset connects but then I need to wait for the “Siri noise” that indicates Siri is actually listening to me. Patience is a virtue here since, speaking too soon, will yield incomplete text.

Safari

Other tips that I have already covered include the importance of cleaning up your contacts (you can find that post here), using the right application so that you can Siri dictate to your iPhone and then finish editing on a different, larger device (you can find that post here) and, of course, making sure that your contact information includes all of your specific data as well as key relationships to people you contact frequently. This will speed up the process of using Siri significantly by allowing you to refer to the relationship and not the person.

Safari

Apple is calling Siri a beta and, to a certain degree, that’s true. After all, the system did go down for hours the other day. But with a little bit of practice and a small time investment, I suspect you will quickly find that, Beta or not, Siri is nothing short of invaluable.

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About the Author

Dan Cohen
Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. Dan is married to Raina Goldberg who is also an avid user of Apple products. They live in New Jersey with their golden doodle Nava.

6 Comments on "More Tips to Make Siri Work for You"

  1. Along the same lines as the right Bluetooth headset is Bluetooth built-in to your vehicle.  Siri in my car through the built-in Bluetooth is very inaccurate.  I’m still working through different speeds, volumes, and such with my voice to improve accuracy.  This is all unfortunate since being able to talk to Siri, handsfree, while driving is a great safety feature.  Only it isn’t working out as a safer driving experience since I get angry and distracted by needing to repeat myself multiple times, and then often just manually input the reminder, text, or appointment while driving so that I won’t forget it by the time I am safely stopped.  Hopefully I’ll find the ideal speaking conditions for me to improve accuracy.

  2. I just got a new iPhone 4s.  My first iPhone.  I’ve had two Droids and so has my husband.  I guess my question is this….if the Droid understand every word I say without any errors, why can’t Siri?   The Droids are amazing when it comes to voice recognition.  I’d say that Apple better catch up because I shouldn’t have to work so hard to have it hear me correctly.  I’m just sayin………….

  3. miracle!!!  Siri is my new best friend!!!

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