Apple first introduced Siri in October 2011, inspiring widespread excitement over what the virtual assistant was capable of. Still in her beta stage, she's full of surprises – and rumored to be gearing up for an upgrade with the next iPhone . In the meantime, we've compiled a list of Siri's 10 most useful, entertaining, and underused tricks.

1. Adjust your home button Note: This only works with iPhone 7. The iPhone 7 doesn’t have the same pressable home button as its predecessors. Instead, it operates on haptic technology, which responds even when it feels light pressure. You’re not alone if you find that there’s a learning curve for using the new home button. Fortunately, you can adjust the sensors in the home button to find what is most instinctive to your finger. Apple offers three different levels of sensitivity that you can choose from in Settings. Simply go to Settings > General > Home Button. Apple will walk you through the steps to “choose your click.”

2. Use the magnifier feature Even if you’re not a detective, being able to see things up close is a valuable asset. Apple’s iOS 10 introduces a new addition to its Accessibility options. Head to Settings > General > Accessibility > Magnifier and swipe the Magnifier switch on. Then, simply triple tap on the home button, which will open up the camera with a special zoom slider that lets you see things much more closely than the standard camera zoom.

3. Shoot 4K video Note: This only works with iPhone 7. Apple has revamped the iPhone’s camera in the 7 models and it now features Hollywood level recording capabilities. You can toggle between different video recording resolutions in Settings under Photos and Camera. Resolution options start at 720 HD and extend all the way to 4K. Keep in mind that shooting in 4K will drain your phone’s disk space so sticking with standard HD is probably best for everyday recording.

4. Get updated on weather we’re you’re headed Note: this only works with iPhone 7 Digital weather updates are always a plus, especially if your plans hinge on whether a rainstorm might be coming your way. With iOS 10.3 on iPhone 7 you can receive real time weather updates through the 3D Touch feature which will show you a seven-hour forecast for any point on any map. See the weather of nearby towns, cities, and states by applying firm pressure on any geographic point within the maps app.

5. Help Siri with her punctuation Siri is pretty good with simple dictation, but when it comes to changes in punctuation and line spacing, it needs a bit more direction. Luckily, this virtual assistant does exactly what you want it to if you know what to say.



Siri recognizes all of the following symbols and commands: open/close parenthesis, em dash (the long dash), copyright, dollar, cent, degree, percent, asterisk, ampersand, all caps, all caps off, cap (which capitalizes a single letter), registered, and more. So if you wanted to dictate an email without making any manual changes, you would say something like this:



“cap Dear Siri comma cap, It is my regret to inform you that cap I will have to reschedule our meeting today period.”

6. Keep Siri private By holding down the home button on your iPhone, you – and anyone else ­– can quickly access Siri even without entering a passcode. She won’t let you access any apps, but addresses and directions aren’t off limits. To make your phone more secure, go into Settings, General, Passcode Lock, and turn Siri “off.” This keeps her completely hidden beneath the passcode lock, making it impossible for anyone without the passcode to access her wealth of information.

7. Make Siri your tip calculator You’re at a restaurant, it’s the end of a meal, and now you have to figure out how to split the bill and tip your waiter correctly. The larger the group, the larger the bill – and your headache. But never fear, Siri’s good at math. All you need to know is one equation: “What is [percentage] tip of [price] split by [how many] people?” Or if you just need to know what 20 percent of $23 is, simply dictate “23 dollars plus 20 percent” for your new total.

8. Use Siri for personal entertainment The designers over at Apple weren’t going to release Siri without inserting a few cute jokes. Ask her to sing you a song and she’ll respond, in her normal intonation, “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do.” Ask what the meaning of life is and she might say, “I can’t answer that now, but give me some time to write a very long play in which nothing happens.” Ask how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood – she’ll say, “It depends on whether you were talking about African or European woodchucks,” or even, “42 cords of wood, to be exact. Everyone knows that.”

9. Give Siri the ol' reboot If your Siri’s moving a bit slow, there’s only one command you need. Tell Siri “restart,” and she’ll effectively respring your iPhone’s SpringBoard. The SpringBoard is the app that controls the iOS home screen. Commanding Siri to restart won’t turn the phone itself off and on – only the operating system. Some have complained that Siri doesn’t like to restart, and will simply say "What's next?" Others have claimed they have had no problems, so the function could be underworks at Apple (something to look out for in the next update, maybe).