Now that macOS Sierra has Siri built directly into the Mac operating system, you’re probably wondering what exactly you can do with the handy virtual assistant on your computer.
It turns out that Siri has many abilities unique to the Mac, which you can’t perform on an iPhone or iPad with the virtual assistant. Of course nearly all of the traditional Siri commands from iOS work in macOS as well, which is just one of many reasons we think Siri is one of the features in macOS Sierra that you’ll use most.
Accessing Siri on the Mac
Before issuing commands to Siri, you’ll want to summon the virtual assistant. The easiest way to do this are by clicking on the menu bar item in the upper right corner, the Dock icon, or by hitting the Option + Spacebar keystroke.
When you click to activate Siri, Siri will stick around until you either click the icon again or close the Siri window in the corner of the display.
Now that yo just a taste of the type of commands Siri can perform on the Mac. You can substitute obvious things as well, for example you can ask about different settings or preference panels, Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth, any application the Mac, ask to show any file type or document name, and so much more.
Mac Siri Commands List
This list will give you an idea of what to try and where to start with Siri on the Mac:
- Put my computer to sleep
- Activate the screen saver
- Make the screen brighter
- Make the screen dimmer
- Is Bluetooth on?
- Turn Bluetooth off / on
- Lower the volume
- Increase the volume
- Show me privacy settings
- Show me location settings
- Show me network settings
- What is my desktop wallpaper
- I forgot my iTunes Password
- How fast is my Mac?
- How much memory does my Mac have?
- How much free disk storage is available?
- What is my Mac serial number?
- What OS version is this?
- How much iCloud storage do I have?
- Open Mail application
- Open Safari
- Open Messages
- Open the website for OSXDaily.com
- Open the webpage (site name or site URL)
- Send a message to (name) saying (message)
- Open the Documents folder
- Open the Pictures folder
- Show me files named “screen shot”
- Show me files from yesterday
- Show me image files from last week
- Show me documents from two days ago
- Show me what I was working on yesterday
- Show me my music
- Play (song name) in iTunes
- What song is playing?
- Skip this song
- Remind me to call (name) in 20 minutes
- Show me pictures from last October
- Show me my photos from Hawaii
Your best bet to mastering Siri on the Mac is to simply play around with the virtual assistant, asking various questions, changing command language, asking for different types of documents or apps, requesting different information, just have fun.
In fact, nearly every one of the commands from this Siri commands list work on the Mac as well, though obviously iPhone and iPad specific tasks and features are not possible on the Mac, though some will adjust accordingly. Explore and have fun.
The Siri Commands List, Courtesy of Siri on the Mac
Another option is to ask Siri directly, what can you do for me? This works to reveal many additional command options as well, since Siri for Mac has a little help guide that comes along for the ride, you can access the details by opening Siri and pressing the info ? question mark button, or if you ask Siri on the Mac what the assistant can do for you. This shows a variety of menu items showing different types of commands to ask Siri, some of which are Mac specific and others which are generalized for Siri.
Those menus from the Mac showing giant lists of Siri commands have been posted below for easy browsing, check out the screen captures and try them out yourself:
Have any particular favorite Siri commands for Mac? Let us know in the comments.
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