Help with Siri
Who is Siri
Who is Siri?
Think of Siri as your personal assistant who knows how to use the Internet to help you get things done. You tell Siri what you want to do, in English, and Siri will try to help. For example, you can ask Siri, "Book me at table at an Italian restaurant for two people at 8." And Siri will find the nearby Italian restaurants that have open tables at 8pm. Instead of making you search a lot of web sites, Siri helps you complete your task in the simplest way possible.
Today Siri "knows" how to help you and find and plan things to do. Siri can book restaurants, movies, events, help you find local businesses, call a cab and check the weather. We expect that Siri will learn new things quickly and become an even more skilled personal assistant over time.
How does Siri work?
Siri partners with over 30 trusted brands to bring you the best of the internet (brands like OpenTable, Movies Tickets, TaxiMagic, Yahoo! Local and more). When you make a request, Siri quickly brings you the answer or action that best meets your needs.
How Do I use Siri?
All you have to do is tell Siri what you want to do, in English, and Siri will try to help. For example, if you tell Siri you want a place for sushi or a good steak, Siri will help you find a restaurant that serves sushi or steak. Siri will assume you are interested in things near your current location and in the near future, but you can tell Siri other locations and times. For example, you can ask Siri "will it rain in Baltimore this weekend?"
If Siri needs more information, it will ask you. For example, if you want a restaurant reservation, Siri will ask for your party size and preferred time, and then find available restaurants with open tables.
You can also clarify what you want at any time. For example, you can change the location by just saying the name of a place. For example, if you asked "what concerts are playing this weekend", Siri will check locally. You can then say "in San Francisco" and it will check for concerts in San Francisco. You can also request other things that narrow down the possible results, such as "Italian food" or "sports events" or "PG-13 movies".
How do I sign-in up for Siri?
After you download and start the Siri app, you should see the Welcome Screen. Tap on the message, "Please tap here to get started" in the dialogue bubble.
(Note please don’t click on the login link at the bottom of the screen. You won’t be able to login since you won’t have an account yet.)
A sign-up form will appear requesting that you enter your first name, last name and email address. Enter your information and click the big blue "Go" button.
Siri will then send an email to the address you provided so that you can validate your email address. Go to your email application and open the email with the subject title,"Welcome to Siri- please verify." Click on the link, "Click here to verify that you are Your Name."
When you click on the verification link, you will exit your email and go directly to the Siri application. Have fun!
How do I speak to Siri?
Simply tap the "Say it" button and speak into your phone. Speech input works great if you hold the phone close to your mouth and speak naturally but clearly. It works better for some accents than others, and it works better in quieter places, but the most important factor is to speak to the microphone at the bottom of the phone.
If Siri misunderstands you, you can try again by clicking on "say it again." You can also tap in the text confirmation field to edit the phrase.
Tell me about "tap it"
You can also ask Siri by tapping and typing. The Tap It button brings up menus of things Siri can do, and also allows freely typed input like a search engine. As you select items from the menus or type, Siri will offer options that apply so far. For example, you can tap Restaurants, then select "serving" and then start to type your favorite food (e.g., "Coq au vin"). As you type "co", Siri will expand to "Coq au vin", which you can then tap to select.
You can discover the range of options that Siri understands by exploring the "Tap It" button.
How come Siri doesn’t always understand me?
Siri is "young" and is learning all the time, getting better as more and more users interact with it. Hopefully you’ll find, that if you ask questions within the current set of things that Siri knows (restaurants, movies, concerts, events, weather, taxis, and local businesses), Siri’s understanding will be pretty good.
However, if you ask questions beyond the current "areas" Siri knows, Siri’s response maybe somewhat hit-or-miss. To get a fuller understanding of what sorts of things Siri can answer, click on the "tap it" interface.
How are search results sorted? Are you being paid to feature advertisers?
Siri is your personal assistant and in on your side. The results we return are the best we know how to know how to make them for you. We take into account your preference, location, context and intent. And, no, no one is paying us to have their results show up at the top of a list.
Trust, Privacy and Security
We want to earn your trust by being transparent about how Siri works.
Siri is designed to make it easy for you to get things done on your mobile phone. You govern which information you share with us, and you can modify or delete your information any time you choose. We only share information with partners necessary to satisfy your request and we require your opt-in consent before we share this information.
Why should I give Siri any personal information?
By sharing personal information with Siri, you can personalize your experience. For example, if you share an address with Siri, then you can tell Siri "Send a taxi to my office at 2pm tomorrow" or ask "What’s happening this weekend near my home?"
You are in complete control of how much information you share with Siri. You decide what information to want to share and you, if you’ve stored personal information, you can choose to delete it at any time.
How will you use my personal information?
We use personal information in order to personalize your experience and satisfy your request. For example, when you request Siri to ‘find movies near home’, we might ask you for your home address in order to limit the results to movies playing near your home.
We also may share information with partners to complete your request after you confirm it is acceptable for us to do so. For example, if you want to book a table at a restaurant, we share the information necessary to book a table (in this case, name, phone number and email) with OpenTable so they can confirm your reservation with the restaurants they work with.
Please see Siri’s Privacy Policy for the full details.
What does Siri do to protect my privacy?
We believe that privacy is important and we protect the information you provide to Siri.
Siri is TRUSTe Privacy Seal program certified. TRUSTe is an independent organization that helps businesses promote online safety and trust. Because we are committed to your privacy, we have agreed to disclose our information and privacy practices monitored for compliance by TRUSTe.
Our Privacy Policy fully explains how we collect, use and protect your personal information as you interact with us online through our service. If you have questions or concerns about our privacy policy, you should first contact us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). If your inquiry does not get addressed satisfactorily, then you can contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with Siri to resolve your concerns.
If I use a credit card to make a purchase, is Siri secure?
To protect your information as effectively as possible, Siri is McAfee Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) version 1.2 certified and compliant with McAfee Vulnerability Audits. McAfee is an independent organization that helps businesses and consumers secure PC’s, networks, mobile phones and websites from emerging and known security threats. All personal information is transmitted via encrypted message (Secured Socket Layer (SSL)), and all Siri servers are secured and hosted by a tier-one, PCI DSS1.2 complaint collocation facility provider.
Once we receive your transmission, we make reasonable efforts to ensure security on our systems. We take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data. These include internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, as well as physical security measures to guard against unauthorized access to systems where we store personal data.
Does it cost me more to buy through Siri than to go to a partner site directly?
No. When Siri partners with a company, it offers their price to you on transparently and directly. When you use Siri to buy something like tickets, you are actually doing business with the third party provider, not Siri. Siri will manage your credit card if you allow it, but Siri charges on your card do not go to Siri.
My Account
This is a free app, so why do I need an account?
You set up an account when you start using Siri by entering your name and email address. That’s it. We ask that you provide your name so Siri can speak to you personally. (We figured you’d rather have your assistant call you by name rather than "hey you"). We request that you enter and verify your email address to prevent other users from sending you unsolicited messages or pretending to be you. Your name and email address is used to identify you to others when you elect to share information.
Over time, you may choose to store additional information in your account, like your address or your dining account with OpenTable. And, as Siri gets to "know" you better, it’ll take even less time for Siri to get things done on your behalf (like booking a restaurant).
How do I reset my password?
To reset your password, tap the My Stuff button, choose My Settings and select ‘Edit my Siri account’. Tap on the ‘Forgot your password? Tap here’ button and follow Siri’s instructions. If you press ‘Send’, Siri will send a reset password link to your registered email account.
Go to your email account, open the ‘Siri Password Reset’ email, and tap on the ‘click here to set your password’ link. You will automatically be taken to a secure password reset page where you may enter and retype your new password. When you press ‘reset password’, you will cause the Siri application to launch on your iPhone. When Siri launches, scroll to the bottom of the page and enter your registered email and newly created password. Press ‘Login’.
How can I set my home, work or other location?
To set your home, work or other location, tap the My Stuff button, choose My Settings and select ‘Edit my addresses’. At any time, you can tell Siri ‘addresses’ to manage your saved addresses, including removing this information. Over time, this collected information will improve Siri’s ability to refine results for you.
Phones and countries supported
What phones does Siri support?
Siri is built for the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch. We’re working really hard to offer Siri on iPhone 3G, iPad, Blackberry and Android devices. Please stay tuned to Siri.com for announcements about our upcoming platforms.
What countries does Siri support?
Today Siri works in the United States. To offer Siri in additional countries, we need to develop local service partnerships (for example, movie and restaurant bookings). We're working on this, but it may take a little while given all the partnerships we'd like to line up.
How can I get more help
My question is not answered. How do I get help?
You may contact us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)