Use Siri to Add Relationships and Simplify Voice Commands

Here is a little trick that will simplify your interaction with Siri. If you don’t already know, Siri is the built-in virtual assistant of any Apple iPhone, iPad or iPod.

This tip is about creating relationships with your contacts. You can let Siri know which contact is your mother, sister, manager and so on.

This way you will be able to quickly ask your virtual assistant to “Call my mother!” or “Text my manager!” instead of speaking out the full contact names.

This is particular helpful when you have contacts that are harder to pronounce, or when you have many contacts with one similar name and you need to speak the full name in order to make sure that you select the correct one.

How To Add Relationships Using Siri

Press and hold the “Home” button of your iPhone until Siri menu pops up. Next simply speak the name of your contact and the type of relationship you have with him/her. i.e. : “Patricia is my manager!”.
Siri will ask for confirmation if you tap or speak “Yes”, relationship will be added to your profile.
You can name the relationship as you wish. Use a popular one like wife, spouse or a slang like precious, lovely or any other term that you enjoy spoiling your contact.

Relationship Types
iOS comes with a series of built-in relationship labels which include: mother, father, parent, brother, sister, child, friend, spouse, partner, assistant and manager.

However, you can create custom labels by using the “Add Custom Label” option. Siri will do this automatically for you if you ask her to add a relationship and the label is not built-in.

Using Relationships

Once a relationship is in place you can use it to ask your iOS virtual assistant to complete various tasks for you. i.e.: “Call my office!” or “Set a meeting with my manager!”

How To Delete Relationships

I tried to ask Siri to remove my relationship with Patricia saying:
“Patricia is not my manager!” and got the following reply:
“Sorry, Vlad, I can’t remove relationships for you.”

This means that you have to do remove relationships manually once they are not valid anymore. You can do this fast by opening the spotlight search, reaching for your own contact, tapping “Edit”, scrolling towards relationship labels and deleting it by tapping the red minus icon. Don’t forget to tap on “Done” to save changes!

Siri Add/Remove Relationships Video Tutorial

As usual, I’ve also recorded this video for you. Creating and using relationships with Siri won’t have any secrets for you anymore, after you watch it!

Related: Check out these iPhone voice dictation commands!