How to use Reminders with Siri

The Reminders app makes it easy to put together shopping lists or checklists for important events, such as moving home or packing for a holiday.

Just like Alarms and Timers, it can be one of the most overlooked Siri-enabled apps.

The truth is, entering reminders using the keyboard on your iPhone, then assigning dates and times can be a tiresome and fiddly process. So using Siri to speak reminders instead brings extra speed and convenience.

How to create a list in reminders

If you plan on keeping your reminders organized, it’s worth creating separate lists for work, home, shopping, and holidays.

Hey Siri, create a new list

Siri will ask you to speak the list name.

You can also create and name the list in one phrase. In this example, we’ve used “Shopping List”.

Hey Siri, create a shopping list

After creating it, Siri will ask you if you want to add anything to the list.

How to choose a default list

If you ask Siri to create a reminder without specifying a list, it will automatically add it to your default list. To choose or change your default list:

On the iPhone and iPad

• Open Settings.
• Scroll down to Reminders.
• Tap Default List and select your preference.

On a Mac

• Open Reminders.
• Open Preferences.
• Select your preference from the dropdown list.

Adding reminders with Siri

Activate Siri on an iPhone by using one of these options:

1. Say “Hey Siri” followed by your request.
2. Press and hold the Side button (iPhone X and newer) or Home button (iPhone 8 and older) on your iPhone.

(If this doesn't work, learn how to set up Siri on an iPhone).

You can easily add items to your lists using reminder voice commands in natural language:

Hey Siri, Add a reminder…

Hey Siri, Remind me…

If you don’t say anything else, Siri will ask you to provide further details of the reminder you want to create.

Rather than taking several steps to create a reminder, you can give Siri the information it needs in one phrase, as well as specifying a preferred list.

Hey Siri, add bread and milk to my shopping list

Setting reminders using time

You can ask Siri to remind you of something at a specific time.

Hey Siri, Remind me to wish John happy birthday on the 5th of August

Hey Siri, Remind me to book my vacation in 2 weeks

Hey Siri, Remind me to buy coffee in two hours

Setting reminders using location

Reminders are also location-aware. If you have ‘home’ and ‘work’ defined in your contact card, you can say:

Hey Siri, Remind me to check my reports when I get to work

Hey Siri, Next time I leave home, remind me to get petrol

You can specify a location name, such as a supermarket, if it exists in the Siri database.

Hey Siri. remind me to buy coffee when I arrive at Whole Foods

Ask Siri to add multiple reminders at once

Before iOS 13, one drawback has been the need to add a list of several reminders separately. While hardly a huge inconvenience, it had made creating longer lists more convoluted than it needed to be. Such as ‘Hey Siri, add milk to my shopping list, Hey Siri, add bread to my shopping list’.

Thankfully, iOS 13 remedied this, with the added ability to add multiple reminders simultaneously.

Hey Siri, add milk, bread, coffee, bananas, and beer to my shopping list

Changing reminders

If you want to change the reminder you can say:

Change the title to…

Change the time to…

Deleting lists and reminders with Siri

To remove a reminder, say:

Hey Siri, remove my coffee reminder

Hey Siri, cancel my coffee reminder

When prompted, say ‘yes’ to confirm the deletion, or tap the screen on your device.

It’s currently not possible to delete a list using Siri. If you ask it to, it prompts you to open the Reminders app and remove it manually.

Ask Siri to read out your reminders

Siri can read your reminders out loud to you when requested. You can choose which list you want to check or search by date and time.

Hey Siri, read out my work reminders

Hey Siri, do I have any reminders this week?

Siri will prompt you to unlock your device, then read out the top five results.