Hey, Siri! Did you know that Rene is my Boss?
Siri isn't just another voice control system, it remembers context and it can understand relationships. That means, for example, you can tell Siri to call your wife's iPhone, and Siri will know who that is and which phone number to dial. Not only that, Siri can send iMessages or SMS, and even email any of your friends, family, or co-workers. No matter how you like to communicate, Siri makes it incredibly easy to stay in touch.
- How to establish contact relationships with Siri
- How to manually add relationship data through the Contacts app
- How to get contact information with Siri
- How to call a contact with Siri
- How to send an SMS or iMessage with Siri
- How to send an email using Siri
How to establish contact relationships with Siri
Siri will need to either learn who your wife, best friend, boss, or other relationships are before it can associate them with the proper contact. You can edit the Contact to enter that information, but what fun is that? The easier, faster way is simply to tell Siri what your relationships are.
- Press and hold down the Home button or say, "Hey, Siri" to activate Siri.
Tell Siri about a relationship. For example: "Rene Ritchie is my boss" — make sure you say the name exactly as it appears in your contacts. 3.Say or tap Yes when Siri asks you to confirm.
Siri will confirm that the relationship has been added.

This works great for unique relationships but for relatives that have simliar titles, it can be a problem. If you have two daughters for instance, you'll need to assign them each a distinct relationship for Siri to differentiate between them. You can, of course, use things like "oldest daughter" or "youngest daughter".
How to manually add relationship data with the Contacts app
When Siri does get confused by multiple relationships, it is possible to manually add in the proper data in your Contact card so that Siri can make use of it.
- Launch the Contacts app.
- Tap on your contact card
Tap the Edit button in the top right corner of the screen.

- Scroll down and tap add related name.
- Tap the relationship type (by default, it will be "Parent").
Select a relationship type. You can also create a custom label.

- Tap the information button next to Related name. It looks like a circle with an "i" inside it.
- Select a contact.
Tap Done in the upper right corner when you are finished.

Siri will now remember that relationship. When you say something like, "Call my brother," Siri will call the contact connected to that relationship.
Privacy warning
Any relationships you add to your contact card are now part of that card which means if you send someone your contact card, all of your relationships will be part of that information. You can also create a second, relationship-free contact card to share with others.
How to get contact information with Siri
Siri can quickly find you the Contact information for anyone on your iPhone – far more quickly than tapping, scrolling, and visually picking them out typically allows.
- Press and hold down the Home button or say, "Hey, Siri" to activate Siri.
- Tell Siri the contact information you want to see. For example, you can say, "When is Amanda's birthday?" or "Show me Amanda's information."
If there is more than one person matching your request, Siri will ask you to confirm which contact you'd like information for.

This only works if the person's contact card already has the information listed. For example, if you don't have Amanda's birthday on her contact card, Siri won't know what it is.
How to call a contact with Siri
Siri can place calls to someone by name, or simply by relationship, and to any phone number you have. It works especially well when driving.
- Press and hold the Home button or say, "Hey, Siri" to activate Siri.
- Tell Siri who you want to call. For example, you can say something like "Call mom".
If the contact has more than one phone number, Siri will ask you which number you want to call. If you know you want to call to someone's work or mobile phone, you can make it faster by saying "Call mom at work" or "Call mom's iPhone."

The call will take place as soon as Siri is prompted. So, make sure you really want to call someone.
How to send an SMS or iMessage with Siri
Siri can quickly and conveniently compose SMS and iMessages either to a single or multiple recipients. Just like calls, it's especially useful when driving.
- Press and hold the Home button or say, "Hey, Siri" to activate Siri.
Tell Siri you want to send a text message to someone. For example, you can say something like "Text Heather I'll be late for dinner".
If you don't say the contact or relationship immediately, Siri will ask you for a phone number, contact name, or iMessage-associated email address.
Tap or say Send when Siri asks you to confirm the message. If you're not happy with the message, say "change it" to re-dictate it, or tap or say Cancel to abandon it.

How to send an email using Siri
Messaging with Siri is not limited to just sending text messages; Siri can also send emails, both to individuals and to multiple recipients.
- Press and hold the Home button or say "Hey, Siri" to activate Siri.
Tell Siri you want to send an email to someone. For example: "Send an email to Heather" or "Email Chris and Bobby".
If the contact has more than one email address, Siri will ask you which address. If you know you are sending an email to someone's work address, you can make it faster by saying "Send an email to Leanna at work."
Tell Siri the subject of the email. For example: "Apps", "Lunch", or "Vacation plans"
- Tell Siri the content of the email.
Tap or say Send to send your email.

If you're not happy with the email, instead of confirming it, say "change subject", "add", or "change message". You can also tell Siri to "cancel" to abandon the email completely.
Note: Ally Kazmucha contributed to an earlier version of this article.
Originally published November 2012.
Updated June 2014 to reflect changes to iOS 7.
Updated September 2016 to reflect changes to iOS 10.
Reader comments
How to call, message, and email your contacts using Siri
Unable to add relationships via Siri I guess because my contacts are synced via exchange gmail. Any solutions to this?
I hope that is a fake birthdate...
Well done Rene. I'm always looking for things that Siri will do. This was helpful. I like the Blackberry slam as well. Very funny.
OK. I added my daughter manually, and for some reason siri saved it as my "Child", not my daughter. I added my son, again manually, and he is not in there at all. If i say call my son, it calls my "child". I removed the daughter from my daughter and just left my son. i still can't call him by saying call my son. It calls my child, which for some reason is STILL MY DAUGHTER. Real smooth siri.
The same thing is happening with me... I was trying to set my moms phone up for her. Somehow I got it to add two children and it will ask which one it wants her to call. They need to fix it
Allyson wrote a nice quick reference here. Unfortunately Apple (tell me if I'm wrong) provides no way to send email and attach a PDF document from anywhere including iCloud or Dropbox.
Or do they?
I send texts through Siri all the time. It's one of the reasons I love using an iPhone. It's easy and effortless.
One thing I hate about sending messages through Siri is correcting them. If Siri mistakes a word, I can't simply say "change XXXX to XXXX," I have to repeat the entire message or physically edit it in the Messages app (and that's only if Siri actually KEEPS the message instead of only taking me to the person's chat).
Sigh
Sent from the iMore App
Hi.. How would someone ask Siri to dial 611? I can get her to dial a full phone number, like 819-999-9999, but 611, nop! She says: I cannot find 611.. But it works with 911! Weird