Siri’s level of penetration when used next to a television is not nearly comparable to that of Google Assistant or Alexa. Even so, if you have an Apple TV there are a series of commands that you might be interested in knowing to perform certain actions or get a little more out of this Apple voice assistant.
Siri, a stranger on the TV
Alexa and Google Assistant are the two voice assistants par excellence when interacting with a Smart TV. Partly because its market share is greater as it is present in devices such as Amazon’s Fire TV, the new Google Chromecast with Goolge TV or many Android TVs and even with operating systems such as LG‘s webOS or Samsung‘s Tizen.
By cons, Siri can only be used if you have an Apple TV. Apple’s set top box is the only device designed to be used together with a television that offers the option of using said voice assistant. Hence it is not so popular or that even those who have one of these products fall that they could take advantage of it.
So, if you think you have an Apple TV and you are interested in knowing a little more how you could take advantage of its voice commands, here is a list of some of the most interesting and useful that you can use.
Siri: the most useful voice commands to use with the TV
On the Apple TV to use Siri you have to go to the Apple Remote and press the microphone button. It would be nice if Apple renewed the device and added the action of activating it through an invocation command, but for now it is what it is. So the first thing is that, knowing how to activate Siri on the Apple TV.
Once you activate the assistant, these are some of the most useful commands that we believe can be in your day-to-day life. It is true that there are actions that, since you have the control in your hand, do not take you long through various keystrokes, but that is something that you have to decide yourself.
Commands to control playback
Through the touch panel of the Apple Remote it is easy to control the playback of what you are watching, whether you want to go forward, rewind or even stop. But using voice commands you can still specify a little more. Some interesting commands you can give him:
- Go ahead 30 minutes
- Go back 30 minutes
- Go back to the beginning
- Turn on subtitles in (language of your choice)
- What did you say?
These commands do not need much explanation to understand what exactly they do, although the one in What did you say? Yes, it might be interesting to know how it works. When you say that command, your Apple TV will rewind what you are playing for about 20 seconds and temporarily activate the subtitles in your language so that you can listen to and in turn read what they say. Thus, if it is something that is said in a noisy environment, you make sure you find out.
Logically you can also play, pause and modify those forward or backward times. The commands are indicative so that you get an idea of the things you can ask for.
Commands with content suggestions to view
Every day it costs more to sit in front of the television, open the application of the service we want and quickly decide what we are going to watch. Among the lists of recommended content, the most viewed by other users, the news included, etc., you can easily spend an hour and continue deciding what to watch. If it happens to you frequently, maybe your Apple TV helps you.
- What you should see is a command that makes Siri make a selection of the content it thinks you might be interested in. A choice you make from your own viewing history
- What can I watch for free and Siri will show you content that you won’t have to pay for or those that are available through active subscriptions. It may seem that it makes little sense, but imagine that it recommends something that is then paid within the Apple store or another service that you do not have contracted
- If you want to see a particular movie or series, say its name and it will look for you on which platform it is available so that you can decide whether or not you want to see it
- Movies by (actor of your choice) this is a classic and will give you recommendations where it appears
This last command can be expanded and combined with requests such as “movies of the genre …” or “movies of the year 2010” and even “movies of 2010 with Tom Cruise”. Here it depends a bit on you and what you think of asking.
Get more information from the content you watch
As in services such as Amazon Prime Video we have the X-ray vision to know the actors who work in the series or film, director, etc., on Apple TV with Siri, information about the film will be known if you tell it something like :
- Who is in this movie
- Who directed this movie
- What is the rating of the film
- When the movie was released
They are actions that can be interesting at some point in time. In addition, the evaluation is interesting since it searches Rotten Tomatoes to see what the users who have seen it think and thus give you an evaluation.
Control your HomeKit devices
If you use an Apple TV, it is likely that if you have home automation devices at home you have turned to those that offer HomeKit support and thus use Siri as a voice assistant to control them. Or alternate between this and other assistants such as Alexa, something that is also common although you have to be careful so that they do not get confused with the names.
Some commands are:
- Turn on the lights
- Change the color of the light …
- Activate the atmosphere …
In case you have lights or any other connected device compatible with HomeKit, from the Apple TV you can also control them using Siri. Although it can also be used to find your iPhone, make the iPad or Apple Watch ring.
Activating Siri
Without being very Siri fans for obvious reasons and despite its improvement in recent years, if you have not decided to use other voice assistants you can see how there are commands that are very useful. And using them on the Apple TV, along with the HomePods, may be possibly the best option. Because on the iPhone, iPad or even the Mac it still does not live up to what we believe most expect in this type of solution.
