Questions Not to Ask Siri
Twenty questions a phone assistant is the wrong tool for: medical and legal problems, emergencies, personal decisions, checking whether something is true, and anything you would not want answered from a locked screen. Each entry says what to do instead.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Hey Siri, am I having a heart attack?
Why ask it
In an emergency, minutes spent talking to a phone are minutes lost. Say "call 911," or your local emergency number, which is the one thing an assistant does quickly and well; leave the diagnosis to the people who arrive.
Hey Siri, what's wrong with me?
Why ask it
It can only read a web page aloud, and it cannot see you, take a history or examine anything. For a new symptom, a pharmacist or a GP will get further in five minutes than any amount of searching.
Hey Siri, is it safe to take these two together?
Why ask it
Interactions depend on the exact drugs, doses and your own history, and a misheard drug name changes the answer completely. Pharmacists check interactions as routine work, usually free and on the spot.
Hey Siri, what dose should I give my child?
Why ask it
Children's doses are worked out by weight and age, and the numbers on a search result may be for a different strength or a different country. Read the label and ring the pharmacy or a nurse line.
Hey Siri, is this medicine safe in pregnancy?
Why ask it
Advice here changes with the trimester and with the specific product, and general web summaries flatten those distinctions. This is a question for a midwife, GP or pharmacist.
Hey Siri, what do my test results mean?
Why ask it
Reference ranges differ between laboratories, and a single value out of range often means nothing on its own. The person who ordered the test is the person who can interpret it.
Hey Siri, I don't want to be alive.
Why ask it
An assistant will usually offer a helpline number, and that is the limit of what it can do: it cannot follow up, and it cannot stay with you. If you are in that place, ring the helpline it offers, or a doctor, or someone you trust, and say it out loud to a person.
Hey Siri, can my landlord do this?
Why ask it
Tenancy law differs by country, state and sometimes city, and the top search result is often about somewhere else. A tenants' union, a housing charity or a local advice service will answer for your jurisdiction.
Hey Siri, what does this clause in my contract mean?
Why ask it
Meaning depends on the rest of the document and on the law it was written under, neither of which an assistant has. If the contract matters, pay someone to read it once rather than guessing twice.
Hey Siri, how much tax do I owe?
Why ask it
The answer depends on your income, allowances, deductions and where you live, so a spoken figure is worthless. Use the tax authority's own calculator or an accountant.
Hey Siri, should I leave him?
Why ask it
It has no idea what has happened, and any answer it produces comes from an article written for someone else. Decisions like this need a friend who knows the history, or a counsellor who can ask questions back.
Hey Siri, who should I vote for?
Why ask it
You will get either a refusal or a page it happened to find, neither of which is a basis for a vote. Election commissions and candidates' own published material are slower and far more useful.
Hey Siri, is this true?
Why ask it
Reading a result aloud strips away the things you use to judge a source: the publication, the date, the byline and the comments underneath. If a claim matters, look at the screen and find who is making it.
Hey Siri, what's the answer to question four?
Why ask it
It will read the first thing it finds, which for maths is frequently a different problem with similar numbers. Worse, it removes the working, which is the part being marked.
Hey Siri, what's the best car seat?
Why ask it
Best returns whatever a page has optimised to be called best, and buying guides are often paid placements. For anything about safety, go to the regulator's or a consumer body's own testing.
Hey Siri, read my messages.
Why ask it
If the assistant is enabled on the lock screen, some requests can be answered by anyone holding the phone. Worth testing on your own handset while it is locked, and turning off if the result surprises you.
Hey Siri, what's my home address?
Why ask it
Same problem as messages, with a bigger consequence if the phone is lost or taken. Check what a locked phone will still tell a stranger, then decide what to leave enabled.
Hey Siri, delete all my photos.
Why ask it
Broad, destructive commands are exactly where a misheard word costs you something you cannot recover. Do anything irreversible with your eyes on the screen and a confirmation in front of you.
Hey Siri, text Dave that I'm running late.
Why ask it
Fine in principle, and the reason it goes wrong is the contact list: two Daves, or a name that sounds like another. Glance at the screen before it sends, especially in a car where you are not looking at all.
Hey Siri, do you love me?
Why ask it
The answer is a line written by a team of people, chosen from a short list. Harmless as a joke, worth knowing as a fact: nothing it says about itself is a report of anything, and it does not remember the exchange as a conversation.
What a Phone Assistant Is Actually For
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Where it genuinely helps
- Single, unambiguous actions: set a timer, call a named contact, start navigation, play an album, convert units, do arithmetic out loud.
- Hands-free moments where looking at a screen is worse than a small error: driving, cooking, carrying a child.
- Reaching emergency services fast. Learn the exact phrase for your device and country before you need it.
- Anything where being wrong is cheap. The rule of thumb: if a mistake would cost money, health or a document, use a screen.
Before you rely on an answer
- 1Look at the phone. Most spoken answers come with a source on screen that the voice does not mention.
- 2Check who wrote it and when. A confident sentence from a content farm sounds identical to one from a health service when read aloud.
- 3Ask whether the answer is local to you. Law, tax, medicine and emergency numbers all change across borders, and search results do not.
- 4For anything that matters, get a second source before acting. If you cannot be bothered to, it did not matter.
Common pitfalls
Using it as a first opinion on health
Searching a symptom by voice tends to produce either the most alarming explanation or the most reassuring, depending on wording. Neither is a reason to act or to wait; a pharmacist is quick, close and free to ask.
Mistaking fluency for verification
A read-aloud answer has no hedging, no date and no author. The confidence belongs to the voice, not to the underlying page.
Forgetting the lock screen
Assistant access on a locked phone is a convenience with a cost. Test what yours will answer to a stranger, then set it deliberately rather than by default.
Talking to it about a decision
Personal decisions need someone who can ask you questions. An assistant only answers, which is why the reply always sounds like a magazine and never like advice.
Worth setting up once
- Decide whether the assistant may answer while the phone is locked, and check the setting after each major system update.
- Fill in the medical ID or emergency information on your phone, which is readable without unlocking and useful to a paramedic.
- Learn the emergency call phrase and the button shortcut, and practise it once so it is not new in a crisis.
- Save the number of a nurse advice line or your pharmacy in your contacts, so the fast option is a person rather than a search.
- Get into the habit of glancing at the screen after any spoken command that sends, buys or deletes something.