Twitter follower Tom McM posed an expectedly short question along these lines:
How can I teach Siri about my relationships?
All my followers are good people and therefore not the kind of folks who would invoke Siri simply to drone on and on about their domestic problems. Given that, what I believe Tom is asking is how to get Siri to respond appropriately to your “Call my little snuggle lumps” requests.
By way of background, Siri can respond to requests based on how you’ve labeled people in your life. But it can’t do that unless these folks appear as contacts on your device. So if you haven’t created contacts for your brother, second-cousin, undertaker, guy who answers the phone at the bar, and life coach, now’s the time to do so.
Once you’ve created these contacts, hold down the Home button until Siri emerges. In a bold voice proclaim “Claire Breen is my little snuggle lumps!” (And she’d better not be. Please name the person who is.)
After you correct Siri a time or two when she replies “Add Claire Breen as your little snuggle alarms?” go ahead and grant permission for her to apply the relationship. She’ll acknowledge that she’s done so. Repeat this process for other people in your life.
Any relationships you’ve added will appear within your contact card.
Note that you won’t see relationship entries in other people’s contact cards. To see all of your relationships go instead to your own contact card. Here you’ll see the names of those people you’ve established these Siri-generated relationships with. If, at some later date, you’ve changed partners or, through an unfortunate family spat, a sister-in-law no longer is, just go to your contact card, tap Edit, and then delete the relationship.
Have a question of your own (short or long)? Drop a line to mac911@macworld.com.