iPhone/iPad: Siri for Walking Directions

Hello, my name is Douglas Walker. Today we'll be looking at, one of our most requested topics ever, and this one's all about how to get walking directions. Now Apple likes to call Siri our personal assistant. And with Siri, we're able to do things like set reminders, place a phone call, or even send a text message. And today, of course, is all about walking directions. So let's jump right in and use Siri to get our walking directions.

Most of the time Siri is turned on during our setup process. However, if you didn't have a chance to set it up then, check out our resource area just below this workshop. There you'll find step-by-step directions for exactly how to get Siri all set up.

Yeah, and we currently have voiceover running, which is Apple's built-in screen reader. And this will ensure that we get the most interaction out of Siri. And if you're not familiar with voiceover, you're really gonna wanna check out our listen with voiceover series.

All right, all we have to do to start Siri is to either say, "Siri" or "Hey Siri." It all depends on how we've set up our phone. Then we can just say or speak the destination to where we'd like to get our walking directions. We'll say something like, "Give me walking directions to McDonald's."

Now when we've finished speaking our directions, Siri will perform a search for our destination. In this case, of course, we're looking for McDonald's. And now if there's more than one McDonald's in our area, Siri might ask us to confirm the address. And if it's the correct address, all we have to do is just say yes. Then our maps app will open, and we will have our walking directions.

And yeah, there you go. So how about we go ahead and give it a try? Siri, give me walking directions to McDonald's.

Siri: One option is McDonald's on Johnny Mercer Boulevard in Savannah, about a half mile to your north, and it gets 1.5 stars on Yelp. Wanna try that one?

Douglas: Yes.

Siri: Getting walking directions to McDonald's.

Douglas: Wow, 1.5 stars. We might need to rethink that one, right? Anyway, our maps app has opened, and we've been given a go button for starting our walking directions here in the bottom right hand corner of our screen. So we'll go ahead and touch our go button here.

Siri: Go button.

Douglas: Yeah, and since we have voiceover running we'll just single finger, double tap to get things going.

Siri: Starting walking directions to McDonald's.

Douglas: Great, our directions have started, and Siri has mapped out our route to McDonald's. Now, if we were to begin walking as soon as we approach our next intersection, we'd be told the direction that we need to turn. And Siri would then announce the distance to our next turn. And it really is as cool as that. All right, let's say \that we want to cancel our walking directions. Well, Siri can help us with that as well. We'll just ask Siri to stop our navigation. So let's do it. Siri, stop navigation.

Siri: Ending navigation.

Douglas: And there you go. Our navigation has been stopped and that's how fast it is to use Siri to get our walking directions. You know, it's just so handy to use Siri to get walking directions. And this really is a feature that I use all the time. Again, my name is Douglas Walker. Take care, and I'll see you next time.