There's a quick and easy way to find your lost iPhone in your home without using Find My iPhone
I just moved into a new apartment a couple of weeks ago and I can't tell you how many times I "lost" my iPhone within my own place, among all the boxes, clothes, and furniture.
But even if you haven't moved recently, you know how this goes: Maybe your iPhone slips into your couch all the time and you can't find it — even if it's only "missing" for a few minutes, you feel total panic the whole time. Suddenly, nothing else matters aside from "Where is my phone?"
Of course, Apple has a solution for people that lose their iPhones: It's appropriately named "Find My iPhone," and you can use it by visiting icloud.com, signing in with your Apple ID, clicking the Find My iPhone app, and clicking "Play Sound." Your iPhone will play a loud tone to help you find it.
But, if you're like me, that's one too many steps to find something that's probably under your nose. So recently, I've tried a different trick: Siri.
Don't worry! You're not actually going to be using Siri. You're just going to call for her.
Your iPhone has a pretty decent set of microphones inside it, so if it can hear you, it'll play a tone back in response — no Find My iPhone required. Of course, it's not as loud as the Find My iPhone tone, and the Siri response doesn't play non-stop like it will using Find My iPhone, but it's much quicker and more convenient than the alternative.
To make sure this works, visit your Settings app, scroll down to Siri, and make sure "Allow 'Hey Siri'" is toggled on. This setting allows you to speak to Siri by saying "Hey Siri," which activates your phone and plays a tone to acknowledge Siri is listening.
So whenever you lose your phone and you know it's somewhere in your home, just call out "Hey Siri" and you should hear a "ding-ding" in response. Just go toward the ding! Keep calling if you need to.
Of course, this method isn't as foolproof as Find My iPhone is, since your iPhone may not be able to hear you if it's not in your immediate vicinity, or if the speakers are muffled by a couch cushion, for example. Also, "Hey Siri" won't work if your iPhone is in Low Power Mode, which is often the case for many people (myself included). That said, setting this up only takes a couple of seconds, and I've found it to be pretty effective. Three times in the past week I've called out "Hey Siri" from the middle of my apartment and it played a tone back for me to find it; it was much quicker than using Find My iPhone, and I didn't have to erase all of those annoying notifications you get afterward from using Find My iPhone:
See what I mean?
Watch: Why Siri sucks
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