Virtual assistants can get a bit boring after a while, so it’s always good to find new ways to activate their features.
Apple includes a fun way to control your iPhone, using Harry Potter spells.
There are three built-in Siri spells, which you can use directly without setting anything up:
- For turn on the flashlight say: “Hey Siri, Lumos Maxima” or “Hey Siri, Lumos”
- For turn off the flashlight say: “Hey Siri, Nox” (the problem with this one is that, at least my iPhone understands Knox instead of Nox and it doesn’t work)
- For open an app (for example, TikTok), say: “Hey Siri, Accio TikTok” (note that Accio is pronounced “akio”)
How to create your own spells?
If you are a true fan of Harry Potter, having only three spells may not seem like much. Creating your own using Shortcuts is very easy and fun, as you have access to a wide variety of functions of your iPhone through these shortcuts.
To create your own spell, follow these steps:
- Open the Shortcuts app, tap on the ‘+’ sign on the top right
- At the top, put a name, for example “Avada Kedavra”
- You will now see a dropdown menu with categories of actions and suggestions. What you select is up to you, but you could send a WhatsApp message to a person, play an Apple Music playlist, search for a person in the Find app, etc.
- Click on the Play triangle at the bottom right to try out your new spell. Then, close the shortcut by pressing the X.
From now on you can activate your spell by saying “Hey Siri, Avada Kedavra.”
