Learn how to speak to Siri to create and view to-dos.

Siri on iPhone, iPad, and Vision gives you the ability to interact with Things by speaking. Here are some examples to get you started.

Hey Siri, add a task in Things.
What do you want to be reminded about?
Buy milk tomorrow at 10AM.
OK. Done.

Add Tasks

Creating new tasks is as simple as saying one sentence:

  • “Add buy milk using Things.”
  • “In Things, remind me to buy milk.”

You can include a date or time:

  • “In Things, remind me to buy milk tomorrow at 10 AM.”

You can add a task directly to a list:

  • “In Things, add buy milk to my Shopping list.”
  • “In Things, add milk and bread and sugar to my Shopping list.”

Show Lists

You can quickly get to any of your lists:

  • “Show my Today list in Things.”
  • “Show my Shopping list in Things.”

This also works great for tags. To see everything tagged with “Errand”, just say...

  • “Show my Errand list in Things.”

You can show a list for specific dates:

  • “In Things, show my list for this week.”
  • “In Things, show my list for October 3rd.”

Have Siri read things back to you

  • “In Things, read my Today list.”
  • “In Things, read my Shopping list out loud.”

If Siri does not read the list items out loud, make sure your device isn’t muted.

A Few Tips

Apple’s Siri requires a specific syntax, and works better with some phrases than others. Here’s what seems to work best with Things:

  • Say “task” instead of “to-do”.
  • Say “list” instead of “project”, “area”, or “tag”.
  • You don’t need to say the full name of a list. It’s fine to say “Vacation” instead of “Vacation in Rome”.
  • Don't forget to begin or end with “in Things” or “with Things”. Otherwise Siri will hand over your task to Reminders app.

To learn more about Siri, read Apple’s documentation.

Use Siri to run a shortcut

You can also use Siri together with Apple’s Shortcuts app. A “shortcut” is simply a sequence of actions that can be performed automatically, and with Siri you can trigger that shortcut by speaking a memorable phrase. For example “Siri, add a grocery item” could be set up to add a to-do to a shopping list in Things.

To learn more about Apple Shortcuts, check out our gallery where you can download some sample shortcuts to see what sort of things are possible.

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