How to use Siri to remind you of emails and websites
One of Siri’s lesser-used talents is its capacity to remind you about emails you are reading or websites you happen to be on. This means you can stay focused on what you need to do while setting a reminder to yourself to return to something you may forget to action.
Why is that useful?
This Siri talent is handy when you are working on something and an important email comes in that you know you should respond to but must remain focused on the matter in hand.
Or when you are about to go out/engage in some other task and come across a URL you absolutely need to look at, but you got to rush.
Focus isn’t always easy to achieve. Once you are focused you must sometimes battle to maintain that focus. This Siri talent helps you by helping you control when you want to deal with something.
How does it work?
It’s very simple. If you are reading an email or visiting a web page and want to remind yourself to check that page or email just say: “Hey Siri, remind me about this” and then state a time or duration – in 48-hours, in two minutes, tomorrow morning – whatever fits.
Siri will create a new Reminder for you and hassle you into action at the time you defined.
[Also read: 7 useful Siri tips you’ll probably use]
When Siri issues the Reminder you’ll also see an icon (a Safari or Mail icon in these cases), tap this when it appears in your Reminder and Siri will try to open the page or email for you.
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One more thing: The Reminder will appear across all the Apple devices that you are logged into using your iCloud account. That means that you can read a webpage on your iPad and then get reminded to read it again the next day on your Mac or iPhone.
Can Siri do this for other apps?
Yes, Siri can remind you of content in other Apple apps, including Maps, Calendar and so on. This feature does not yet work across non-Apple apps.
Do U mean that, while my iMac is “focused” on a website in Safari or an E-mail in Mail, Siri knows that the word “this” (in the example you gave: “Hey Siri, remind me about this”) is referring to what my iMac is “focused” on? Please forgive my seeking clarity on this, but if this is what you are saying, this is a game changer!
Yes exactly that.
Any thoughts as to why Siri doesn’t work as you describe above for me?
I ask Siri: “Hey Siri, remind me about this tomorrow at 10AM”
Her response to me is “Ok, just tell me what you want to be reminded about”
Is there a setting or something that I need to activate?
I’m on an iphone 8 running iOPS12.1
Thanks
It works for me, You do have to have the email open and be in Mail at the time.
I find that Siri is pretty erratic about reminders for emails.
Modt of the time, when I ask Siri « Hey Siri, remind me about this tomorrow… », it answers « ok. Just tell me what you want to be reminded about. »
Really frustrating…
This stopped working for me recently after an update (no idea which one, unfortunately, I’m on public beta)…. it’s so sad – I hope this feature isn’t leaving forever!
This appears to only work (today, 12 November 2021) if you tap on the URL bar before activating Siri.