Siri makes sending group messages a bit easier
by Justin Horn on Nov 18th, 2011 @ 3:07 pmIf you’ve ever tried to send a group message to more than a couple friends with the built in Messages app, you know it’s not very convenient. You have to type each persons name or hit the add contact button, add one person, then repeat. It would be great to hit the add button, select multiple recipients, and then return back to the message screen, but so far Apple is saving that for a future update. This could possibly be the breakthrough feature of iOS 6, you heard it here first.
All jokes aside, I discovered, by accident1 of course, that you can create a group text by separating people with “and”, like this:
Siri: Do Do
Me: Send text to Girlfriend and Chiyin and Jason and Miguel and Tom and Monica
Siri: What do you want to say to these six people?
It has worked well for me on my test, getting all the names right, but if you aren’t sure, you can just tap the message inside Siri to open up the Messages app with all the names populated.
1. I was trying to text my girlfriend Nicole, “Mother nature cleaned my car”, but instead Siri understood, “Text Nicole, And mother nature cleaned my car” as ” Text Nicole and Mom, Nature cleaned my car”.
Follow me on Twitter @justin_horn
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iOS 5, iPhone, iPhone 4S, Siri, Tips
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[...] are getting discovered. A neat trick for sending group emails and group messages, has been found by Justin Horn.To create a group message, clearly tell Siri the names of the persons you want to send the text to, [...]
Hey, nice discovery Justin!
That’s a useful trick, but we have another if anyone wants to send to a larger group than two or three people that also works in Siri. Our app “MailShot Pro” will let you create large groups of contacts that the apps on your iPhone treat like a single contact, so you can use groups from all your favorite apps like Mail, Photos, Maps etc.
A great side effect is you can also use this from Siri, and send email to that group just like it was a regular contact. Find out more at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mailshot-pro-group-email-done/id445996226?ls=1&mt=8, A more-limited free version is also available.
Peter
Soluble Apps
Full Disclosure: I am the developer of MailShot Pro, and may benefit from its sale.
[...] [WhenWillApple via iPhoneinCanada] [...]
[...] Via [WhenWillApple & iPhoneinCanada] Share [...]
[...] WhenWillApple has find a little but amazing tip to send group messages using Siri. So, now you can send a group messages using Siri and the trick lies in the word “And”. [...]
[...] [WhenWillApple via iPhoneinCanada] [...]