Let’s face it: Siri is great and all, but virtual assistants can get a little bit boring after a while. Well, it seems like Apple has realized just that, because they’ve introduced a fun way to control your iPhone — Harry Potter spells with Siri.
While you won’t be gaining any magical powers yourself, it’s nevertheless a way for Harry Potter fans to get a taste of what it would be like using magic to control their surroundings.
There are three spells baked into Siri, which you can do straight away to get enchanting without needing to set anything up yourself. If that’s not enough, and you love the books or movies and have a particularly good knowledge of Potter lore, you can also use any spell you can think of to do more by using custom shortcuts. We’ll show you how to do both below.
How to cast Harry Potter spells with Siri on iPhone
Using the standard spells
There are three enchantments waiting and ready to be used with Siri: Lumos, which turns on your torch; Nox, which turns it off again; and Accio, which opens an app.
- To turn on your torch, say: “Hey Siri, Lumos”
- To turn your torch off again, say: “Hey Siri, Nox”
- To open an app (here, Spotify), say: “Hey Siri, Accio Spotify”
- Note that Accio is pronounced “Ah-Kee-Oh”
While these spells are primarily just a fun feature, they do have their uses. If you need your torch but have your hands full, for example, it’s yet an other way to illuminate your surroundings without having to lift a finger.
Creating and using custom spells with Shortcuts
If you’re a real Harry Potter fan, having only three charms at your disposal may feel a little restrictive. In addition to being pretty fun, making your own can also be super useful, as you’ve access to a huge range of your iPhone’s functions using Shortcuts, meaning you can tailor specific spells to your very needs.
Here’s how to make your own Harry Potter spells using Shortcuts. In this example, we’ll create a shortcut for the spell Lumos Maxima, which we’ll use to turn on the Torch at its brightest setting.
1. Open Shortcuts from your Home Screen or App Library. Select All Shortcuts, and tap on the plus icon in the top right of the screen. Long press to select one of your folders, if you have any already made.
2. In the bar at the top, enter a name for your spell, in this case Lumos Maxima, then tap Add Action.
3. A pull up menu will appear, with categories of actions and suggestions. What you select is up to you, but as we’re doing Lumos Maxima, we’ll be tapping Scripting.
4. Scroll down the Scripting menu and tap Set Torch.
5. The actions menu will drop down, allowing you to customise the action. Tap the blue chevron and a drop down menu will appear. Scroll the brightness up to maximum.
6. Hit the Play arrow in the bottom right to test out your new spell. Otherwise, close out of the Shortcut using by tapping X. Cast your spell and turn on your Torch at full by saying “Hey Siri, Lumos Maxima”.
7. Now you’ve done one, you can play around with other spells, enchantments, and even curses!
If you’re looking for more Harry Potter themed guides, why not check out our guide how to watch the Harry Potter films in order in either chronological or release order. For more hidden iPhone features and iOS hacks, make sure you read our guides on the hidden iPhone features everyone should know, how to change Siri’s voice and how to copy and paste between iPhone and iPad.