Siri's an excellent personal assistant, and she's just a long Home button press away. She can place a call for you, send a message, add items to your calendar, and more. And while I typically perform these actions for myself, there are times when it's more convenient for her to take care of a quick task for me while I give my attention to something else. So for those Siri users out there, I have an even more convenient way to kick-off your interactions with our favorite personal assistant. It's called Raise to Speak.
Raise to Speak, as its name implies, allows you to activate Siri by simply raising your phone to your ear. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) it's a bit difficult to get it to activate if you don't do it just right. So to get started, jump into Settings, then head to General, Siri, and toggle on Raise to Speak. With the feature turned on, you'll be able to perform the gesture whenever the iPhone's screen is on. This means you'll even be able to use it while your iPhone is locked (provided you allow that); you only need to hit the Home or Sleep/Wake button to activate the screen.
Siri Settings
To actually invoke the feature, you'll need to be aware of the proper motion. The motion requires you to start with the phone facing you, lower than your ear, and in a fully vertical (as in portrait) orientation. To activate it, raise the phone toward your ear while simultaneously turning it from vertical to mostly, if not totally, horizontal as you would when answering a call. As they say, it's all in the wrist.
If it's not working consistently, be sure that the screen is on, the phone is lower than your ear, and the motion includes a very distinct portrait-to-landscape turn motion. In no time at all, you'll be activating Siri with ease using this feature. Of course, if you don't like it you can always disable it in Settings. Enjoy!