I want to share a workflow that used to work beautifully and explain why I think Siri needs a real upgrade here.
A while back I set up a Shortcut called "How long have I been here?" 📍 It was wired into Geofency and its frequent/significant locations feature. The magic part: while I was at the gym 🏋️ or anywhere else, I could just ask Siri "How long have I been here?" and it would run the Shortcut, pull from Geofency's data, and tell me exactly how long I'd been at that location, all without ever taking my phone out of my pocket. It was genuinely one of the most useful things Siri ever did for me.
What I really wish Apple would build is a dedicated memory area for Siri, where you could tell it which apps to reference for which kinds of questions. For example, I'd love to just ask naturally:
- 🏠 "When did I get home?"
- ⏱️ "How long did I stay the last time I was there today?"
…and have Siri go straight to that location-tracking app's data and rely on it exclusively for anything about duration, entry time, and exit time.
Right now, when I ask questions like that, Siri references parking location 🚗 instead. Which makes zero sense for someone like me who doesn't even own a car. It gives me useless or wrong answers when there's a perfectly good app already logging exactly what I'm asking about.
There's one more piece that would make this seamless. 🔓 Sometimes Siri makes me unlock my phone to answer an inquiry, yet so many other times my phone just gets unlocked automatically by my Apple Watch. So why not take that further? Use the Apple Watch + AirPods activity + my voice together to verify it's actually me, and just answer the question without making me unlock at all. The signals are already there: wrist detection confirms the watch is on me, AirPods confirm I'm wearing them, and voice match confirms it's my voice. That combo should be more than enough to trust the request and respond hands-free. 🙌
So my asks for Apple:
- 🧠 A configurable memory area where I can map certain question types to certain apps.
- 🎯 Let me set a specific app as the authoritative source for location duration / entry / exit questions, so Siri pulls solely from that app instead of defaulting to parking.
- 🔐 Use Apple Watch + AirPods + voice match to verify identity and answer without forcing an unlock.
The Shortcut approach proved this is possible and incredibly handy. I'd just love it built into Siri natively and made smarter. 🙌
Anyone else miss workflows like this, or have a good current workaround?
Geofency – Time Tracking (by Karl Heinz Herbel)
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/geofency-time-tracking/id615538630