In this quick guide, we’ll show you how to add items to your grocery or shopping list in the Reminders app using Siri only on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.
Create a shopping list in the Reminders app using Siri.
The process is pretty simple. You simply create a list and ask Siri to add items to it.
Step 1: Create a new list in the Reminders app.
To do this, open the Reminders app on your iPhone and tap Add List at the bottom. Then name the list whatever you want. For the purposes of this tutorial, I’ve named the list “Grocery.”Then click the “Done”button in the upper right corner of the screen.
If you don’t create a list ahead of time, Siri will reply, “I couldn’t find a list of names. Do you want to create it? You can say or click Yes. But to keep things running smoothly, we recommend creating a list first.
Step 2Tell Siri
Now that the list has been created, exit the Reminders app. Activate Siri and say, “Add milk to your shopping list.”Siri instantly adds the item to your shopping list. It works on all Apple devices like iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and HomePod. You can even take it a step further and say a more complex command, like “Add eggs to your shopping list and remind me at 4:00 pm.”
You can open reminders to view the list at any time. No matter where you create the reminder, it will conveniently sync via iCloud with all your other Apple devices.
Some Important Points
1) Siri is smart enough to separate multiple items. So if you say “Add bread, cheese, milk and eggs to your grocery list”, they will be added as separate items. However, I have found that if you say the names of too many things, it can merge them all into one meaningless task.
2) If you mainly use the Reminders app only for products, you can go to Settings app > Reminders > Default List and set Products as the default list. From now on, any reminder you add via Siri will automatically be added to this list. So, instead of saying “Add milk to grocery list”, you can just say “Remind me to buy milk”and Siri will add it to the default reminder list, i.e. “Grocery”.
3) Siri cannot remove items from the reminder list. So if you say, “Take milk and bread off my shopping list,”you will get a pathetic answer.
Any questions? If yes, please list them in the comments section below.