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                TipBITS: Restart Your iPhone or iPad Using Siri

   Adam Engst

   Restarting your iPhone or iPad isn't something you should have to do
   often, but there are times when it's a good troubleshooting step to
   eliminate odd or problematic behavior. There's no harm in restarting,
   apart from a short downtime. But you may not remember which buttons to
   press to restart your [1]iPhone or [2]iPad (which is really powering
   the device off and back on, not a true restart). Plus, not everyone may
   have realized that Apple added an option to power the device off in
   Settings > General > Shut Down.

   In iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, Apple has made restarting significantly easier
   by bestowing Siri with that capability. Just invoke Siri by holding
   down the side button or Home button, and then say, 'Reboot.' Siri also
   understands 'Restart this device,' 'Restart my iPhone,' and so on,
   although using 'Restart' on its own tends to cause whatever audio was
   playing previously to start again. You can also restart your device
   hands-free with 'Hey Siri, reboot,' but your command could be picked up
   by multiple devices within range, which might not be desirable.
   Regardless of how it's invoked, Siri always asks if you're sure that
   you want to restart, and you can either tap the Restart button or
   answer 'Yes.'

   That makes me wonder if someone could cause all the iPhones in a
   crowded room to restart by yelling, 'Hey Siri, reboot,' and following
   it up with 'Yes' a few seconds later. Very little actual harm would
   result, but it would freak people out. It could be a great distraction
   technique in a spy flick. And as my train of thought continues, now I'm
   dying to know if the PA system in an airport could be hijacked and used
   to play a stream of disruptive 'Hey Siri' and 'OK Google' commands. In
   a movie, of course.

   Sadly, Siri hasn't yet gained the capability to restart other Apple
   devices. It's easy enough to restart a Mac by choosing Restart from the
   Apple menu (among quite a few other methods), but it would be actively
   useful if Siri could restart an Apple TV, Apple Watch, or HomePod.
   Instead, here's what you must do to restart each of them:
     * Apple TV: I can never remember the keys to press on the remote to
       restart an Apple TV because there are so many buttons and the
       specific combinations to restart have [3]changed three times
       (currently, hold down the Back and TV/Control Center buttons). I
       often resort to selecting Settings > System > Restart and will
       admit to pulling the power once when I got frustrated.
     * Apple Watch: The Apple Watch is more obvious because it has fewer
       buttons. [4]Restart it by holding down the side button until the
       sliders appear, tapping the power icon, and dragging the Power Off
       slider to the right. Alternatively, navigate to Settings > General
       > Shut Down. Either way, turn it on again by holding the side
       button until the Apple logo appears.
     * HomePod: The only way to [5]restart a HomePod is by touching and
       holding its tile in the Home app, scrolling down and tapping the
       gear icon, tapping Reset HomePod at the very bottom of the
       settings, and finally tapping Restart HomePod. Instead, I usually
       just unplug it, wait a few seconds, and plug it back in.

   Finally, I wonder how the fact that Siri learned to restart iPhones and
   iPads in iOS 16 first became known. I don't remember Apple mentioning
   it in a keynote, and [6]Apple's coverage of Siri commands doesn't seem
   to include it. The [7]first article about it that I can find is dated
   two days after iOS 16's release, on 14 September 2022, and comes from a
   site I'd never heard of called [8]wccftech.com. After that date, lots
   of sites mention the feature, but did wccftech.com discover it, publish
   it first, or merely backdate its coverage?

References

   Visible links
   1. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201559
   2. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210631
   3. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201836
   4. https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/restart-apple-watch-apd521a8a902/watchos
   5. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208380#restart
   6. https://support.apple.com/siri
   7. https://wccftech.com/how-to/reboot-iphone-using-siri/
   8. https://wccftech.com/about/

   Hidden links:
   9. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2023/02/Reboot-with-Siri.jpg

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