UPDATED 06:34 EDT / SEPTEMBER 10 2015

NEWS

How to use Siri on the new Apple TV

Apple on Wednesday unveiled the new Apple TV. The new Apple TV boasts hardware improvements for better performance, a redesigned user interface, a dedicated App Store, new Touch and Siri-enabled remotes, tvOS based on iOS and a new focus on gaming.

Among all the new Apple TV features the company touted, Siri is the one that really stood out for us.

Here we take a look at what Siri is capable of on the new Apple TV, and how to put her to work.

It all starts with the Siri Remote. Along with a glass covered Touch-enabled trackpad, the new remote features a Siri button. To activate Siri on the new Apple TV, press and hold the Siri button and start speaking when Siri pops up onscreen.

At the moment, Siri will fetch results from iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, Showtime and HBO, so there’s no need to search apps one at a time for the content you’re looking for. According to Apple, Siri support for more apps is coming soon.

How to search Apple TV content using Siri

Note: You must press and hold the Siri button to activate and use Siri

Siri search on Apple TV is very granular, meaning you can search using filters like title, genre, cast, rating, or popularity using only your voice. For example, you can say “Show me New Girl,” “Find the best funny movies from the ‘80s,” “Find movies with Jason Bateman” or “Find popular TV shows for kids.”

During an on-stage demo, Siri was asked to “Show that Modern Family episode with Edward Norton” and she quickly found the correct episode and displayed the result. Another search asked Siri to find all the James Bond movies. This was then refined by telling Siri “Just the ones with Sean Connery in them” to display the Bond films from the ‘60s starring the best James Bond in history (author’s opinion).

In addition to searching for content by whatever criteria you can dream of, Siri also offers playback control. This means you can tell Siri to “Skip ahead 10 minutes,” and she’ll fast forward whatever you’re watching to the correct spot.

If you happen to miss what an actor is saying at any point, simply ask Siri “What did she just say?” and Siri will skip back 15 seconds and automatically turn on captions for whatever it is you missed.

Last but not least, Siri also gives you quick access to sports, stock and weather information.

Sadly, Siri for Apple TV is only going to eight countries

Although Apple announced that the new Apple TV will be available in 80 countries after launch, details found in the developer documentation for tvOS shows that Apple will ship two Apple TV packages: one with the new Siri Remote and one with an Apple TV Remote that lacks Siri functionality – pressing the Siri button on the Apple TV Remote merely brings up an onscreen search app.

It appears the Apple TV with the Siri Remote is only going to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. at this point.

It is unclear whether or not Siri support on Apple TV will roll out to other countries at a later date.

See the new Apple TV in action below:

Image via Apple.com

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