Found Someones iPhone? Help Return a Lost iPhone to the Owner with Siri

Losing an iPhone is a terrible feeling, so if you ever happen to be in the position of finding a random iPhone somewhere, maybe in a coffee shop or on the street, you should always do the right thing and try to return it to the proper owner. Of course that’s sometimes easier said than done, but everyones favorite virtual assistant Siri can make the job significantly easier by helping to locate the devices owner.

When you find someones lost iPhone, if it’s a fairly new model, you can almost always find the owner and the owners contact information simply by asking Siri. But you do have to phrase the question carefully.

Summon Siri by holding the Home button and ask exactly: “Whose phone is this?” or you can ask “Who owns this iPhone?”

(Yes, Siri hears “whose” and writes out “who’s”, that’s Siri, not me!)

You’ll see a list of the iPhone owners name, what they go by, their phone numbers, email address, and address, providing you with more than enough information to be able to help identify the rightful owner and help to return the device to them as soon as possible. Siri is a good citizen, and you should be too!

Using that exact language is important or it won’t work. “Whose phone is this” and “Who owns this iPhone” works to immediately show the contact card and contact information, but, quite strangely, “Whose iPhone is this” will not work, and instead tries to direct you to Apple.com, a bit weird and seemingly an oversight that is probably due to be fixed.

If for some reason this trick doesn’t work to find the iPhone owner, maybe the iPhone doesn’t have Siri enabled for the lock screen, or the battery is toast, you can always try and take a found iPhone to an Apple Store as well – I don’t think it’s an official policy, but I’ve heard a good number of reports of handing lost iPhones over to the Apple Store and having them contacting the owner to help get the device returned.

This Siri trick also assumes the found iPhone has not been placed into Lost Mode, which typically shows a message and a users contact information if it was used properly. Some users also use an identifier message as their locked screen wallpaper, which is a great lower-tech tip too, but not practical for everyone.