10 easy ways to make Siri work better on your iPhone today
As an iPhone user, I’ve been waiting years for Siri to improve. But if anything, Apple’s beleaguered voice assistant has gotten worse. Whether I’m chatting with Siri when I’m at home, out and about, or behind the wheel via CarPlay, it still often fails to respond correctly.
I’ve tried using other assistants, such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Those are helpful when I need in-depth information or analysis. But since Siri is built into iOS, it’s the only one able to handle personal information or interact directly with my phone. If I need to play music, get directions, set a reminder, call or text a contact, add an appointment, activate a shortcut, or launch an app, I have to use Siri. That means I’m stuck with it, for better or worse.
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But I don’t have to just accept the worse part. Despite Siri’s faults and flaws, there are ways to improve its behavior. You can correct certain mistakes, modify your questions, retrain your voice, change Siri’s own voice, and tweak specific options. Though Apple is the one that ultimately has to fix Siri, you can at least take certain steps to make it less terrible. Here are 10 ways to do just that.
How to make Siri less terrible
What you need: An Apple device with Siri, such as an iPhone or iPad. In this guide, I’ll show you how to improve Siri on an iPhone.
Does Siri often fail to understand what you say? You may need to train or retrain it to better recognize your voice and words.
On your iPhone, go to Settings, select Siri or Apple Intelligence & Siri, and tap Talk & Type to Siri. Turn the option at the top to Off. Turn it back on again by selecting Siri or Hey Siri or Hey Siri. You’ll be prompted to train or retrain your voice.
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Keep tapping Continue until you reach the first screen where you’re prompted to repeat the words you see. Continue this with each phrase that appears. Make sure you enunciate each word clearly and that you speak in your usual tone and volume. When finished, tap Done. Siri should now be able to understand you more clearly.
Siri sometimes has difficulty pronouncing names, especially ones that are unusual. In the past, you could teach it how to correctly pronounce a name simply by saying it. Apple has since removed that capability, but you can still help Siri in this regard.
Open the Contacts app and select the name of the person with the challenging name. Tap Edit, swipe down the screen, and then tap the link for Add Field. Select the Pronunciation field for first name or last name depending on which one you need to correct. Type the letters to indicate how the name sounds when spoken out loud and then tap Done. To test this, ask Siri to pronounce the person’s name or open the person’s contact card and say: “Siri, pronounce this name.” Siri should then use the pronunciation you added.
You can tell Siri to respond to you verbally, visually, or both. Head to Settings, select Siri or Apple Intelligence & Siri, and tap Siri Responses. Choose Silent Responses to keep Siri quiet unless you’re driving or using headphones. Choose Prefer Spoken Responses to force Siri to respond verbally even if Silent Mode is on. And choose Automatic if you want Siri to decide if and when to talk back. To see your question and Siri’s response displayed on your screen, turn on the switch for Always Show Request.
Do you still have trouble conversing with Siri? Though not as convenient, typing your request is another option. With iOS 18.1 or higher and Apple Intelligence, you can enable a feature called Type to Siri. Go to Settings, select Apple Intelligence & Siri, and tap Talk & Type to Siri. Turn on the switch for Type to Siri. When you need to call on Siri, double-tap the bottom of your iPhone and type your request at the prompt.
You can carry on a back-and-forth conversation with Siri without having to repeat the entire question or request. For example, you could say: “Siri, what’s the weather like in Paris?” After Siri responds, you can then ask: “And what about London?” Siri will understand that you’re piggybacking on the previous question and respond accordingly.
Changing Siri’s language or voice won’t make it more accurate or reliable. But doing so can provide a more familiar or appealing response.
To modify the language, go to Settings, select Siri or Apple Intelligence & Siri, and tap Language. You can choose among Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and several others. Even with English, you’re able to pick a specific variation such as Canadian, Irish, or British. When done, tap the left arrow to go back a screen.
To modify the voice, tap Voice. Depending on the language you selected, you can choose from among a few different ones. Tap a specific voice to hear how it sounds. When done, go back to the Home screen to try it out.
To direct and guide Siri, you can tell it to use a specific third-party app to answer a question or carry out a request. To check this, go to Settings, select Siri or Apple Intelligence & Siri, and tap Apps at the bottom of the screen. Tap the name of an app you’d like to use with Siri and make sure the switches are enabled for the different options.
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Now try asking Siri to do something with an app. For example, maybe you want to hear some of your favorite tunes through a music streaming app. Say something like: “Siri, play jazz in Pandora,” and it should fire up the Pandora app on your phone to play your requested music.
Still having trouble with Siri? Apple offers a variety of accessibility options. Go to Settings, select Accessibility, and tap Siri.
Under Siri Pause Time, set how long Siri should wait for you to stop speaking: Default, Longer, or Longest. For Speaking Rate, adjust the slider to determine how fast or slow Siri speaks. Here, you’ll also find the options for Spoken Responses. Play with each setting to see what works best for you.
Turn on the switch for Always Listen for Siri to make sure Siri is listening even if your phone is face down or covered. With the setting for Require Siri for interruptions enabled, you have to say Siri or Hey, Siri to interrupt a response. Next, turn on the switch for Listen for Atypical Speech to try to improve Siri’s speech recognition. Turn on Announce Notifications on Speaker to hear Siri speak notifications over your iPhone’s speaker. Finally, enabling Call Hang Up lets you say: “Siri, hang up” to end a phone or FaceTime call.
Sometimes the best way to interact with Siri is through an automated shortcut. To get started, open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone and tap the Gallery icon. Here, you’ll find groups of shortcuts ready for you to try. Select a shortcut that interests you and tap “Add Shortcut” to add it to your library.
Next, tap the Shortcuts icon in the app to see any that you’ve added as well as predefined shortcuts that you can set up. Tap a shortcut to try it out. From here, you’re also able to create your own custom shortcuts.
At sites such as Reddit, RoutineHub, and GitHub, you’ll find shared shortcuts created by other people, which you can add to your own library. And if you know the name of a shared shortcut that you want to use, you may be able to find it on iCloud. To learn more about shortcuts, check out Apple’s Shortcuts User Guide.
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Outside the Shortcuts app, you can tell Siri to run a specific shortcut. Just say: “Siri, [name of shortcut.]” and Siri should then run it. If you bump into any problems, you may have to edit or rename the shortcut to make it work, which you can do in the Shortcuts app.
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