Key Takeaways
- Type to Siri lets you type queries or commands directly to Siri without speaking them out loud.
- Type to Siri is available on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 lineup running iOS 18.1 with Apple Intelligence enabled.
- Older iPhones can enable the feature in the Accessibility menu.
Type to Siri lets you type your commands, queries, or conversations to Apple’s voice assistant without speaking them. Here’s how it works, which phones support the feature, and how to enable it.
Which iPhones Support Type to Siri?
By default, Type to Siri is available on iPhones with Apple Intelligence (enabled). Hence, if you have an iPhone 15 Pro (or Pro Max) or any of the models in the iPhone 16 lineup and Apple Intelligence is on, you can Type to Siri without changing a setting. Further, there’s a dedicated activation gesture, which we’ll talk about in a minute.
Those who’ve been using an iPhone for a while already know that the Type to Siri feature isn’t new. It has been around since 2017 with the release of iOS 11, but not a lot of users knew about it, as it was an Accessibility feature. In other words, you can still type your queries to Siri instead of speaking them out loud, even without the latest iPhone or iOS version.
However, there are a few key differences to the Type to Siri experience. Earlier, you could only type commands to Siri by pressing and holding the side button (that’s how the accessibility feature worked). Further, you couldn’t go back to using voice commands after invoking Siri through the button.
On the contrary, Type to Siri in iOS 18.1 is rather intuitive and much less of a headache.
How to Type to Siri on Your iPhone
If you have an iPhone with iOS 18.1 and Apple Intelligence enabled, you can double-tap the bottom of the screen to invoke Siri.
Doing so opens up the keyboard with an “Ask Siri…” text field at the top, where you can type your queries or commands.
What’s cool is that the glowing-edges animation, which appears while calling Siri with the power button or via voice, shows up around the “Ask Siri…” textbox.
If you’re running an older iOS version, you can still enable Type to Siri via the Accessibility menu. Simply go to Settings > Accessibility > Siri, and press the toggle beside Type to Siri. The feature will work, but not as seamlessly as it does on the latest iPhone operating system.
Why Would You Type to Siri?
Type to Siri is a great little addition to iOS. Normally, using Siri entails speaking its activation phrase loudly, but that could be awkward or inconvenient in several situations.
For instance, you could be in an office, a conference room, or a public restaurant where you don’t want the people around to hear what you’re asking Siri to do. In such a situation, typing to Siri would make more sense than speaking out the query or command.
How to Turn Type to Siri Off
While Type to Siri is pretty useful, especially for iPhone owners who rely on Siri for day-to-day tasks like setting alarms, reminders, typing text messages, and so on, it can be annoying if you end up invoking the feature accidentally.
If you don’t want to use the feature, go to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Talk & Type to Siri, and disable the toggle beside Type to Siri.
Talk to Siri in Other Ways
If you don’t want to type your commands, there are a few more ways to talk to Siri. For one, you can hold the side button on your iPhone to summon Siri. You can also press and hold your AirPods to invoke the voice assistant without saying the activation phrase. However, for this method to work, you must have set up the “Press-and-Hold AirPods” option under Settings > AirPods.
You can even customize the Back Tap accessibility setting to invoke Siri on your iPhone. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select Back Tap. Now, choose Siri within the Double Tap or Triple Tap.
Check out the list of six new Apple Intelligence features coming with iOS 18.2 here. To explore more of what iOS 18 has to offer, check out these 12 hidden iOS 18 features.
