by Siri is one of Apple’s most popular and useful virtual assistants. But if you’re looking to turn it off for any reason or tweak its settings, there are plenty of ways to do that.
For instance, you can turn off Siri Suggestions for all apps or just some. You can also disable its ability to respond to your side or home button, and you can even prevent it from accessing your device when it’s locked.
1. Go to Settings
If you’re not a fan of Siri, or just want to change how the virtual assistant interacts with the various apps on your iPhone, there are plenty of ways you can do that. One of the easiest is to simply go to Settings on your device and disable Siri.
Then, the app will not be able to use your voice commands or activate its Side button shortcut anymore. It will also no longer trigger the “Hey Siri” option, which allows you to ask it questions without uttering any words.
It’s important to note that disabling Siri will also remove any information that it has learned from your device. This is useful for people who are concerned about privacy or want to restrict what data Apple can collect on their devices.
To turn off Siri, you’ll need to open the Settings app on your iPhone and select ‘Siri & Search’. Then, toggle off Allow Notifications, Show in App Library & Spotlight, Show When Sharing, and Show When Listening – or any combination of those switches.
Now, tap the ‘Turn Off Siri’ switch and it should prompt you if you’re sure you want to do that. If you choose to do so, your Siri will be disabled permanently on your phone.
You can also turn off suggestions from Siri for specific apps. This is handy if you only want to use Siri in certain apps but don’t mind if other ones still get suggestions.
2. Go to Siri & Search
Siri is Apple’s smart AI assistant that is built to predict your behavior and make time-saving suggestions. It’s an important feature, but there are some people who find it annoying and want to disable Siri on their iPhone.
Siri uses on-device processing to learn how you use your device and apps, as well as information from installed third-party apps, so it can provide personalized suggestions in Search, Look Up, Safari, News, Photos, Calendar, and more. This information is encrypted and only accessed by Siri.
You can turn off Siri suggestions on your iPhone by going to Settings and choosing Siri & Search. Toggle off Allow Notifications, Show in App Library & Spotlight, Show When Sharing, or Show When Listening – or any combination of those switches – to stop Siri from suggesting what you should do next on your device.
3. Go to Dictation & Privacy
If you’re not a fan of Siri on your iPhone, or just want to get a little more control over the virtual assistant, there are several ways to disable it. First, you can go to the settings menu and turn off both “Listen for Hey Siri” and “Press Side Button for Siri.”
Another way to disable Siri is by using the Settings app to opt out of storing audio recordings on Apple’s servers. To do this, go to the “General” settings section and tap the “Keyboard” button.
Then, you can scroll down to the “Dictation” tab and uncheck the box that says, “Use with Ask Siri.” You’ll need a Mac or iPad to do this.
While Apple doesn’t save the actual content of the words you use for dictation, it does send them to its servers for grading purposes and to improve the feature. However, you can still delete the data from Apple’s servers if you’re concerned about privacy.
4. Go to Voice Dial
Whether you’re concerned about privacy or simply find Siri too annoying, you can disable the virtual assistant on your iPhone or iPad. To do this, use the Settings app on an iOS device or System Preferences on a Mac.
The first step is to go to Siri & Search and turn off Listen for “Hey Siri,” Press Home for Siri, and (if you see it) Allow Siri When Locked. Doing this will prevent Siri from listening for your commands even if you long-press the side button.
After turning off Siri, you can still access Voice Dial to make phone calls or play music. However, you’ll need to enable a passcode on your iPhone to do so.
If you have an iPhone with Face ID, you can also activate Attention Aware to make sure Siri or Voice Control doesn’t interrupt you while you’re looking at the screen. That’s especially helpful when you’re using Siri or Voice Control on multiple devices.
5. Go to Siri Suggestions
Siri is a smart program from Apple that analyzes your daily routines and how you use your device. It can give you suggestions to improve your experience, but some users may find this irritating and want to turn off the feature.
To turn off Siri Suggestions on an iPhone, head to Settings and tap the Siri & Search button. Then, scroll down to the Suggestions from Apple section and disable one, several, or all toggles.
There are four types of Siri suggestions: Glance at Lock Screen, Start a Search, Create Email and Events, and Receive Calls. All of these suggest things based on your habits and how you use your iPhone.
While it’s useful, Siri also collects a lot of data that you don’t need. If you’re worried about it collecting too much information, you can disable Siri suggestions for certain apps on an app by app basis.
In addition, you can also turn off Siri from showing content in Look Up and Spotlight. This means it won’t suggest websites or apps relevant to the text you’re viewing.
