iOS 11: How to Type to Siri

Siri was designed to be spoken to because it is, after all, a voice assistant. Sometimes, however, speaking to Siri isn’t practical because there’s too much background noise, for example. iOS 11 fixes that problem by adding the ability to type to Siri.

Here’s how to enable Type to Siri:

• Launch Settings on your iPhone or iPad


• Tap General


• Tap Accessibility

Enable Type to Siri in iOS 11’s Accessibility settings

• Tap Siri


• Toggle Type to Siri on

Now you’ll see a text field at the bottom of your spoken Siri request results, but more importantly, pressing and holding the Home button to invoke Siri displays a keyboard where you can type your questions or commands.

Using Type to Siri instead of speaking

Siri will still speak responses to you, which may not be what you want if you’re typing to avoid disturbing everyone around you. Luckily, iOS 11 includes a setting to keep Siri quiet, too.

The Siri settings in Settings > General > Accessibility also includes a voice feedback option you can change to Control with Ring Switch. Enabling that feature mutes Siri’s voice whenever you flip your iPhone’s ringer switch to silent.

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