Type instead of talk to Siri with iOS 11 – CNET

type-to-siri-promo
Matt Elliott/CNET

Here’s how my conversations with Siri usually go: press the Home button, ask a question, realize I spoke before Siri was listening, press the Home button again, ask the question, repeat the question because Siri misheard me, ask again but louder because Siri still didn’t get it right, curse Siri’s name, open the Google search app and ask it my question or just type it in.

Siri has some work to do, but with iOS 11 you can type or talk to Siri. Not only does typing your queries to Siri avoid the issue of Siri mishearing you, but it’s also useful when you are sitting in a quiet coffee shop or movie theater and want to ask Siri something.

To enable the feature, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Siri and toggle on Type to Siri. Now, when you long-press the Home button, Siri will pop up with her familiar “What can I help you with?” question but with a search bar and keyboard below.

type-to-siri-settings
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

If you want both options of typing and talking to Siri, you can enable the “Hey, Siri” command so that you can utter those magic words to speak to Siri and long-press the Home button to type to Siri. You’ll find the Hey Siri setting by going to Settings > Siri & Search.

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