- Type your Siri requests to have a conversation without speaking
- Double-tap the Home bar to initiate this mode
- Great for accuracy or times when you need to be quiet
Siri has long been criticized for its sketchy voice recognition and frequent misunderstanding of requests. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have a text-based conversation instead?
Type to Siri
Alongside various other Siri improvements (some of which have yet to surface at the time of writing) comes a new chat interface you can use to type Siri requests instead of speaking them. This can be a godsend in situations where you need to stay quiet, or if you prefer the precision of making requests in writing.
You can chain multiple requests, and Siri will remember the context – but don’t expect to be able to scroll through a dialog history like you can with other AI assistants. These requests are one-and-done as always.
How to access it
Initiating a text chat with Siri is extremely easy, but might not be particularly intuitive if you’ve not done it before. Simply double tap the Home bar at the bottom of your screen to launch the new pink-tinged Siri overlay, and type your request in the Ask Siri text box. If the Home bar isn’t visible, double-tap the bottom of the screen anyway.
This works within any app, and the interface takes up up about half of the screen. Simply tap elsewhere to dismiss it when you’re done.
Note that you can still trigger a voice-based Siri request by holding the power button. This works the same as ever, but has also beed redesigned in iOS 18 with an animated rainbow effect that makes the edges of your display glow while activated.