Can you turn off siri on apple watch

How-To
Top stories

You might not have to kill Siri to fix its annoyances.
Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Are you sick of Siri on Apple Watch butting into your conversations? Prevent it by customizing the way Siri works, or by disabling it altogether. It’s easy to do and it fixes one of Apple Watch’s biggest annoyances.

Table of Contents Show

How to customize Siri on Apple Watch
Don’t worry about Dictation
Disable “Hey Siri”
Disable “Raise to Speak”
Additional Settings to Control Siri on Apple Watch
Reader Interactions

We’ll show you how.

One of the things that can make Siri on Apple Watch a real pain in the butt is its “Raise to Speak” feature. It means that if you happen to lift your arm during a conversation, Siri will listen to what you’re saying.

It then declares it has no idea what you’re saying, and you have to shut it up. But with a few simple changes, you can make Siri on Apple Watch a lot less annoying — or disable it completely.

How to customize Siri on Apple Watch

If you want to use Siri on Apple Watch sometimes, you won’t want to kill it. Instead, disable its listening features and use the Digital Crown to activate Siri manually, so it only works when you actually want it to.

Follow these steps:

Open the Apple Watch app on iPhone, or the Settings app on Apple Watch.
Tap Siri.
Disable Listen for “Hey Siri” and Raise to Speak.

Disable all but Digital Crown to activate Siri manually.
Screenshot: Cult of Mac

Now tap and hold the Digital Crown on the side of your Apple Watch whenever you want the digital assistant to listen to you.

Don’t want to use Siri at all? Deactivate it by following the steps above, but also disable Press Digital Crown. You will be prompted to Turn Off Siri — tap the button to confirm.

Turn off Siri if you never want to use it at all.
Screenshot: Cult of Mac

We suggest disabling Siri only if you’re adamant you’ll never want to use it. It can be helpful at times, so retaining the ability to activate it manually is a good idea, even if you only use it sometimes.

Don’t worry about Dictation

It should be noted that disabling Siri will not disable Dictation on Apple Watch, so you’ll still be able to use that feature to reply to text messages even if you kill the digital assistant entirely.

You are here: Home / Apple Watch / How to Stop Siri From Talking on Apple Watch

There are moments when Siri can become really annoying. The virtual assistant may refuse to stay quiet and won’t stop talking on your Apple Watch. It doesn’t matter if the Voice Feedback setting is set to “Headphones only” or “Control with Silent Mode“. It’s not uncommon for Siri to behave in a strange manner shortly after you update your watchOS version. So, let’s dive right in and see how you can keep Siri quiet.

Contents

Disable “Hey Siri”
Disable “Raise to Speak”
Additional Settings to Control Siri on Apple Watch
Conclusion

Disable “Hey Siri”

If you want Siri to be quiet when you’re using your Apple Watch, you can simply disable the “Hey Siri” option and enjoy peace of mind.

On your Apple Watch, navigate to Settings and select Siri.
Then locate the “Hey Siri” option and disable it.

So, if you think Siri has become way too chatty, you can turn off the “Hey Siri” option and mute the assistant.

Disable “Raise to Speak”

If you’re running watchOS 5, you don’t need to say “Hey Siri” to wake up the assistant. All you need to do is raise your wrist and talk. However, if you want to avoid accidentally waking up Siri with this gesture, you can disable the feature. On your Apple Watch, go to Settings and select Siri. Then disable “Raise to speak“.

Additional Settings to Control Siri on Apple Watch

Control with Silent Mode

If you want to fully control how Siri interacts with your Apple Watch, go to Settings, tap General and select Voice Feedback. If you enable “Control with Silent Mode”, Siri’s interaction will be directly controlled by your Silent Mode settings. Then, if you want to silence Siri, you can simply swipe up from the bottom of the screen and tap the bell icon. This action will enable Silent Mode which means all sounds are muted on your smart watch. As long as your Apple Watch is set to Silent Mode, Siri will remain quiet as well.

Headphones only

If you’re wearing your AirPods, you can instruct Siri to respond only to your headphones. To enable this option, you need to navigate to Settings, tap Voice Feedback and then select the “Headphones only” option. Siri’s responses will be sent directly to your headphones.

Lower the Volume

A third alternative is to simply lower the volume. To control Siri’s audio volume output on the Apple Watch, go back to Voice Feedback. Tap the speaker icon and slide it to the left to lower the volume. If you want to increase the volume, slide the speaker icon the right.

Keep in mind that you cannot lower the volume that much so as to completely mute Siri on your Apple Watch. If you use this method, Siri’s responses will remain audible, especially if there’s not much background noise around.

Conclusion

To sum up, there are multiple ways to control Siri’s responses on your Apple Watch. But if you want to completely stop the assistant from talking on your smart watch, you need to disable the “Hey Siri” and “Raise to Speak” options.

Do you have any additional tips and trick on how to better control or silence Siri on an Apple Watch? Share your ideas in the comments below.