Hey Siri

How to use Siri to control System Preferences on Mac

Hey Siri Enable Do Not Disturb Mac

You can use Siri for all sorts of things on your devices. And on Mac, Siri can come in handy for a variety of tasks as well. You can ask Siri for simple things like the weather, opening an app, or setting up a Calendar event.

But what you probably don’t think to ask Siri for is help with your System Preferences. While it’s not difficult to open System Preferences and find what you need, it can still be accomplished much faster by asking Siri.

To help you take advantage of Siri on your Mac, here are some of the System Preferences you can control with your convenient digital assistant.

New to Mac? How to search the web with Siri

Use Siri To Search the Web on Mac

Siri is a terrific helper on all of your Apple devices. This handy tool can help you retrieve saved passwords, get you back to your iPhone Home screen, and even read your text messages to you.

So if you’re still getting used to all that Siri can do for you on Mac, then why not let it help you find what you need on the internet? Instead of opening your browser to search on your own, just ask Siri. Here are some tips for how to search the web with Siri on your Mac.

iOS 13.4 lets your iPhone listen for Hey Siri even when faced down or covered

You know how you can temporarily prevent “Hey Siri” from listening and stop notifications on your iPhone by laying the handset with its face down, without changing any settings? This underrated feature is called Facedown Detection and it doesn't require any toggles or initial setup. iOS 13.4 adds a brand new accessibility setting designed to override Facedown Detection's automatic disabling of Hey Siri when the phone is faced down or covered.

Siri not talking back to you? Try these fixes

Siri Listening iPhone Desk

You’ve been using Siri, your favorite digital assistant, for quite some time now, but suddenly Siri isn’t speaking back. You can hear other clicks and sounds on your device but long for Siri’s voice. Here are a few things you can check if Siri isn’t talking to you any longer.

How to listen to podcasts on HomePod with Siri

HomePod

The HomePod isn’t all about playing songs with Apple Music or setting multiple timers when you’re cooking dinner. If you enjoy podcasts, you can listen to them on your HomePod too.

Choose a new show from the Apple Podcasts store, catch up on episodes you’ve missed for podcasts you subscribe to, and control the podcast playback easily with Siri.

Here’s how to listen to podcasts on HomePod with Siri.

HeySiri brings untethered ‘Hey Siri’ support to older devices

The latest iPhones and iPads are now so power efficient that you can effectively say “Hey Siri” whenever you want and have instant hands-free access to your virtual assistant; but that’s not the case with some of Apple’s older devices. Those such as the iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus require that you be tethered to a power source for Hey Siri to work.

Albeit inconvenient, the chips in the aforementioned devices aren’t as power-efficient as those found inside of devices today; consequently, always-on Hey Siri would have an adverse impact on your battery performance. But if battery life is no object to you, then you can forcefully-enable Hey Siri on these handsets with a free jailbreak tweak dubbed HeySiri by iOS developer Julio Verene.