How to always show speech transcriptions of your Siri requests

The compact Siri interface shows the assistant as an animated orb overlaid on top of your current context instead of taking up the whole display. By default, your iPhone or iPad does not show a real-time Siri transcription of your speech. Thankfully, you can change that and have Siri type what you speak.

Follow along with us as we show you how to enable live Siri transcriptions of your requests so you can verify that an iPhone or iPad is interpreting your requests accurately.

Siri transcriptions in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 - hero image

How to show Siri transcriptions

On iPhone & iPad

  1. Open the Settings app and tap Siri & Search.
  2. Select Siri Feedback.
  3. Toggle on the option for ‘Always Show Speech‘ to enable live transcripts of your voice requests.
Always Show Speech for Siri on iPhone

Toggling this on will show a transcription of your speech on screen for all requests. Now everything you say to Siri is shown as a real-time transcription in a popup above the animated orb. I find it easier to use Siri with a live transcription of my speech because I can clearly see whether the assistant has heard my request correctly or if I need to start over.

Siri transcriptions - example image

You can also enable Always Show Siri Captions, which will show captions for all spoken text in a popup above the Siri orb alongside a transcription of your request. While Siri displays most results in a banner at the top of the screen, enabling captions makes it easier to see both your request and Siri’s response as raw text at the bottom of the screen.

On Apple Watch

  1. Open the Watch app and tap Siri from the My Watch section.
  2. Tap Siri Responses and enable the switch for Always Show Speech.
Always Show Speech in Apple Watch Siri settings

On Mac

  1. Open System Settings in macOS Ventura or later.
  2. Select Siri & Spotlight from the left sidebar.
  3. Click Siri Responses.
  4. Enable ‘Always show speech‘ and hit Done.
Always show speech in Mac Siri settings

Useful Siri tips: