This guide will show you how to use Siri on Mac. With the free macOS Sierra update, you can turn on and use Siri on MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, and other Apple computers.
Mac Siri features are very similar to Siri on iPhone, but you get some new options, including pinning results to your notification center.
We’ll show you how to turn on Siri on Mac and use Siri on your MacBook Air and other Apple computers. You don’t need a headset to use Siri, but it can be useful if you’re in an open work environment.
This guide will also show you how to use Hey Siri on Mac or create a custom emoticon to activate Siri on your Mac.
How to Turn on Siri on Mac
How to turn on Siri for Mac?
When you install the free macOS Sierra update, the software will prompt you to turn on Siri for your Mac. If you haven’t, then you’ll have to go.
This screen also lets you see Mac Siri options, including;
Once you’ve selected the options you want here and make sure that Enable Siri has a checkmark above it, you’re ready to use Siri.
How to Use Siri on Mac
There are three ways to use Siri on your MacBook Air or other Apple computer. After going over the basics, we’ll show you a fourth way that lets you use Hey Siri on Mac, but it’s more complicated and isn’t an official toggle button.
You can use Siri on Mac in the following ways;
The fastest way to use Siri on Mac is to use the keyboard shortcut. By default this is . You can change this from a few presets, off and custom shortcuts among the options.
Once you have Siri enabled, you can ask Siri to do just about anything you can do on your iPhone or iPad.
How to Use Hey Siri on Mac
The video above shows you how to use a workaround to use accessibility settings to use Hey Siri on your Mac. Basically you set Dictation to start when you say “Hey” and then you set Siri to launch a keyboard Siri shortcut.
What Can I Do with Siri on Mac?
You can do a lot with Siri on a Mac, including most things you can do on your iPhone. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the most useful things Siri can do on a Mac.
- “Show my downloads folder.” – or any folder on your Mac.
- “Find the Numbers spreadsheet I was working on yesterday.” – to open your recent documents.
- “Get the Word document Xavier sent me.” – to find a document from a person.
- “Make the screen brighter.” – or other Mac Settings.
- “How fast is my Mac?” – And other Mac features.
- “How much iCloud Storage do I have?” – to see how much space you have left.
- “Start Photos” – or any other app on your Mac.
- “Face Time Man.” – or any other person.
- “Tell Adam I’m ready to go.” – to send a message to a contact.
- “Read My Messages” – to hear Siri reading you your most recent messages.
- “Read my last message from Xavier” – to hear your latest message from a specific person.
- “Set up a meeting for lunch with Adam.” – or another calendar event.
- “Did the dolphins win?” – Or any other sports query you can use on iPhone.
- “When is the next Dolphin’s game?” – and then pin it to your Notification Center to see it at a glance.
- “Who will win the dolphin game?” to find out the odds of an upcoming game.
- “What channel is the Giants on?” – to find out which channel you should go to.
- “Show me my photos from last week.” – or another date to see them in your Photos app.
- “See my videos shot in Hawaii” to see your videos from a specific location.
- “Give Me Directions to Chipotle.” – or to a person, place or business.
- “Tweet my location.” – to post a geolocation Tweet.
- “Post on Facebook…” – to post a Facebook update.
- “What movies are playing?” – to find a movie to watch.
- “Play Taylor Swift.” – or another artist or song in iTunes or Apple Music.
- “Remind me to call Xavier.” – or any other reminder.
- “Email Toby about big ideas.” – or any subject.
- “How is the weather today?” – and in other cities.
- “What is Apple’s stock price?” – or any other stock.
- “What time is it in Australia?” – or just in a different time zone in the US
- “What’s Cory’s number?” – to find someone’s phone number or other contact information.
- “Where is Amber?” – To use Find My Friends to see where someone is.
- “Remember that I need to look for Madden 17 clues.” – to create a note about something.
- “Search the internet for the best weight loss apps.” – to perform any web search.
- “Show my lion pictures online” – to see pictures of something online.
- “How many glasses are in a gallon?” – and any other conversions or metrics.
- “Get Game of Thrones on iTunes.” – To rent movies and buy TV shows on iTunes.
- “Get Sly Mongoose from iBooks.” – to find an e-book.
- “Play podcasts.” To start playing podcasts in your iTunes app
- “Go back 30 seconds” – to go back in podcasts.
- “What song is this?” – to find out which song is playing.
- Drag photos and results from Siri to other apps by clicking and holding them to one app.
- Click the + sign on most results to add it to your Mac Notification Center.
There are many other Mac Siri features you can do. To learn more, ask Siri on Mac, “What can you do?” You just have to ask.
