Every Siri setting on iPhone and where it really lives, including the privacy and pause-time controls hidden outside the Siri menu entirely.
Quick answer: Siri settings live in Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri on any iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence, and simply Settings > Siri on those that do not. The old Settings > Siri & Search menu no longer exists — search settings were split into their own top-level Settings entry. Two of the most useful controls are not in the Siri menu at all, and this guide covers where they actually are.
Source check: August 31, 2026. Menu paths follow Apple's current iPhone User Guide for iOS 26 and were checked against Apple's support documentation on the date of writing. Apple renames settings between releases, so where its own pages disagree or a label is version-dependent, that is called out rather than smoothed over.
Finding the Siri Menu
Apple's own documentation writes this path conditionally — "tap Siri (or Apple Intelligence & Siri)" — because the menu is named differently depending on your hardware.
- Apple Intelligence iPhone: Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri
- Any other iPhone: Settings > Siri
If you are following an older guide that says Settings > Siri & Search, stop — that menu was split up. Search-related controls now live under their own Settings > Search entry, separate from Siri entirely.
Activation: How Siri Starts Listening
The submenu is called Talk to Siri, or Talk & Type to Siri when Apple Intelligence is switched on. Three options:
- "Siri" or "Hey Siri" — responds to both wake words.
- "Hey Siri" — the longer phrase only.
- Off — no voice activation; button methods still work.
The shorter "Siri" wake word is not available everywhere. Apple notes it depends on your device, language and region, so if you only see "Hey Siri" that is expected behaviour rather than a fault.
Separately there is a Press Side Button for Siri toggle. Turning voice activation off entirely while keeping the button is a genuinely good configuration if false triggers annoy you — you keep Siri without it ever listening for a wake word.
Other ways to start Siri
- Press and hold the side button (Face ID iPhones) or the Home button on older models.
- Press and hold the centre button on wired EarPods.
- In a car: the steering wheel voice button, or press and hold the CarPlay Home button.
Retraining Siri to your voice
There is no "retrain" button. The supported method is to set Talk to Siri to Off, then switch it back on and follow the setup prompts. Worth doing if recognition has degraded or someone else's voice is triggering your phone.
Type to Siri
Where this lives depends on Apple Intelligence, which trips people up.
With Apple Intelligence on, you do not enable it in Settings at all — you double-tap the bottom of the screen and type. Apple frames it as the option for when you cannot speak out loud, "in a quiet place like a meeting or a library".
Without Apple Intelligence, it is a toggle at Settings > Accessibility > Siri > Type to Siri. Apple explicitly notes that this option may not appear if Apple Intelligence is turned on. So if you cannot find the toggle, that is why.
Responses and Captions
Under Siri Responses you control how much Siri speaks and how much it shows.
- Spoken Responses — how much Siri reads aloud versus handling silently.
- Always Show Siri Captions — displays Siri's reply on screen as text.
- Always Show Request — displays what Siri heard you say.
Turn on Always Show Request if Siri regularly misunderstands you. Seeing the transcription immediately tells you whether the problem is speech recognition or comprehension, which changes how you fix it. Note the label is "Always Show Request" — older guides call this "Always Show Speech", which is obsolete.
Announce Calls and Announce Notifications
These let Siri read incoming calls and notifications aloud through headphones, speaker or CarPlay. Both have a master toggle and per-app control, and for many apps you can limit announcements to time-sensitive items only rather than everything.
Reply Without Confirmation is the setting worth understanding. On, a dictated reply sends immediately with no confirmation step — fast while driving, and occasionally the cause of a message you did not intend to send. On supported AirPods you can also nod or shake your head to accept or decline.
Voice and Language
Voice lets you pick a different variety or voice, though Apple states plainly this is "not available for all languages". Language changes what Siri listens for and responds in.
The important caveat: Apple Intelligence requires your device language and Siri language to match a supported language. Change Siri to something outside that list and classic Siri keeps working while the Apple Intelligence layer disappears. Our guide to Siri language availability covers which languages are on which list.
Calls, Messages and the Lock Screen
- Call Hang Up — lets you end a call by saying so. Requires a speech model download and works on iPhone 11 or SE (2nd generation) and later, in selected languages.
- Automatically Send Messages — skips the confirmation step when dictating a message.
- Allow Siri When Locked — the one to review for privacy. Off means Siri will not answer from a locked device.
Per-App Settings
Under Apps in the Siri menu you can control each app individually, with toggles including Show in App, Show on Home Screen, Suggest App and Suggestion Notifications. The same four names appear as global suggestion toggles higher up the menu.
If you are looking for "Learn from this App", it does not appear on Apple's current documentation for this menu and appears to have been retired. Search-side controls such as showing an app in search results are now under Settings > Search instead.
Siri in CarPlay
CarPlay does not add a separate Siri settings panel — it inherits your iPhone's configuration. What changes is how you invoke it: the steering wheel voice button, or press and hold the CarPlay Dashboard or Home button. In supported vehicles the wake word works too.
The setting that matters most for cars is Allow Siri When Locked, since a locked phone in a pocket is exactly the situation where you want Siri to still respond. Review it alongside Announce Notifications, which is far more useful in a car than anywhere else.
A Note on Labels That Keep Moving
Apple renames Siri settings more often than most parts of iOS, and its own documentation is not always internally consistent — the call-ending setting appears as both "Call Hang Up" and "Call Hangup" on different Apple pages, for example. Similar drift affects the HomePod control for personal results, which older writing calls Personal Requests and Apple's current page calls Personal Content.
Treat exact wording here as a guide rather than gospel, and search Settings directly if a label does not match. Pulling down on the Settings screen and typing the setting name is faster than navigating the menus, and it survives renames.
The Two Settings That Are Not in the Siri Menu
This is the part most guides get wrong.
Improve Siri & Dictation — whether Apple can store and review audio of your interactions — is at Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements > Improve Siri & Dictation. Not in the Siri menu. Siri request history is associated with a random identifier for up to six months, and you can delete it.
The accessibility controls are also separate, at Settings > Accessibility > Siri, and several are useful well beyond accessibility:
- Siri Pause Time (Default, Longer, Longest) — how long Siri waits before deciding you have finished speaking. If Siri keeps cutting you off mid-request, this is the fix, and almost nobody knows it exists.
- Speaking Rate — how fast Siri talks.
- Require "Siri" for Interruptions — stops Siri interrupting itself.
- Listen for Atypical Speech — improves recognition for atypical speech patterns; English (United States) primary language only.
- Announce Notifications on Speaker.
Bottom Line
Start at Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri, but remember two of the most useful controls live elsewhere: privacy under Analytics & Improvements, and Siri Pause Time under Accessibility. If Siri frequently misunderstands you, turn on Always Show Request and lengthen the pause time before changing anything else — those two settings solve most complaints.
Related iPhoneExtra Guides
More from iPhoneExtra: Siri 2.0 Tips and Hidden Features | What Can Siri 2.0 Actually Do? | Every Language Siri Supports.
