How to activate Siri on Mac right now. How to call Siri on Mac by voice? Step-by-step instructions Siri does not work on a MacBook

On iOS devices work " Hey Siri" provides an M9 motion coprocessor that receives data from the microphone without putting additional strain on the battery. Since battery consumption is not a big problem on Macs (especially on iMac, Mac Pro and Mac mini), the Cupertino team's decision to abandon support for the feature is surprising, to put it mildly. However, it turns out that users can easily recreate the “Hey Siri” experience in macOS Sierra.

macOS Sierra in-depth review

How it works?

Simulate work " Hey Siri" on Mac, the " " function will help, using the Siri engine to convert spoken speech into text. Using the settings, you need to create a “hot” word so that “Dictation” is always configured to receive data entered using voice. First, you should configure Dictation so that the feature is activated when the user says “Hello.” Secondly, you need to create a command to activate the keyboard shortcut that “wake up” Siri. Once done, users will be able to use their voice to activate Siri. So, in order:

1 . Go to " System Settings" and select Siri.

In the drop-down menu " Keyboard shortcuts" Press " Tune" to assign a specific keyboard shortcut to activate Siri.

2 . Press the keys you selected on your keyboard. For example, this could be a combination Control (⌃)+Command (⌘)+7 . Now it needs to be bound to " Dictation».

3 . Open " System Settings" and click on " Universal access».

From the menu on the left, select the option " Dictation" In the section on the right, check the box next to “ Include keywords" and type on the keyboard " Hello».

ATTENTION! If the item " Include keywords» inactive, open System Settings -> Keyboard, go to the tab Dictation and press Use Enhanced Dictation.

You need to download the package " Improved dictation“, and then restart your computer.

4 . Click on the button Dictation commands" A menu will appear with various commands.

Now you need to check the box next to “ Enable extended commands"(located in the section at the bottom left) and click on the sign " + «.

5 . In the section on the right in the field " When I speak» enter the word in Russian « Siri».

6 . Open the menu " Execute", select the option " Press keyboard shortcut» and press the keys selected in steps 1 and 2.

7 . Click on the button Ready" and close " System Settings».

8 . Restart your computer (sometimes it starts working without rebooting).

Having done all of the above, you will create the command " Dictations» to activate Siri. A microphone icon will appear in the Mac menu bar, indicating that the " Dictation"is on all the time and ready to receive commands.

What's really going on?

It may seem like a bit of black magic to wake up Siri using your voice on a Mac, but that's not the case at all. In fact, after you have said the word " Hello", the function " Dictation", which is after the word " Siri» activates your chosen keyboard shortcuts, which in turn activate Siri.

It introduced the voice assistant Siri, which we already love from iOS, but you can ask for help from the smart assistant only after pressing a key combination. And sometimes you really want to know what the weather is like or play a song without leaving the couch.

After rummaging through the settings and browsing foreign forums, I finally found a way to launch Siri without resorting to the keyboard.

Step-by-step instructions for setting up Siri voice calling on Mac

1. Open Mac OS settings, then “keyboard” and select the “dictation” tab. Turn on dictation and check the box “use enhanced dictation” (this is important).
2. Now we return to the initial settings menu, go to “universal access” and select “dictation”. Here we need to enter a key phrase, let it be the word “Hello”.
   
3. In the same window, click “dictation commands”, check the “enable advanced commands” checkbox and click +
   
4. Here in the top field we enter the word by which our voice assistant will be launched, it is logical that this word will be Siri. We leave the second field unchanged, and in the third you need to enter the key combination that currently launches the assistant.
   

Note: You can find out this combination by clicking "Siri" in settingsMac.

Important: By default, you can call Siri holding keys option And space. But if you want to launch the assistant by voice, you will have to change the standard combination to any other. The main condition is that there is no action " hold" That is, you can simply change to pressing option space.

This completes the setup process, now you can say “Hey Siri” and command from a distance.

It’s not difficult to guess that in addition to how to call Siri on a Mac by voice, in a similar way you can configure the launch of other programs, as well as perform many other actions.

This is another way to contact your Apple device without using your hands. Of course, not everyone will find this setting useful, but users who live by the principle “Laziness is the engine of progress” will undoubtedly be interested in trying it out!)

Since the release of Siri in 2011, Apple users have been waiting for the voice assistant to appear on Mac computers. According to rumors, the personal assistant will become available after the release of the OS X 10.12 update this fall. However, you can try some voice commands using accessibility features now.

The method below will not provide the full capabilities of Apple's voice assistant. For example, you won’t be able to check the weather forecast or display the results of a football match, but you can easily use commands like: “Launch iTunes,” “Close Messages,” “New Tab,” and so on. Each command is preceded by a passphrase, which serves the same role as “Hey Siri” in iOS.

How to activate voice commands:

1. First, open System Preferences, then the Accessibility panel. Scroll the contents of the left side of the window all the way down and select the “Dictation” section.
2. Check the box next to “Enable dictation by key phrase.”

How to add your commands

It is not necessary to use only the commands pre-installed in OS X. You can add your own phrases to expand your dictation capabilities.

1. Open Dictation Commands under Dictation.
2. A form will appear in which you can select a phrase that is used to trigger a particular action.
3. Check the "Enable advanced commands" checkbox.
4. Now you need to decide whether you want to use the command in a specific application or from anywhere on the system.
5. After this, you need to select the action that will be performed after the voice command. The possibilities are almost endless: from launching the desired URL in the browser to inserting a specific piece of text.

Examples of useful commands

Below are some examples of actions for which you should configure commands:

• Insert the most frequently used piece of text or address information.
• Shortcut Ctrl+Shift+3 to take a screenshot.
• Launching the Automator application, which is responsible for executing custom work scenarios.
• Insert any predefined data (images or other files).
• Opening the desired folders through Finder.

Options for action can be thought up endlessly. The main thing is that thanks to dictation, you can forget about many complex keyboard shortcuts and control them easily and simply using your voice.

There are three built-in ways to activate Siri on a Mac, but they all require a mouse click or use of the keyboard. But there is a workaround.

Before going through the Siri calling options, let's first make sure you have Siri functionality enabled. When you install macOS Sierra, one of the setup screens will ask you if you want to turn on Siri, so it's likely that you've already turned it on on your Mac. If you rejected Sierra's initial offer, go to System Preferences > Siri and make sure the Enable Siri checkbox is checked.

With Siri enabled, here are four ways to activate Apple's voice assistant.

Option 1: Siri icon in the Dock.

Very simple. Click on the Siri icon in the Dock and the Siri window will pop up to the foreground.

Option 2: Siri icon in the menu bar.

If you don't see the Siri icon in the menu bar in the top-right corner of your screen, go to System Preferences > Siri and check the box next to Show Siri icon in menu bar.

Option 3: Key combination.

The default keyboard shortcut to activate Siri is press and hold Command-space. You can set up your own keyboard shortcut in System Preferences > Siri.

Option 4: Turn on Hey Siri.

Apple doesn't offer a toggle to enable Hey Siri in macOS Sierra like it does in iOS 10, but there is a workaround. In a nutshell, you need to create a custom shortcut for Siri and then create a voice command to activate that shortcut.

Here are the steps to create a "Hey Siri" command.

Step 1: Go to System Preferences > Siri and select a custom key combination. (Dictation doesn't understand pressing and holding keys, so you have to choose a shortcut key combination other than Siri's default. And for reasons I don't understand, Dictation doesn't understand Apple's suggested key combination of Function-space.) For my custom Siri shortcut, I chose Command-S.

Step 2: Go to System Preferences > Keyboard and select the Dictation tab. Turn on dictation, and also check the box for "Use Enhanced Dictation." (You may need to download and install the Enhanced Dictation file if you haven't used it before.)

Step 3: Go to System Preferences > Accessibility. Scroll down in the left pane and click on Dictation. In the right pane, check "Include dictation key phrases" and then change the phrase to "Hey."

Step 4: On the Accessibility page, click the Dictation Commands button. Check the "Enable extended commands" checkbox and then click the "+" button to add a new command.

For your new command, use the following parameters:

• When I say: Siri
• When used: any program
• Run: Select Press shortcut from the menu, then enter your custom Siri key combination (mine is Command-S).

When you're finished, click the "Done" button to save your changes.

This workaround didn't work for me at first, but after I went to System Preferences > Siri and unchecked and then re-checked Siri, everything worked as expected.

Last note: If you use the "Hey Siri" command on your Mac, your iPhone can also activate Siri if it's within earshot. You don’t have to use the “Hey Siri” command; you can specify a different command to somehow differentiate the commands for iPhone from Mac and not activate both of them with a single command. I can suggest "Hey Mac" or "Hey Jarvis" (Jarvis is the assistant program for the main character from the Iron Man comic).

Another impetus for purchasing the updated iPhone 6s/6s Plus was the call of the voice assistant Siri using the phrase “Hey Siri” right in standby mode. All previous generations of devices also obediently respond to this call, but only when connected to a charger.

Open Settings -> Siri and at point Keyboard shortcuts Press Tune.

2. Our task is to set a keyboard shortcut to activate the assistant. Press any convenient and memorable combination: CMD+3, CMD+9 etc.

3. The next item is binding a keyboard shortcut to a function built into OS X (and now macOS) Dictation.

Open Settings -> Accessibility and select the item in the side list Dictation from subsection Interaction.

4. Check the box next to the item , and enter “Hello” as the command word.

Note: Paragraph Include dictation key phrases may be inactive. In this case, you need to go to Settings -> Keyboard -> Dictation tab and put a tick next to the item Improved Dictation. Wait until the package is downloaded, then return to Universal access (clause 3) and include a passphrase.

5. Now you need to bind Dictation to call the Siri voice assistant. This is done using the command keys indicated above.

Click on the item Dictation commands and in the lower left corner turn on the checkbox Enable extended commands.

6. Opposite the point Using select from the drop-down list Press keyboard shortcut, and in the line When I speak write "Siri".

7. In point Execute Select the keyboard shortcut specified for Siri ( clause 2). Click Ready and restart your Mac.

Note the microphone icon on Taskbars. If it is turned off after reboot, tap on it and select Listen without having to pronounce the key phrase. The system will prompt you to reboot Improved dictation. Agree and wait for the installation to complete.

Note: macOS is in beta, so “Hey Siri” may not work right away. If, after the above settings, the assistant refuses to respond to voice, open Settings -> Accessibility -> Dictation and uncheck and then re-check the box Include dictation key phrases And Siri from the menu Dictation commands.

Now the function Dictation always on. Just say “Hey Siri” and your Mac will launch the voice assistant. This algorithm works very simply: the “Hello” command activates dictation, and the word “Siri” is a key combination that activates the voice assistant.