How to Take control of Siri

1 Siri from the keyboard

In Siri’s preferences, use the topmost pop-up to set a key combination that will open Siri. The first two suggestions require a slightly unconventional hold of two keys for a moment, or you can choose to quickly press twice.

2 More conventionally

Or, pick Customise and press a key combo that includes at least one of ≈, å, and ç, optionally ß too, and a letter, number, arrow key, symbol, or ® . If you’ll open Siri from the menu, Dock, or Touch Bar, select Off.

3 Call upon Siri

Click or press one of Siri’s shortcut icons or keys and a window will slide in at the top right of the desktop to ask what you need. As you speak, a waveform at the bottom of that window will animate in response.

4 Siri and headsets

In Siri’s preferences, the mic input item displays the mic Siri is using to listen to you. If you sometimes use headphones or a headset that feature a microphone, click that item and choose Automatic if it isn’t already selected.

5 Auto- switching mics

When the mic input is set to Automatic, Siri will switch to your headset/headphones when they’re connected to your Mac, and otherwise default to the mic it thinks is best – typically a Mac’s built-in mic, if there is one.

6 Type to Siri

Go to System Preferences’ Accessibility pane and select Siri on the left. There’s one item here: Enable Type to Siri. Put a mark next to it. Now when you use a keyboard or icon shortcut to open Siri, it’ll expect you to type.

7 Make Siri silent

Enabling Type to Siri means you won’t hear its chime when you call upon it for assistance, but you’ll also need to turn off Voice Feedback in Siri’s prefs so others won’t know its response if your Mac isn’t muted.

8 When you want to speak

you invoke Siri from a shortcut on your headphones – a double-tap on AirPods, say – Siri assumes you want to speak to it instead. (Note: in High Sierra’s Bluetooth prefs, you can set different actions for each AirPod.)