How to Use ‘Hey Siri’ to Open Apps, Find Documents, Play Music or Answer Your Questions

Siri, the in-built AI application for MacBooks is without doubt one of the best features of the PC. It can be used to perform almost any function such as send an email, open an app, find a document, etc.

The most common way of activating Siri on a MacBook Pro is by holding down the Function key and the Space Bar. However, there are other ways of activating Siri out of which the most useful one is the spoken ‘Hey Siri’ option as it is a much faster and efficient way to activate Siri and provide commands. Follow the steps below to unlock and use the ‘Hey Siri’ option in your MacBook Pro.

Step 1
Open the ‘System Preferences’ menu on your MacBook and click on the Keyboard tab.

Step 2
In the dialog box which opens find the ‘Dictation’ tab and turn it on.

Step 3
Select the ‘Use Enhanced Dictation’ option and this may prompt a download for offline accessibility of this feature. You can also set your preferred language and toggle microphone settings within this dialog box.

Step 4
Go back to your 'System Preferences' window. Click on the view tab on top and in the drop-down menu click on ‘Accessiblity’.

Step 5
In the left column of the dialog box which will open there will be a ‘Dictation’ tab, click on it and check the ‘Enable the dictation keyword phrase’ box on the right.

Step 6
Click on the ‘Dictation Commands’ button on top of the same dialog box and in the window which appears tick the ‘Enable advanced commands’ box.

Step 7
Click on the ‘+’ button and there will be a space on the right to enter whatever words you want to open Siri using. Type in ‘Hey Siri’. Set the other two options to ‘Any Application’, and whatever keyboard shortcut you use to open Siri. Click 'Done' at the end of it and your voice command should have been saved.