The Intrusive Assistant
When you trigger Siri on macOS, either by clicking the icon in the menu bar or using a keyboard shortcut, the digital assistant defaults to providing both a visual response on screen and an audible spoken response. While the voice feedback is useful when you are across the room, it can be highly disruptive if you are working in a quiet office environment, a library, or on a crowded train. In these situations, having your Mac suddenly speak out loud is embarrassing and unnecessary, especially since the answer is already clearly displayed on your monitor.
Silencing the Spoken Feedback
You can configure Siri to only provide silent, text-based visual responses on your screen, entirely disabling the spoken voice feedback while retaining all of the assistant’s functionality.
Open the System Settings application from the Apple menu. Scroll down the left-hand sidebar and click on Siri & Spotlight. In the main pane on the right, look for the section specifically dedicated to Siri’s behaviour. You will find an option labelled Siri Responses. Click the “Siri Responses…” button to open a small dialogue box. Inside this box, look for the toggle switch labelled Voice Feedback. Click the toggle to turn it completely Off. Click Done to save your changes. From now on, when you ask Siri a question, the answer will silently appear in the top right corner of your screen, ensuring your quiet environment remains undisturbed.