The Accidental Assistant
The Apple Watch is designed to be a highly proactive digital assistant. By default, Siri is always listening in the background. It can be triggered in three different ways: pressing and holding the Digital Crown, saying “Hey Siri” out loud, or simply raising your wrist to your mouth and speaking. While this is great for setting quick cooking timers, it can be incredibly frustrating if you frequently trigger the assistant by accident. Bending your wrist backwards while lifting weights can hold down the Digital Crown, and raising your wrist while talking loudly to a friend can activate the microphone, causing your watch to suddenly interrupt your conversation. If you never use voice commands, you should completely shut Siri down.
How to Completely Disable Siri
You must turn off all three hardware triggers to completely deactivate the assistant.
- Open the Settings app directly on your Apple Watch (the grey gear icon).
- Scroll down the list and tap on Siri.
- At the top of the menu, you will see three distinct toggle switches under the “Ask Siri” section.
- Toggle Listen for “Hey Siri” to Off.
- Toggle Raise to Speak to Off.
- Toggle Press Digital Crown to Off.
Confirming the Deactivation
The moment you flip the third and final switch, the Apple Watch will display a stark warning pop-up at the bottom of the screen. It will ask if you are absolutely sure you want to turn off Siri, noting that your voice data will be removed from Apple’s servers.
- Tap the red Turn Off Siri button to confirm.
Siri is now completely eradicated from your watch. Pressing and holding the Digital Crown will no longer do anything, and you can speak as loudly as you want near your wrist without the glowing Siri orb interrupting your day.