How to Set a Keyboard Shortcut to Activate Siri on Mac - MacRumors
Skip to Content

How to Set a Keyboard Shortcut to Activate Siri on Mac

by

Since macOS Sierra, Apple has included Siri on the Mac, enabling desktop users to ask the virtual assistant general queries and give it spoken commands.

macbook pro hey siri
‌Siri‌ for Mac can do most of the same things ‌Siri‌ can do on iOS. It can give you sports scores, tell you about the weather, schedule an event in your calendar, remind you what you need to get done today or even find movie times. It can also help you with common desktop tasks, like searching for images or changing your Mac's display settings.

‌Siri‌ on Mac can be invoked by clicking the ‌Siri‌ icon in the menu bar at the top of the screen. If it's easier, you can also use a keyboard shortcut so that your fingers don't need to leave the keys. You can customize the keyboard shortcut assigned to ‌Siri‌ in the following way.

  1. Click the Apple () symbol in the menu bar at the top-left corner of the screen and select System Preferences....
    apple menu system preferences

  2. Click the Siri icon in the preferences panel.
    siri system preferences

  3. Click the Keyboard Shortcut dropdown menu. The default options are Hold Command Space, Hold Option Space, and Press (fn) Function Space. You can also define your own custom shortcut by clicking Customize... and then pressing the keys you wish to use.
    siri preference pane keyboard shortcut

Be sure to check out the other options for ‌Siri‌ in the System Preferences pane, including language, voice, voice feedback, and mic input. For more information on how to use ‌Siri‌ in macOS, click here.

Popular Stories

Apple Intelligence General Feature

Siri in iOS 27: Every New Feature and Change to Expect

Tuesday June 2, 2026 3:03 pm PDT by
Apple first introduced the idea of a smarter version of Siri at the 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference. Siri with Apple Intelligence was supposed to launch as part of iOS 18, but the underlying architecture wasn't good enough, and Apple was forced to delay the feature. We're now expecting a new version of Siri in iOS 27 with some long-awaited smarts. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel ...
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple's Overhauled Siri Will Reportedly Run on Nvidia's Blackwell Chips

Thursday June 4, 2026 2:38 am PDT by
Apple will rely on Google's fleet of Nvidia chips to power its overhauled version of Siri when it launches in September, according to a new report from The Information. Last week, the outlet reported that Apple plans to highlight the on-device AI capabilities of its devices at WWDC next week, but queries that require cloud-based processing will still fall back on one of Google's large Gemini ...
iOS 27 Ft

iOS 27: New Siri Features Could Be Gated Behind a Waitlist

Friday June 5, 2026 4:24 am PDT by
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has published his WWDC preview ahead of Monday's keynote, and while almost all of the iOS 27 features he covers have already made the rounds, there are a couple of details worth highlighting. As we've covered previously, Apple is turning Siri into a full chatbot that users can interact with, similar to Claude or ChatGPT. The Siri chatbot will be integrated into...