How to Talk to Siri without Pressing the Digital Crown on Apple Watch

Once you upgrade to watchOS 5 on your Apple Watch, your life is going to get a lot more seamless. For example, Siri is actually really quick and surprisingly reliable on the Series 3 Apple Watch. And just for the Series 3 users, there’s a new feature called Raise to Speak for Siri.

You can now talk to Siri without pressing and holding the Digital Crown. It seems like a small change but the real-life difference is staggering. And its way more reliable than using the Hey Siri phrase.

Read more: watchOS 5: All the New and Hidden watchOS 5 Features

First, Let’s Check if Raise to Speak is Enabled

Before we begin, let’s make sure that Raise to Speak feature for Siri is enabled on your Apple Watch. After updating to watchOS 5, you’ll see a notification about the feature. If you pressed Continue from the notification, the feature would be activated. Still, let’s make sure of it.

On your Apple Watch, press the Digital Crown to go to the App Launcher. From here, select Settings -> General -> Siri. Make sure that Raise to Speak is turned on. While you’re here, you can check out the new feature at the bottom of the page that lets you independently control Siri’s voice feedback volume.

The Art of Raise to Speak for Siri

Now all you really have to do is raise your arm and start talking. But there’s an art to it. To get this feature to work reliably all the time, you need to raise your wrist way up then you’re used to. Way higher than if you’d be checking the time.

For this feature to be bang on, your Apple Watch needs to be less than 6 inches from your face. If you can do a jerkier motion to make sure the screen comes on, then that’s even better!

But once your wrist is close enough, just start speaking. Directly speak the command, There’s no need for Hey Siri. In a split second. Apple Watch will realize what’s happening and will throw the Siri waveform on the screen. Next, your speech will be transcribed and will show up on the screen. Another second and Siri would have taken the appropriate action already!

Your Experience

In my testing, I found the Raise to Speak feature to be reliable most of the time. And I experienced way fewer failures. But your mileage may vary depending. So please do let us know your experience in the comments below.

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