Nothing beats the convenience of using Siri to send a message to your contacts. Instead of typing large paragraphs, you can quickly dictate and send your message with Siri. However, Siri would send that message through the Messages app. If you want to use a third-party app, you must say so in your order. Well, that’s a thing of the past now. One of the most exciting iOS 17 features is the ability to change which app Siri should use to send your message after you dictate the text. Interesting, right? Let’s see how it’s done.
How to change Siri’s default messaging app
It’s quite easy to change the messaging app you want to send a message to using Siri. It’s worth mentioning that you can’t set WhatsApp, Telegram, or any other app as your default messaging app for Siri. Although there is no direct method, Siri will remember to choose the selected app as the default option next time.
Instead, you can change the messaging app for Siri after dictating or typing a message. Before you get too excited, make sure you are very quick because you have to stay on top of the 5 second countdown that is visually displayed via the send button. Once that button is populated, your message will be sent through the Messages app. Here are the complete steps to do this:
Note: The steps below only work on iPhones running the latest iOS 17.
- Invoke Siri. This is possible with iOS 17 change ‘Hey Siri’ to ‘Siri’ to invoke Apple’s virtual assistant.
- Now say “Send message” and read out the name of the contact you want to send the message to when Siri asks.
- Then dictate the message you want to send to your contact.
- At the top you will see a message confirmation. From there, tap the Messaging app icon.
- Select the messaging app you want to send the text through by clicking the Messages icon. Here you will see the list of third party messaging apps and more.
- Finally, tap the Send button.
Once you’ve done this, Siri will let you know the message has been sent. You can check this by going to the app you chose.
How to remove suggested messaging apps
You can use Siri to send messages via a third-party messaging app. That said, sometimes you might see and choose an app that doesn’t support direct messaging. Although Siri lets you know by displaying a blank screen with no information, you can also choose to delete a suggested app. This will help keep the list organized and avoid confusion when sending a message with Siri. Here’s how to do it:
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Tap on Siri and search and scroll down until you see a list of apps.
- Now tap on the app you want to exclude from Siri Suggestions.
- Turn the switch off for Use with Ask Siri.
In the future, you’ll still be able to open that app with Siri, but your data won’t be sent to Apple to process your requests. This means you won’t see those apps in suggestions while you send a message.
With iOS 17, you have the freedom to change the app you want to use to send messages with Siri. Undeniably, iMessage offers a seamless experience on iPhones and new features like Check inOvertake, and Swipe to respond have been added to improve the user experience. That said, it’s great to have a handy feature in iOS 17 that lets you send text messages using your favorite app. What is your opinion about this new feature? Don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments below.
