Call up Siri in macOS Sierra with this keyboard shortcut

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Siri is coming to the Mac, and will be opened to third-party developers on iOS.
Siri in macOS Sierra.
Photo: Apple

If you’re planning to install the new macOS Sierra public beta today, one of the first things you’ll want to check out is Siri. The virtual assistant is just as useful on your desktop as it is on iOS, and summoning it is super simple with this keyboard shortcut.

If you’re a developer and you’ve been running the first macOS Sierra beta, you may have been using the Siri keyboard shortcut — which was function + spacebar — already. But with the second beta release, which is also available to the public, that shortcut is changing.

From now on, summoning Siri will require you to hold down the command key, then hold down the spacebar. This is the same shortcut used in previous OS X releases to invoke Spotlight, only instead of just tapping the spacebar, you need to hold it down.

Siri is then activated, you can feed it voice commands to launch apps, create reminders, set timers, and find useful information.

If you preferred the older shortcut (function + spacebar), you can change it back to this within the System Preferences app.

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