Text messaging with Siri using Messages and WhatsApp

Sending, reading and replying to messages with Siri

Messages app

The Messages app is the standard messaging app provided by Apple. It is very flexible and can communicate with all types of phone.

Siri is great for sending, receiving and replying to text messages using the Messages app. This works fine for messging with both iPhones and Android phones as well as with basic "feature phones". Siri can't do everything you might want to do with messages, so you may also need to learn how to work with messages using the Messages app as well as relying on Siri. Siri works best for visually impaired people when VoiceOver is turned on and these instructions assume that VoiceOver is turned on which causes Siri to be more talkative. If your phone or tablet supports Siri AI you will be able to get more done with messages using natural language commands. Siri AI should cope fine with all the tasks outlined below and will often respond correctly to requests like "what was the last message Jim sent?" but I have found that the current, early versions of Siri AI, can be unreliable with this kind of request. One thing that does seem to work reliably is correcting dictated messages in which you hear errors when they are spoken back to you. Instruct Siri to make the correction using natural language and it seems to work very well. Also if you want to add some more text to the eend of your message, Siri AI will let you do that so you can build long messages in sections. I'll write more about Siri AI and messages when I've had more time to explore it and when I feel it's more reliable but for now please experiment for yourself.

To send a text message, instruct Siri to "text John Smith" or "message John Smith" and you will be asked to dictate the message.  When you pause for a while, Siri will speak your message to you and then ask if you are ready to send the message. At this point you can say "yes" to send the message or, alternatively, one of "cancel", "add", "change" or "read".  "Cancel" abandons the message. "Add" will ask you for an addition to the message which can be used to build a long message in short sections."Change" allows you to replace the message. "Read" will speak the full message back to you again for checking. If you prefer to send messages without the check then go to Settings / Apple Intelligence & Siri / Messaging with Siri, or Setting / Siri / Messaging with Siri, depending on your phone model, and turn on "Automatically Send Messages. Of course, with this setting turned on you won't be able to build a long message in short sections using "add".

Siri can usually handle the names of all your contacts but occasionally seems to get confused. If you have problems with this try spelling either the first or last name of your contact in your request to Siri. For example, if Siri has problems understanding you when you ask it to text Balwant, try saying "text B A L W A N T" instead.  This usually works and often restores Siri's ability to recognise Balwant's name.

When your phone receives a text message, you can have it spoken by instructing Siri to "read messages". This will read all the messages that you haven't read yet, one by one, and at the end of each message, you will be asked if you want to send a reply. You can say "yes", "no" or also "read" if you didn't catch the message first time.

Once Siri has read a message and moved on it can no longer be read by instructing Siri to "read messages". If you instruct Siri to "read messages" again you will be told that you have no messages, which actually means that you have no unread messages. If you need to hear a message again later, then you must either use the Messages app or ask Siri to read a specific message or messages, for example "read my message from John Smith" or "read my messages from yesterday". The results can be a little erratic but are often useful.

WhatsApp

So long as WhatsApp is installed and set up on your iPhone Siri can normally deal with WhatsApp chats similarly to the way it handles text messages using the Messages app. Saying something like "text Jane Smith using WhatsApp" and "read my WhatsApp messages" should work. "read my WhatsApp message from John Smith" seems to behave erratically. If you tend to use WhatsApp to communicate with an individual, Siri may remember that and use WhatsApp if you simply ask for a text to be sent. At other times, Siri may ask you to confirm whether you want to use Messages or WhatsApp. Occasionally those requests aren't handled correctly with spoken prompts for VoiceOver users. As with Messages, Siri AI will offer more flexible options with natural language instructions but may be a little erratic at present.

Apple Intelligence summarisation

If Apple Intelligence is supported on your device Siri may be giving summaries of messages rather than the full message and this is often unhelpful. The setting for Messages summaries is at Settings / Apps / Messages / Summarise Messages. If your WhatsApp chat notifications are being summarised, the setting is at Settings / Notifications / Summarise Notifications where you can select the apps for which you want notifications to be summarised or simply turn off summarisation for all apps.

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last updated 30 September 2026