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   How to Enable 'Hey Siri' in macOS 10.12 Sierra

   Adam C. Engst

   Although Apple has made much of the fact that [1]macOS 10.12 Sierra
   includes the Siri voice-driven personal assistant technology, there is
   one glaring omission: the capability to hail Siri with just your voice.
   Instead, you must click Siri's menu bar icon or Dock icon, or press its
   keyboard shortcut.

   [2][tn_Siri-System-Preferences.jpg]

   That shouldn't be necessary: on recent iPhones and the 9.7-inch iPad
   Pro, and on the Apple Watch, you can just say 'Hey Siri' to cause Siri
   to take notice of your next spoken command. (With older iOS devices,
   'Hey Siri' works only when the device is connected to power, rendering
   it significantly less useful, and with the Apple TV, you must press and
   hold a button on the Siri Remote, which is near impossible in a dark
   room.)

   Happily, there is a subtle trick you can use to simulate 'Hey Siri' on
   a Mac running Sierra. I've based these instructions on the coverage of
   Siri in Scholle McFarland's '[3]Sierra: A Take Control Crash Course'
   book ' it has a slew of additional tips, tricks, and step-by-step
   illustrated instructions if you're looking for more help with Siri or
   other new features in Sierra.

   Scholle's trick revolves around using a dictation feature to open Siri
   on your command. Follow these steps:
    1. Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation. Turn Dictation on
       and then select Use Enhanced [4]Dictation.
       If it hasn't already, your Mac downloads [5]Enhanced Dictation,
       which enables you to dictate offline. That's not actually what we
       care about, but eliminating the need to parse your words on Apple's
       servers also lets you use dictation commands and converts your
       words to text more quickly, and those features are key.
    2. Switch to System Preferences > Accessibility. Scroll down in the
       left-hand column and select Dictation.
    3. Select Enable the Dictation Keyword Phrase and then type Hey into
       the text field.
       [6][tn_Siri-set-trigger-phrase.jpg]
    4. Click the Dictation Commands button, select the Enable Advanced
       Commands checkbox, and then click the plus button. Options appear
       to the right of the dialog. Next to 'When I say,' type Siri into
       the text field. Leave While Using set to Any Application.
    5. Click the Perform pop-up menu and choose Open Finder Items. In the
       dialog that appears, navigate to the Siri app in the Applications
       folder.
       [7][tn_Siri-set-name-phrase.jpg]
    6. Click Done.

   Try it out by saying 'Hey Siri!' and your Mac should respond. There's
   no option for training 'Hey Siri' to recognize your voice in Sierra, so
   you'll need to practice a little to figure out how to speak so your Mac
   understands that you're talking to it.

   There is one problem with setting up 'Hey Siri' as we've done here,
   which is that if your iPhone is in range, it will likely answer as
   well. Although Siri talking to Siri can be amusing, it's likely to be
   confusing or just get on your nerves. To avoid this, you can change
   either the voice trigger for your Mac, in Step 3 above, or the name in
   the 'When I say' field in Step 4.

   Obviously, you can use whatever you like, but my recommendation is 'Hey
   Mac.' Assuming that you're using 'Hey Siri' on your iPhone, iPad Pro,
   or Apple Watch already, keeping 'Hey' as the trigger will make it easy
   to start issuing a voice command regardless of what device you're
   using, and continuing to talk to 'Mac' should be intuitive, given that
   you are talking to your Mac. 'Hey Mac' is also short and easy to say,
   and it should be easily recognized. If your Mac doesn't recognize you
   saying it, though, don't hesitate to try other triggers or names.

   Give it a try, and let us know in the comments how you're using Siri on
   the Mac, and how that may differ from how you use Siri on your other
   Apple devices.

References

   1. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206993
   2. http://tidbits.com/resources/2016-10/Siri-System-Preferences.png
   3. http://tid.bl.it/sierra-crash-course-tidbits
   4. http://tid.bl.it/sierra-crash-course-tidbits
   5. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202584#enhanced
   6. http://tidbits.com/resources/2016-10/Siri-set-trigger-phrase.png
   7. http://tidbits.com/resources/2016-10/Siri-set-name-phrase.png

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