Transforming Siri Into ChatGPT for Enhanced iPhone Interaction: Tips and Tricks

Quick Links

Key Takeaways

To use ChatGPT with Siri on an iPhone or iPad, get an OpenAI API key and download the ChatGPT Siri shortcut. Enter your API key in the shortcut setup and select the GPT model you want to use, then hit “Add Shortcut.” Trigger the shortcut manually first to allow permissions, then start asking Siri to trigger the shortcut.

Siri can control your iPhone, but it’s nowhere near as powerful as ChatGPT . Fortunately, you can add ChatGPT to your iPhone and talk to it with your voice, using Siri as a gateway to ChatGPT. Here’s how.

Add the ChatGPT Shortcut to Your iPhone

ChatGPT Siri integration works using Apple’s Shortcuts app and the OpenAI API. You can trigger the ChatGPT shortcut using Siri, after which you can dictate your request. This request is sent to OpenAI’s servers, processed, and a response is returned to you. Note that using the OpenAI API is not free—you’ll get some sign-on credit to start with, but to keep using it, you’ll eventually have to pay up, as we’ll explain. (However, it’s very cheap—much cheaper than even ChatGPT Plus.)

There are many different methods of invoking ChatGPT through Siri using a Shortcut; you could even build your own. Today we’ll be using ChatGPT Siri by Yue-Yang . We chose this because it works and has been updated several times, and new versions of the shortcut are available alongside the old on the author’s GitHub page.

To start with, you’ll need to generate an OpenAI API key for use with the Shortcut. You can do this by heading to the OpenAI API Keys page in your user settings. If you don’t already have an account, register with OpenAI, log in, and access the API key page.

Click on the “Create New Secret Key” button, and a new API key will be generated. Copy this to a safe place, and don’t show it to anyone else; you’ll need it to set up the shortcut we’ll be using.

You can complete this next step on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and the Shortcut will sync between platforms. Head to the ChatGPT Siri GitHub page and grab the latest version of the shortcut. You’ll find it listed on the main page via a link for the “English Version.” At the time of writing, the latest version is ChatGPT Siri 1.2.4 .

When you tap or click on the shortcut, you’ll see a “Set Up Shortcut” button. Tap or click it, and you’ll be asked to provide your API key. Paste the API key into the text field provided and move on to the next step.

Now you’ll see the default prompt that seeds every ChatGPT interaction. You can leave this as-is, or you can change it depending on your preference.

Lastly, select the model you want to use. You can choose between GPT-3.5 Turbo and GPT-4. The former is cheaper in terms of API calls and faster, while GPT-4 is more advanced, requires more processing, and is slower.

Hit the “Add Shortcut” button. You can now trigger this from the Shortcuts app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac; using the macOS menu bar , or using a home screen widget .

It’s a good idea to run the Shortcut manually on your iPhone before doing so via Siri. Hit the “ChatGPT 1.2.4” shortcut you just made and ask ChatGPT a random question (try “tell me a story”), then you’ll get a prompt asking you to grant access to OpenAI’s website, which you should accept.

Finally, grant the shortcut access to your clipboard (so it can automatically copy responses to your clipboard). You should now see the response to your query appear in a window.

Trigger ChatGPT Using Siri

You can trigger ChatGPT by mentioning the shortcut by name to Siri. So if you have Siri on always-listening mode, you can say “Hey Siri, ChatGPT 1.2.4” (or whatever the shortcut you created is called). If all goes well, you’ll see the response “I am here, always at your service!”

This is your cue to hit ChatGPT with a query. If you wait too long, Siri will stop listening and you’ll see messages like “Still working…” and “One sec…” before being notified that “I’m having trouble with the connection” or similar.

For best results, consider naming your ChatGPT shortcut something else so that Siri better understands you. You can do this by launching Shortcuts on your iPhone, tapping and holding the Shortcut, and selecting “Rename” from the available options.

Now Siri will run your ChatGPT shortcut using your new name. So if you rename the shortcut “GPT” you can say “Hey, Siri GPT” to start your chat.

Use the ChatGPT Shortcut for Text Chats Too

The ChatGPT shortcut will quickly move on to the next prompt once you have received a reply, so it works best for short queries. Remember you can always ask the chatbot to “repeat your last answer” to see the response in full. Alternatively, running the shortcut from within the Shortcuts app lets you take the conversation at your own pace.

You’ll need to hit “Done” after every response received before typing a reply to keep the conversation going. This works best for more in-depth responses, like recipes, long explainers, stories, quizzes, lists, and other things ChatGPT is good at .

Use of the ChatGPT API Isn’t Free

When you first sign up for an account to use ChatGPT, you’ll get $18 in credit to use across OpenAI’s APIs. This credit will eventually expire, and you’ll need to purchase more to continue making API calls. That means that this method of using ChatGPT won’t be free forever.

You can see your current usage on the OpenAI Usage page . Each ChatGPT response amounts to a fraction of a cent, with a full breakdown available on the OpenAI Pricing page .

Add your card details and set usage limits on the OpenAI Billing page if you want to continue using OpenAI’s APIs.

Use ChatGPT in a Browser for Free

If you’ve run out of OpenAI credit and don’t fancy setting up a paid account to continue using ChatGPT via Siri, use the good old ChatGPT website instead.

You can use the web-based version of ChatGPT for free from a mobile device like your iPhone or a desktop web browser on a Mac or PC. It’s subject to limits on usage during busy periods unless you’re subscribed to ChatGPT Plus, and you’ll need to log in and verify you’re human to use it so it’s not seamless like Siri integration.

Use Bing Chat (GPT-4) With the Bing App

While standard free-tier users of ChatGPT must wait for GPT-4 integration, Bing has been using the latest version of the model for a while now. All you need to do is sign up for Bing Chat to use Microsoft’s sea r ch AI assistant . Microsoft has removed the waiting period for its GPT-based chat function, but usage is still limited to certain apps.

On the desktop, you’ll need to use Microsoft Edge (at the time of writing), while mobile users are limited to the Bing apps for iPhone and Android . Download Bing for your iPhone, log in with an account that has Bing Chat access, and start chatting right away.

Why Use ChatGPT with Siri?

Siri is useful for doing things with apps and services that reside on your iPhone. You can compose messages, place calls, add reminders, take new notes, launch apps, and even restart your iPhone using Siri . Siri can handle simple web requests too, but it’s simply not as good as Google’s or Amazon’s assistants in this regard.

By comparison, ChatGPT has been trained on a huge snapshot of the web’s knowledge. OpenAI’s chatbot is far from perfect , but its ability to provide interesting, useful, or just plain amusing answers to queries cannot be matched by Siri.

For example, you can ask ChatGPT to create you a recipe using items you have in your fridge (even if they don’t go well together). You can use it to create a quiz about any topic you can think of (though it’s answers aren’t always correct), tell you jokes that might not make sense, or “make up” a story about a random topic.

ChatGPT and other AI generative systems aren’t “thinking” or being creative in the way that human beings are , rather they’re predicting patterns based on the underlying language model.

More ChatGPT Alternatives

Google Bard is another search-engine-driven AI chatbot you might want to try if Bing isn’t cutting it. OpenAI Playground, GitHub CoPilot, and Jasper are among some of the other ChatGPT alternatives you might want to try .

Siri is still useful too. Check out some of the useful things you can do with Siri .

Some Skills

Transforming Siri Into ChatGPT for Enhanced iPhone Interaction: Tips and Tricks