At least three of us on here have purchased m4 Mac Minis, but I haven't seen this mentioned. Those considering one ought to be forewarned that Hey Siri only works on internal microphones, so a USB external mic plugged into a Mac Mini won't listen for hey siri. I should have known this, since I also couldn't use an external mic for Siri on my Macbook Air. Their justification in the past has had something to do with privacy and security, which seems thin to me: a microphone is a microphone. I also tried plugging in my iPhone and setting it as the input device. The phone is good enough for Hey Siri, but the same device plugged into a Mac isn't. Maybe there'll be enough hue and cry about this as Apple Intelligence becomes more useful that they'll include not only the speaker but an internal mic in the next Mac mini iteration in a few years.
It continues to work normally with AirPods. It says "supported headphones," but headphones in the analog jack don't work.
BTW, a trick to make Siri with Apple Intelligence more microphone-friendly is to activate Siri with the shortcut key then immediately activate dictation with its shortcut key. Interaction with elements to get to the Talk button in the Siri Interface when Apple Intelligence is on remains troublesome, at least on my system. This gets around that. I've set the Apple Intelligence Siri shortcut to command key twice and the dictation key to Fn key twice. Those with Apple silicon Macs will know that, for whatever conceivable reason, the Siri interface is different when Apple Intelligence is turned on.
HTH
Comments
Keyboard shortcuts with several keys work for siri.
For me, if I press Command+Option+Shift+enter, this opens up the Siri interface. If I hold this shortcut, I can talk to siri. Your shortcut doesn't have to be this complicated, but it still should work if you make it to where you press and hold something rather than just press a key twice.
Thanks!
Thanks for that. I see now on the settings screen that Fn-S and custom shortcuts allow holding to speak, whereas double tapping keys don't provide that option. Just set mine to numpad 0. Very cool. Even cooler, I have the little $16 numeric keypad plugged into the mac mini, whereas my keyboard is on a KVM switch. So, I can summon Siri while I'm working on my Windows mini desktop, which is basically what I wanted hey siri for.
Studio Display
Of course, Apple's answer here would be the Studio Display, which has the processing in it for Hey Siri. I fully expect that you quite reasonably don't want to go there, but of course, together with the built-in cam and mic, this is what transforms a Mini into a modern-day iMac.
Just bitten by this
Yes, I'm one of the M4 Mac owners. I bought it specifically as future-proofing for upcoming AI features. I didn't notice this discussion back when it was first posted, as I was still on Sequoia where Type To SIRI actually had a spoken response.
Early this year, I was forced onto Tahoe for reasons I won't go into. I was frustrated that Tahoe broke SIRI spoken responses for Type to SIRI. So I moved to Golden Gate.
Now, I'm finally on Golden Gate and off the waitlist. Not only are spoken responses still broken, but my external mike won't let me wake SIRI. So, to use SIRI at all, I have to use Globe+F5 and speak my request.
It's remarkable that SIRI is Golden Gate's flagship feature, yet they've broken so much functionality. Don't even get me started on installing to external media.
As already implied, blind users shouldn't have to purchase a Studio Display just to get a microphone. And while I have AirPods, switching between the Mac and iphone is unmanageable, and the battery life isn't up to my daily Mac usage.
I'm really quite disappointed in Apple. I've mentioned before that Windows might be in my future. And this experience might finally be the last straw.
Re: Just bitten by this
If there's no supported microphone, how about a message in System Settings, Siri, explaining why the Requests button is absent?
When I was trying to figure this out earlier today, I had System Settings open on my desktop and asked Siri to explain why there was no Requests button. It answered the Requests button had been moved to a different menu and directed me to Accessibility, Siri.
Apparently, even Siri wasn't told that the Requests button disappears when your mic is unsupported.
IN 26.6.2.
If I go into "Apple Intelligence and SIri" and pick "“Hey Siri” Listen for pop up button", just to the right with VO-right, I get: "When Studio Display or supported headphones are connected, say “Hey Siri“ and your request.".
Why???
Would a Mac's internal microphone not be supported by Apple software? That is the dumbest thing I have read on here to date with regards to Mac and macOS.
The Mac Mini doesn't have a microphone.
I assume internal microphones, e.g. on MacBooks, would be supported. The Mac Mini doesn't have its own microphone.
Re: Why???
i don't think the mack minny has an internal microphone
it has a speaker, but it doesn't have a microphone.
It's the same with a Mac studio. I don't think that has a microphone either.
Re: Why???
OK, fair enough. I guess I misunderstood the post above, I thought they said that their machine had a microphone, but it was not supported. I just took that for their internal microphone was not supported.
Apologies. 😅
Timeline for Apple's removal of features
Third-party mic support for Hey Siri wake: This was removed in Sequoia 15.1. Hey Siri wake was documented as working when you attached an external mic for some time, but eventually the documentation was changed to enumerate a specific list of Apple-produced mics (Studio display and AirPods).
Booting from external media: Apple Intelligence was unsupported if the OS booted from external media right from the start, MacOS 15.1 beta 1 and properly documented.
No spoken responses with Type to Siri: This stopped working in Tahoe and has never been fully documented, though the current Golden Gate UI indicates that if you select Prefer Spoken, then Siri will speak responses when you speak requests. But I'm inferring behavior from UI grammar, not reading documentation. There is no clear statement in any documentation along the lines of, “Spoken Responses applies only to requests made using voice input.”
Re: Timeline for Apple's removal of features
Does Apple make any microphones that allow it? This one claims to and is cheap enough that I'm tempted to order it just to see if it works. But it's not Apple, just a random brand from Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FP5534M6?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback
I'm guessing that was under Mac OS 15 though.