Where to find the voice settings on Apple TV
Voice on Apple TV comes from Siri, the voice assistant that responds to commands through your remote. To turn it off, go to Settings on your Apple TV home screen, then select Siri and Dictation. From there, you can disable Siri entirely or turn off specific voice features depending on what bothers you.
The exact path depends on your Apple TV model and tvOS version, but the settings menu is always your starting point. Once you open Settings, look for the Siri option — it is usually near the top of the menu or grouped with accessibility features. The entire process takes less than a minute once you know where to look.
Key Takeaways
- Siri voice can be disabled completely through Settings > Siri and Dictation > toggle Siri off.
- You can keep Siri but turn off voice feedback alone, so the remote still responds to button presses without speaking back.
- Dictation — the feature that lets you speak text into search boxes — can be turned off separately from Siri commands.
- If you want to keep Siri but reduce how much it talks, lowering the volume through your TV remote or soundbar is often faster than digging into settings.
Turning off Siri completely
To disable Siri entirely, open Settings, go to Siri and Dictation, and toggle Siri to off. Once you do this, pressing the microphone button on your Apple TV remote will no longer set up voice commands. The button still works — it just does nothing.
This is the cleanest option if you never use voice commands and find Siri's responses annoying. You lose all voice functionality, including the ability to search by speaking into the remote, but your remote keeps working normally for everything else. Navigation, playback, and menu selection all function exactly as before.
Keeping Siri but turning off voice feedback
If you want to use voice commands but do not want Siri to speak back to you, go to Settings > Siri and Dictation and look for Voice Feedback or Spoken Responses. Toggle this off. Siri will still respond to your voice commands and perform the action, but it will not say anything out loud.
This option works well if you live with others who sleep or work nearby, or if you straightforward prefer silent feedback. Your remote still listens and responds — Siri just stays quiet about it. You retain the convenience of voice search while eliminating the audio output that can interrupt a room.
Turning off dictation without disabling Siri
Dictation is the feature that lets you speak text into search boxes and input fields. If Siri commands are fine but you do not want the TV to listen when you are typing, go to Settings > Siri and Dictation and toggle Dictation to off. This leaves Siri active for remote commands but removes voice input from text fields.
Some people find dictation useful for searching shows, while others find it intrusive. You can turn it off independently of everything else, so you have fine control over which voice features stay on. This granular approach means you only disable the specific behavior that bothers you.
Lowering Siri's volume instead of disabling it
If you want to keep Siri but just make it quieter, you do not need to go into settings at all. Use your TV remote's volume buttons or your soundbar's volume control to lower the overall sound. Siri will speak at whatever volume level your TV is set to, so turning down the TV volume affects Siri's voice directly.
This is the fastest fix if the problem is that Siri is too loud. You keep all the functionality and just reduce the noise level. If you want Siri quieter but your shows at normal volume, you will need to use the voice feedback toggle instead, since lowering TV volume affects everything playing through your speakers.
What happens to your remote after you turn off voice
Turning off Siri or voice feedback does not break your remote. The microphone button still exists, and all the other buttons work exactly as before. If you disable Siri, pressing the microphone button straightforward does nothing — it does not cause an error or change how the remote behaves otherwise.
You can turn Siri back on anytime by going back to Settings > Siri and Dictation and toggling it on again. There is no penalty for switching it off and on, and your other remote functions are not affected at all. Your search history, preferences, and all other settings remain intact.
Troubleshooting voice that won't turn off
If you have toggled Siri off but the microphone button still activates voice, restart your Apple TV. Go to Settings > System > Restart. Sometimes the settings do not take effect until the device reboots. After the restart, the microphone button should be inactive if you toggled Siri off.
If the problem persists after a restart, check that you are in the correct settings menu — some older tvOS versions place Siri controls in a different location. You can also try toggling Siri back on, waiting a few seconds, then toggling it off again to force the setting to register.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does turning off Siri affect other Apple devices?
No. Siri settings on your Apple TV are separate from Siri on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or HomePod. Changing Apple TV voice settings does not touch any other device. Each device has its own Siri controls.
Can I turn off voice on just one app?
No. Voice settings explore to the whole Apple TV system, not individual apps. If you turn off Siri, it stays off across all apps. Some apps may have their own audio settings, but those are separate from Apple TV's Siri controls.
Will turning off voice affect subtitles or closed captions?
No. Subtitles and closed captions are separate features. Disabling Siri or voice feedback does not change your subtitle settings. You can have voice off and subtitles on at the same time.
What if I want to use voice commands only sometimes?
You do not have to fully disable Siri. Instead, turn off voice feedback so Siri listens but does not speak, or straightforward leave Siri on and just avoid pressing the microphone button when you do not want to use it. Both approaches let you keep the feature available without the constant audio output.