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How can I stop Siri from making a call when I ask for something else?

I really want to use Siri, but it misinterprets most of my requests - usually resulting in calling someone I don't want to call. Is there a way to force Siri to ask me first, before placing the call?


Other than tapping End, which can be difficult in the car, is there a command, like "Abort" or "Cancel" that will keep Siri from making a phone call or (worse) FaceTime call that I don't want? This has produced some very frustrating and embarassing results!


The Siri commands I'm trying are all basic, standard commands listed by Apple. I try to speak clearly, with a neutral accent, though none of that seems to matter one way or the other. About the only thing Siri gets right is "What time is it?" or Call someone.

iPhone 5s, iOS 7

Posted on Oct 29, 2013 11:56 AM

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Posted on Oct 14, 2016 12:18 PM

Yes, that was a huge annoyance. I too shut down Siri but it turns out that Siri is not dialing the phone. That is done with "Voice Dial".


You can stop that by going to "Touch ID & Passcodes"

There you can turn off "Voice Dial'

That seemed to fix my issue so good luck with yours.

7 replies

Oct 29, 2013 2:06 PM in response to izmatt

I had this same issue. I try to set a timer and it would facetime someone. I'd try to send a message and it would call a random contact. I went into settings-general-siri and discovered that Siri was actually disabled. I enabled Siri and everything works again.


I also noticed that when Siri is disabled and I hold the home button a blue window comes up and it says "Voice Control". When Siri is enabled I see a transparent background and it says "What can I help you with?"

Dec 22, 2015 7:06 AM in response to izmatt

My observation is that Siri doesn't really try to parse your sentences, she just looks for action keywords in what you are saying and then decides (sort of randomly, or in a way that makes little sense) what action to take.


"Siri, call Joan" results in Siri calling Joan

"Siri, remind me Monday at 9:00 AM Joan needs coffee" sets a reminder for Monday at 9:00 AM that "Joan needs coffee".

"Siri, remind me Monday at 9:00 AM to call Joan" usually results in Siri calling Joan - it hears "remind" and "call", for whatever reason decides you must mean "call" instead of "remind", and acts on that, when of course I want her to create a reminder for me to call Joan.

Oct 29, 2013 2:17 PM in response to izmatt

Interesting. I've had Siri misunderstand my question but I've never had her make a phone call or FaceTime call.


First thing to try is to reset your device. Press and hold the Home and Sleep buttons simultaneously until the Apple logo appears. Let go of the buttons and let the device restart. See if that fixes your problem.

How can I stop Siri from making a call when I ask for something else?

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