Replace Siri on iPhone: How to call Nia instead of Siri
Siri cannot be uninstalled, and "Hey Siri" on a locked iPhone belongs to Siri alone. What you can do is keep Nia one tap away from six places on your iPhone. This guide goes through them one by one.
iOS does not let another app take over "Hey Siri", or listen while the iPhone is locked and the app is closed. It is not a Nia limitation: it applies to every assistant that is not Siri. What follows are the doors iOS does open.
Where you can call Nia from
Every one of them opens Nia already listening. With Siri, you can also ask something without opening it.
The Action button
On the iPhones that have one, from iPhone 15 Pro on. Press and hold it and Nia opens listening, from the Lock Screen too.
Control Center
The Talk to Nia control is added like any other. One tap and it is listening.
The Lock Screen
The same control can take one of the two buttons at the bottom, instead of the flashlight or the camera.
Siri itself
"Hey Siri, talk to Nia" opens it listening. With "Hey Siri, ask Nia", Siri asks what you want to know and answers without opening it.
The widget
On the Home Screen, the medium size shows your next event, and one tap on any size opens Nia listening.
Shortcuts and Back Tap
Nia's actions are in the Shortcuts app. Put Talk to Nia in a shortcut and assign it to a double tap on the back of your iPhone.
The Action button, in a minute
Open Settings and go to Action Button
It is in the main list of Settings, on the iPhones that have the button.
Choose Controls
Swipe through the options to Controls. Shortcut works too, with the Talk to Nia action.
Search for Nia
Type Nia in the search field and choose Talk to Nia.
Press and hold the button
Nia opens already listening. Ask for whatever you want, the way you would ask a person.
The rest, one line each
- Control Center: open it, tap the + at the top left, then Add a Control, and search for Nia.
- Lock Screen: touch and hold it, tap Customize, remove the flashlight or the camera and put Talk to Nia in its place.
- Widget: touch and hold the Home Screen, tap Edit, then Add Widget, and search for Nia.
- Back Tap: make a shortcut in Shortcuts with the Talk to Nia action and choose it in Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap.
Three things no app can do
- "Hey Siri" on a locked iPhone. That listening runs on a coprocessor in the chip that no app can use.
- Listening with the app closed. iOS does not relaunch an app you have closed because of a sound. "Hey Nia", on Plus, works with the app open or in background audio mode.
- The side button. Outside Japan, pressing and holding it calls Siri, and there is no setting that gives it to another app.
It is all written down, with what Nia does instead, in what iOS will not allow.
There, Apple lets another assistant app take the side button's press and hold, as long as that app has adopted it. Nia has not done that yet, so today it does not appear in that setting.
Questions about Nia and Siri
Does Nia replace Siri?
Not entirely, and that is on purpose. Siri is still the way in when the phone is locked: you say "Hey Siri, ask Nia", Siri asks what you want to know and reads you Nia's answer without opening the app. Nia also lives in the widget, in Control Center and on the Action button. What Nia is for is what happens after the sentence, not the sentence.
How is Nia different from Siri?
Siri is the system assistant and it wins at something no app can match: it listens with the iPhone locked and the app closed, because it runs on a coprocessor no third party app can reach. With Siri AI, which arrived with iOS 27, it also understands long sentences, chains actions and searches the web, for now in beta, in six languages, on iPhone 15 Pro or later and outside the European Union. Nia does that in 19 languages, on any iPhone with iOS 18 and in the EU too, and on Plus and Pro it remembers what you tell it and answers about your PDFs. And when it cannot do something, it says so.
Is Nia always listening?
No. The wake word "Hey Nia" is switched on by hand in Settings, with its battery warning, and it only works with the app open or with background audio mode on. With the app closed, Nia does not listen, and that is not a fault: iOS does not allow it to any app other than Siri. While it is listening, the orange microphone indicator is on, as it should be.
Try it with the Action button
Download Nia, put it on the button and press and hold. Free to start.
Free to start. Requires iOS 18. In 19 languages.
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