Make Siri Read Your WhatsApp Messages Out Loud

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WhatsApp users with iPhones can now have Siri read out their messages, hands-free. Here's how to set it up.

Apple iPhone users can now ask Siri to read WhatsApp messages out loud — without even having to touch their phones.

You may never need to tap this WhatsApp icon on your iPhone again. Credit: Thomas Trutschel/Getty

(Image credit: You may never need to tap this WhatsApp icon on your iPhone again. Credit: Thomas Trutschel/Getty)


If you have iOS 10.3+ and the latest version of WhatsApp, version 2.17.20, which was released April 21, you won't need touch your phone at all to check your WhatsApp messages. But there are a few steps you'll need to take to set up this capability.

First, make sure that your iPhone is set up to enable Siri support for WhatsApp.

  1. Go to your iPhone Settings.
  2. Select Siri.
  3. Tap on App Support.
  4. Turn on support for WhatsApp.

Once that's all set up, you can have Siri read your WhatsApp messages out loud by manually evoking Siri: 

  1. Long-press your iPhone home button.
  2. Once you hear Siri's audible prompt, you can say  "Hey Siri, read my last WhatsApp message?"

To avoid having to press your home button at all, you'll have to set up "Hey, Siri."

  1. Go to your iPhone settings.
  2. Tap on Siri.
  3. Select Allow "Hey, Siri."

As of last fall, Siri can also send messages and make calls via WhatsApp as well.

To do that, make sure Siri can access your contacts if you haven't already. Here's how:

  1. Go to iPhone Settings.
  2. Tap on Privacy.
  3. Select Contacts.
  4. Make sure WhatsApp is set to ON.
  5. From there, just ask Siri to send a message to a specific contact via WhatsApp.
Althea Chang

Althea Chang is Associate Director of Content Development for Consumer Reports and was previously a Senior Writer for Tom's Guide, covering mobile devices, health and fitness gadgets and car tech.