How to remove Siri suggestions on your iPhone or iPad step by step

Siri suggestions are one of those features that, depending on the user, can be a blessing or a nuisance. Although they're designed to make your life easier by anticipating your most common actions, the truth is that for many, they're intrusive or unnecessary. And if you're part of that second group, you're in luck, because today we're going to explain how to completely or selectively remove Siri suggestions on your iPhone or iPad.

These suggestions appear in various parts of the system, such as the lock screen , Spotlight, Safari, and Today View, and are based on your daily routines and app usage. While this feature has its advantages, it can also raise privacy concerns or simply be annoying. Therefore, here you'll find all the possible methods to control or disable them as you wish.

What exactly are Siri Suggestions?

Siri suggestions are personalized recommendations that iOS generates by analyzing your habits. They can appear in many places on your device, such as when you're typing a message, searching your device, checking apps , or even on the lock screen.

These virtual assistant notifications are triggered by things like:

• App usage patterns: Siri learns which apps you use most and when, so it can suggest them to you at the right time.
• Location and contact with other users: If you tend to text a certain person from a certain location or at a certain time, Siri can suggest that action.
• Events and emails: If you confirm an appointment or purchase a ticket online, Siri may offer to add it to your calendar.

All of this is based on data that Siri collects locally , which Apple says is encrypted and anonymized to protect your privacy. Even so, not all users are comfortable with this data collection, and many simply prefer to have complete control over what appears on their iPhone. If this is the case for you, you can also disable Siri policies that may affect this aspect.

How to turn off Siri Suggestions from Settings

One of the most direct ways to manage these types of recommendations is through the iPhone's main settings panel. From there, you can remove suggestions from the Home Screen, Lock Screen, Search, and when sharing content.

To do so, follow these steps:

• Open the application Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
• Choose Siri and Search.
• Scroll down until you find the section Show Siri Suggestions.
• Here you individually disable suggestions in different contexts of the operating system.

You can also access each specific app from this same menu to choose whether to allow activity tracking, enabling or disabling Siri to learn from it for recommendations. For more information on how to turn Siri on or off, you can refer to this article on enabling Siri on iPhone.

Turn off suggestions on the 'Today' screen

The Today screen (on the left side of the main dashboard) also displays a Siri Suggestions widget, typically with shortcuts to your most-used apps. To remove it:

• Access the screen by swiping right from the home screen.
• Scroll down to the bottom and click on Edit.
• Look for the Siri Suggestions widget and click on the delete icon (a subtraction inside a circle).
• Confirm the deletion.

In recent versions like iOS 14 and later, where widgets are handled from edit mode, simply press and hold the widget and select Delete widget from the floating menu.

Remove Siri Suggestions in Safari

The Safari browser uses Siri to offer suggestions related to your searches, frequently visited websites, or links you've received in text messages. It can even preload web pages in the background so they open faster. If you'd rather disable it:

• Opens Settings and enters safari.
• Here you can deactivate Search engine suggestions, Safari Tips, and Preload featured result.
• You can also go to Siri and Search within Safari and disable the options associated with the browser.

These options will prevent Siri from interfering with your browsing experience, which can be especially helpful if you want to save mobile data or avoid additional distractions . If you need to adjust further settings, see how to add words for autocorrect.

Choose which apps can appear in suggestions

You can limit suggestions for individual apps. For example, if you don't want Siri to show shortcuts to Safari, Calendar, or Messages, you can disable them individually. Here's how:

• Opens Settings and scroll down to the list of apps.
• Click on the one you want to modify.
• Sign in Siri and Search within that app.
• Deactivate Learn from this app, Show in Search, Suggest app or any other specific permission.

This option is very useful for preventing certain apps (especially sensitive or infrequently used ones) from taking up space in the suggestions. If you want to explore more about how to improve Siri management, you can read about it in Apple and Artificial Intelligence.

Remove Siri Suggestions from the widget

Another quick way to get rid of suggestions altogether is to simply remove the Siri widget entirely. This method is useful if you don't feel like going into settings and want more visual results. To do this:

• Go to the Home screen or Today screen where the widget is located.
• Press and hold the widget until the options menu opens.
• Press on Remove widget.

This method removes the visual part of the system, but keep in mind that suggestions may still appear in other areas if they haven't been disabled in Settings.

Privacy and data synchronization between Apple devices

An important part of Siri's suggestions is that it learns from your routines on one device and replicates them on any other device where you're signed in with your Apple ID . This includes iPads, Macs, and more. If you don't want Siri to sync its learnings across devices:

• Opens Settings and go to iCloud.
• Find Siri and turn off sync.

This will prevent the assistant from updating or sharing personalization data between your devices.

Additional tips to better manage Siri

If you're looking for an even more personalized experience, you can reconfigure Siri to be helpful only at key moments. Here are some tips:

• If you just want to leave helpful suggestions: Deactivate the ones you don't use and leave active only those that really serve you.
• Check from time to time: From time to time, go into 'Siri & Search' to check which apps are active and change them.
• Siri can be helpful by typing: You can keep suggestions as you type, such as names or places, without allowing access to all your activity.

Controlling Siri suggestions is perfectly possible, and Apple gives you the tools you need to adjust its behavior to your preferences. From changing general settings to disabling individual apps, there are solutions for every user profile. If you want to eliminate all traces of the assistant, the methods we explain here make it easy to do so without compromising the functioning of the rest of the system.

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Isaac

Passionate writer about the world of bytes and technology in general. I love sharing my knowledge through writing, and that's what I'll do on this blog, show you all the most interesting things about gadgets, software, hardware, tech trends, and more. My goal is to help you navigate the digital world in a simple and entertaining way.