Just upgraded to a new iPhone 8 and I’m really liking it. A huge jump from my iPhone 5s! Except for one thing: how do I shut up Siri telling me turn-by-turn directions when I use Apple Maps on my iPhone for driving directions?
Interesting that you’d have the problem of Apple Maps on your new iPhone suddenly talking to you because I had exactly the same annoyance the first time I used my iPhone X for driving directions after migrating from my older iPhone. The system is so good at migrating settings, contacts, photos, etc, it’s rather surprising that iCloud backup doesn’t also save and restore your Apple Maps settings! But ignore them it clearly does because there are a couple of different settings you will want to tweak knowing that a new phone sets you back to “ground zero” with just default settings.
Oh, and it’s not technically Siri that’s giving you driving directions, just the built in voice synthesis system that’s part of iOS. You can experimentally verify that if you’re curious by disabling Siri or changing its voice then seeing if the voice used for driving or navigation directions with Apple Maps changes too.
Or… you can just mute the darn voice so you can get directions by glancing at the screen (or through your Apple Watch). Let’s do that.
Start by launching “Settings” and swiping down a little bit to find this set of options:
See the “Maps” option near the bottom? That’s what you want to choose, so tap on that to proceed.
Of course, there are plenty of other programs to check and fine-tune for your own preferences and usage patterns here too, but that’s another tutorial entirely!
Here’s what you’ll see:
A number of different options to consider here, and definitely choose your preferred transportation type so that if you walk everywhere or take the bus that’ll be the default instead of driving.
To proceed, however, tap on the “Driving & Navigation” near the bottom.
Now you’ll see this set of options:
You can see in the middle where it says “Navigation Voice Volume”. Just set that to “No Voice” and you’re done. Muted. Phew!
While you’re here, though, swipe down and check out some of the other options and settings for Apple Maps navigation that might be worth changing or considering:
You can see that Apple has a cozy relationship with Lyft which you can easily enable, and that “Show Rides from New Apps” means you can also have Uber buttons show up if you install the Uber app. Smart if you’re in an urban setting and use one of these services frequently.
I’m also a fan of “Show Parked Location” to help find my car in a big parking lot. It’s a set-and-forget feature that you won’t use too often, but when you do, it’ll be darn helpful to find your car in the rain next time you’re at the airport!
Anyway, that’s the deal. Now you can mute the navigation voice in Apple Maps on your new iPhone 8. Enjoy.