“Hey Siri” is the traditional predefined phrase that invokes the iPhone’s digital assistant so you can ask it to perform an action. But there’s an even more powerful feature that lets you create custom phrases and pair them with an action of your choice. That’s what iOS 18’s Vocal Shortcuts feature brings to the table, and it’s the fastest way to trigger a predefined set of actions.

Apple Intelligence will soon take Siri to new heights. But unless you have an iPhone 15 Pro or are upgrading to the upcoming iPhone 16 model, chances are your Siri experience won't be much different than it is today.

Fortunately, the Vocal Shortcuts feature in the iOS 18 update makes it a lot easier to use your voice to select from the many actions that Siri already performs. You can trigger the action with a custom phrase (that you set yourself).

Once your iPhone learns your custom phrase, you only need to say it out loud once to trigger the action. The action will trigger even if your iPhone is locked, so you can use voice shortcuts to perform complex tasks without touching or unlocking your device.