Apple’s Siri just became what we always needed it to be
Apple introduced an entirely new version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence at WWDC.
Siri AI promises to deliver what we always hoped Siri would deliver, featuring personal context understanding, broad world knowledge, and onscreen awareness. It’s available for developer testing now, with a public beta coming later this year.
Siri AI can answer questions related to the content on a user’s screen, draw on personal context understanding to search across apps, and go out to the web to get up-to-date information using broad world knowledge and generate a helpful answer.
What’s most important is that Siri AI is rebuilt using Apple Foundation Models running on-device and via Private Cloud Compute, so your personal data is never stored or accessible to Apple or third parties, with independent verification available at any time.
In other words, your own personal data is kept private and you don’t sacrifice it to people you have no control over for convenience.
What Apple said
“We’re excited to introduce Siri AI, a dramatically more capable and conversational assistant designed to help users find information and get things done throughout the day,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering.
“With access to broad world knowledge for up-to-date answers on virtually any topic, along with onscreen awareness and personal context understanding, Siri AI can help users take action across apps more naturally than ever.”
What’s new at a glance:
Smarter, more conversational
Siri can now draw on your personal messages, emails, and photos to surface relevant information such as finding a restaurant recommendation a friend sent, or digging up a hotel confirmation from an old email. It can also use web knowledge to answer questions on virtually any topic, with natural follow-up conversation.
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How to invoke Siri
- On Mac, it’s integrated into Spotlight and context menus.
- On iPhone, you can invoke Siri by swiping down from the Dynamic Island.
- On iPad it’s integrated into Spotlight and context menus.
- On Apple Vision Pro, there’s a 3D visualisation you invoke just by looking at it and speaking.
- Apple Watch gets a Smart Stack suggestion to continue recent conversations.
Siri now sits in a new standalone Siri app which syncs conversation history privately across all your Apple devices via iCloud, so you can start a chat on Mac and pick it up on iPhone or iPad.
It brings numerous features, including:
Visual Intelligence expands
Visual Intelligence has escaped from the iPhone and is now available on iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro. On iPhone, a new Siri Camera mode lets you tap the shutter to get information about what’s in front of you, including splitting a bill via Apple Cash or getting nutritional info from a photo of food.
Siri can see and answer questions about whatever is on your screen, and take action on it, for example, brainstorming potluck ideas from a text and adding a recipe to Notes.
Writing tools
Siri can now draft text from scratch anywhere you type, adapt to the way you usually write to that person, and can automatically proofread as you type across the system including within most third-party apps.
It can perform tasks across apps, such as drafting emails from scratch or editing and sharing sets of photos.
There are some limitations
Siri AI requires iPhone 16 or later (or iPhone 15 Pro/Max), recent iPads and Macs with M1 or later, or Apple Vision Pro. It won’t be available initially on iOS/iPadOS in the EU due to DMA regulatory concerns, and won’t be available in China at all while Apple works through regulatory requirements.
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