Will Siri finally become useful? That was the promise Apple made today at its Glowtime iPhone event on Monday, where the company unveiled the iPhone 16 series, the first new iPhones to ship with AI-powered features, courtesy of Apple Intelligence and then ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.
While consumers won't be fully impacted by the Siri upgrade until Apple Intelligence is released, Apple promises it will transform the user experience by turning the iPhone into a miniature, AI-powered personal assistant rather than just a tiny computer that fits in your pocket.
In the near future, you'll see more immediate improvements to Siri, like the ability to type questions into Siri instead of speaking, and the ability to have more natural, if halting, conversations thanks to its richer language understanding. You'll also be able to change Siri's wake word through new accessibility features.
Developers will now have access to SiriKit, allowing them to integrate Apple Intelligence-powered features into their own apps, just as Apple has integrated Siri into its first-party apps, including Calendar, Mail, Notes, Safari, Files, Contacts, Voice Memos, Photos, Books, Freeform, and Files.
Apple's AirPods will also be getting an upgrade to the Siri experience, allowing users to respond to Siri announcements by nodding or shaking their head.
To show off its new AI capabilities, Siri has a new look in iOS 18. Instead of launching with a glowing orb at the bottom of the screen, Siri will light up the edge of your iPhone with an eye-catching illumination that appears when Siri is open on your iPhone, iPad, or CarPlay.
Unlike the new iPhones, Apple Intelligence, the best part of the Siri upgrade, will be rolled out more slowly. Apple says the first set of features will be available in beta next month, with more features rolling out in the coming months. US English will be supported initially, followed by localized English for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK. It will be available to Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish users sometime next year, before expanding to others.
Other Apple Intelligence features, including writing tools, Mail and notification summaries, and photo cleanup tools, will also be available in beta on iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 starting next month.
Apple Intelligence gives Siri superpowers
With the arrival of Apple Intelligence, Siri will be able to assist you with questions and commands designed to understand you and your needs. Siri will have a deeper understanding of your personal context and will be able to not only respond to simple commands like “call my mom,” but also see the songs you've streamed, emails you've checked, calendar events, texts, and more. This means you'll be able to ask Siri about a meeting, ask what the weather is like at your meeting location, or tell it to send you an email you've drafted.
Image credit: Apple
“With Siri's personal context, understanding and actions, you can simply say, 'Send Erica photos from Saturday's BBQ,' and Siri will dig up the photos and instantly send them with new ways to express yourself and read your memories. We also give you tools to help you prioritize and focus so you can get more done,” said Craig Federighi, Apple's SVP of Software Engineering at the iPhone launch today. “Apple Intelligence will transform so much of what you can do with iPhone. Apple Intelligence will be available as a free software update,” he said.
Siri will also be able to provide technical support as it develops a better understanding of Apple products, features, and functionality.
Image credit: Apple
On-screen recognition also opens up other ways your assistant can help you.
For example, when a friend texts you, you'll be able to ask Siri to add their address to your contact card, edit a photo with a filter, or drop the photo into another app. When a friend texts you about a new album, you can say, “Play it.”
You can also ask Siri to add a series of photos to an album or send them to a friend, or have Siri summarize a transcript of a recording.
Screenshots
Apple hints that with the iPhone 16 Pro models, new Siri features will be extremely useful for photographers: Photographers can ask Siri to call up specific shots from their library, apply edits to photos in apps like Darkroom, and even use Siri to quickly get suggestions “on how to enhance a space to realize your vision,” the company said on Monday.
Image credit: Apple
But the bigger upgrades to Siri may not come directly from Apple, but from OpenAI, which was announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this year.
With the arrival of Apple Intelligence, Siri users will be able to ask ChatGPT questions about “world knowledge” rather than being frustratingly directed to the web for questions it can't answer.
Image credit: Apple
Partnering with OpenAI will help Apple get ahead in the AI race, where it has been seen as lagging behind, without the liability and reputational damage that would come if its AI gives wrong answers or produces hallucinations.
Apple is expected to announce more AI partners in the coming days.