Apple has rolled out its next-generation Apple Intelligence with a completely rebuilt Siri AI, making the voice assistant more conversational and capable of understanding a user's personal context, screen content and actions across apps.
What is different about the new Siri?
The company said that unlike the earlier Siri, which largely responded to individual commands, Siri AI can now understand information spread across different apps and use it to complete tasks. For example, if a user asks about an activity suggested by a family member, Siri can search Messages to find the conversation, look through an earlier email for the relevant recipe and then add the ingredients to the user's grocery list in Reminders.
It can see what is on your screen
The new Siri has onscreen awareness. This means users can ask questions about the content they are currently viewing. For example, while looking at a sports team's website, a user can ask Siri to find its upcoming home games and add them to the calendar. On Mac, users can also select an image, file or text and ask Siri about it through systemwide controls.
Siri can work across apps
Apple is also expanding Siri's ability to take actions inside apps. Users can ask it to send messages through WhatsApp or play an audiobook on Audible. Support for apps such as Microsoft Outlook, Notability and Tripsy is also coming.
AI goes beyond Siri
Apple Intelligence is being integrated into everyday apps. Photos gets new AI editing tools, including Spatial Reframing, Extend and an improved Clean Up feature.
Image Playground can now create photorealistic images from descriptions. Safari can automatically organise tabs into topics and notify users about changes such as product restocks and price drops.
Apple is also expanding Visual Intelligence to iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro. On iPhone, a new Siri mode in the Camera app allows users to point the camera at something and ask questions about it.
Writing gets an AI upgrade
Siri AI's Writing Tools can generate and edit text almost anywhere users type. In Mail and Messages, it can adapt writing to the user's usual tone, while automatic proofreading is available across the system and many third-party apps.
When can users get it?
Siri AI is rolling out in beta in English, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish support coming next month. It is available on supported Apple Intelligence devices, including iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 models, compatible iPads and Macs, Apple Watch and Vision Pro.
Apple says the new system uses a combination of on-device processing and Private Cloud Compute. The company is also using Google's Gemini models as part of its next-generation foundation-model architecture.
