At this year's WWDC, Apple showcased a new round of AI product updates, with the revamped Siri at its core. The new assistant is positioned as a system-level tool capable of continuous dialogue, understanding screen content, and accessing personal information, marking the most significant upgrade to Siri since its launch in 2011.
Siri supports cross-app operation
Apple says the new Siri can handle requests based on the user's personal context, including retrieving information, emails, photos, and files, and answering questions based on internet information. In the demonstration, Siri was able to draft emails, edit and share photos, create reminders, add notes, and transfer information between different apps.
The new Siri also features a more chatbot-like interaction style, supporting follow-up questions and continuous conversations. Apple also launched a standalone Siri app to save conversation logs and sync them across multiple devices via iCloud. Users can start a conversation on their Mac and then continue using it on their iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or Vision Pro.
Apple Intelligence extends to system applications
In addition to Siri, Apple Intelligence is being expanded to more native apps. Safari will gain the ability to organize tabs by topic, monitor webpage price changes or restocking status, and generate extensions based on natural language descriptions. The Password app will be able to navigate websites on behalf of users and update weak passwords.
Photos and image tools have also been updated, including recomposition, expanding image boundaries, and removing unwanted objects. Apple also released a new version of Image Playground for generating more realistic images. Apple stated that edited or generated images will be watermarked with SynthID to identify AI-generated or modified content.
Messages, Email, Calendar, Phone, Shortcuts, and the Home app will also integrate these capabilities. For example, the Messages app can suggest creating reminders based on chat content, the Calendar app can generate events based on natural language, the Home app will support video summaries and searches from security cameras, and Shortcuts can directly generate automated processes based on text requests.
The EU and China have not yet launched simultaneously.
Apple has also added visual understanding capabilities to Siri. The new iPhone mode analyzes what the camera sees and answers questions about people, places, objects, and text. Visual Intelligence will also be extended to iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro, allowing users to search images, screenshots, documents, and screen content, and perform tasks such as identifying food and splitting bills.
At its underlying architecture, Apple states that the new Siri uses a new Apple Intelligence architecture, combining an on-device model with Private Cloud Compute. The former handles local processing on the device, while the latter is used for more complex requests. Apple says that data processed through this cloud system is not stored by the company, nor is it made available to the company; external security researchers can independently verify it.
The new version of Siri is now open for testing by developers, covering iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and visionOS 27. Support for watchOS 27 will be released in a subsequent beta version. Apple says the English beta version will be available on supported devices later this year, but it will not be available for initial release on iPhones and iPads in the EU, nor is it yet available in the Chinese market.
