Apple announces new version of Siri powered by AI: smarter and more personal

Apple today unveiled a new version of Siri, that it promises is more natural and helpful. The new Siri is powered by Apple Intelligence generative AI models.

Siri has a new UI, which features a glow around the device bezel. Responses appear in new richly detailed cards. Apple said the new Siri will roll out gradually, “over the next year”.

Apple says the new Siri will understand context, so you don’t have to repeat information in subsequent requests. Apple says “Siri will be able to find and understand things that it never could before”.

Siri will have on-screen awareness about what you are currently looking at, and have the ability to take in-app actions. For instance, if you are filling in a form asking for your driving license number, Siri will automatically be able to find a picture of your driving license and extract the relevant number to fill in the field on your behalf.

App Intents will allow Siri to work deeply with first-party and third-party apps. Apple demoed asking the Photos app to edit the image you are currently looking at, and Siri performs the adjustments on your behalf.

It will also have deeper knowledge of products, so you can ask for help about your phone. For instance, asking “how can I write a message now and send it tomorrow” will reveal help instructions for using the new scheduled sending feature in iOS 18 Messages.

These features will be rolling out gradually, with new capabilities arriving over the lifecycle of iOS 18. The new Siri design will also be launching on iPad, and Mac.