Is Siri finally about to get really useful? Apple at its “Glowtime” event today trotted out its new line of iPhone 16s, the first new iPhones with AI-enabled capabilities, via Apple Intelligence and an upcoming integration with OpenAI, makers of ChatGPT.
Though it won’t, in fact, be until Apple Intelligence is released that the full impact of the Siri upgrade will be realised, Apple says it will change everything: instead of just a small computer, the iPhone will become a personal assistant with the features of artificial intelligence.
In the near future, Siri is going to get quite a few significant upgrades: aside from being able to type queries rather than be limited to talking about them, you will have more natural conversations with it—as natural as the fact that it sometimes gets things wrong because it has really advanced language understanding. You can also have a new accessibility feature wherein you are able to customise the wake word for Siri. 
Developers now have access to SiriKit, which gives them the opportunity to incorporate Apple intelligence-driven features into their apps in a manner similar to what Apple did in many of its first-party apps, including Calendar, Mail, Notes, Safari, Files, Contacts, Voice Memos, Photos, Books, and Freeform, among others.
With Apple’s AirPods, thanks to nodding and shaking of the head, users can respond to Siri announcements to make the experience with Siri further interactive.
iOS 18 will also bring new AI capabilities in Siri and an aesthetic refresh. Instead of an orb glowing at the bottom of a screen when Siri is activated, it will light the edges of the iPhone with this striking glow. The iPhone, iPad, or CarPlay may then display this message:
Unlike the very latest iPhones, the capabilities of Siri will roll out most advanced to Apple Intelligence over time. Support for the first set of capabilities will be released in beta next month, with many more to follow over the coming months, the company has announced. First of all, Apple will support U.S. There is an English version first, then versions for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. It will be available for users of Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish next year, and to further languages beyond then.
Following the iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 releases, Apple Intelligence will further add some other features—including Writing Tools, Mail and Notifications summaries, and a Clean Up tool for Photos—to beta next month—the stuff that’s going to make Siri a good deal better.
Apple Intelligence will enhance Siri’s capabilities significantly.Apple Intelligence will enhance Siri’s capabilities significantly.
With the advent of Apple Intelligence, Siri is going to get even better at helping you with queries and tasks by drawing upon its knowledge of what you like and what you need.It will remember your specific context so that you can mention something, like a song you heard or an email you viewed or a calendar event or text, when it’s convenient for you rather than just simple commands such as ‘call Mom’. This lets you ask Siri to tell you where and when you’re meeting, what the weather’s like, or even order it to send an email with pre-draughted text for you.
“With Siri’s personal context, understanding, and action capabilities, you can easily say, ‘Send Erica the photos from Saturday’s barbecue, and Siri fetches the photos and sends them right away. It has new ways to express yourself, relive memories, and designed tools to help you prioritise and focus so you can get more done, said Apple SVP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, during today’s iPhone announcement. “Your experience with the iPhone is going to revolutionise with the improvement in Apple intelligence.” He said that Apple Intelligence is going to be freely available as a software update.
Siri will extend its capabilities to tech support by being more cognisant of your Apple products, features, and functionality.
It will, like an assistant, help you out in many ways because of on-screen awareness.
For instance, you can have Siri tell it to add a friend’s address to their contact card once you’ve received it in a text, or you can ask Siri to apply a filter to a photo or send that photo to another application. When a friend texts you about an album, if you want to respond, you can say, “Play that.”
You can also ask Siri to add photos to an album or send them to a friend. Siri will provide a transcript summary of the recording.
According to information from Apple, the new features Siri can perform on iPhone 16 Pro models will significantly expand what is possible for photographers. It also allows users to request specific images from their library and edit using apps like Darkroom, among others. On its part, Siri will offer quick suggestions on how to make the spaces better to help users realise their creative vision, the company said Monday.
But the biggest Siri boost may not come from Apple itself but rather OpenAI, as shared earlier this year at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
In fact, thanks to the new developments in Apple Intelligence, Siri users can now forward their “world knowledge” questions to ChatGPT rather than to the frustrating web in search of answers.
The collaboration places Apple in competitive light in the AI space regarding the chide of its perceived lag in innovation while also avoiding potentially major pitfalls and reputational risks related to inaccuracies or hallucinations in AI.
We would expect more AI partnerships to be announced with Apple over time.
