Apple’s big Siri glow-up is finally edging into view – well, sort of.
After what feels like an eternity of promises, delays and carefully polished teases, Apple is at last getting ready to roll out its much-hyped Siri overhaul as part of iOS 27 and the rest of its software lineup later this year.
And while the smarter, more natural assistant is obviously a big deal, I’d argue the really interesting part isn’t Siri itself; it’s what this new AI push means for the rest of the iPhone experience.
Because, if Apple can actually pull it off this time, the biggest changes to your day-to-day life might come from the apps you already use, not just from chatting to your phone.
The new Siri upgrade is finally (almost) here
I can’t believe it, but the upgraded Siri we’ve been hearing about for literally two years is here – well, almost anyway.
It’ll be rolling out as part of iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and pretty much every other bit of software Apple makes later this year, with some specific Siri AI upgrades touted for ‘later in 2026’. Could we see yet another iPhone launch without the Apple Intelligence features that marketing focuses on? It’s looking more likely.
The launch specifics aside, the new Siri does genuinely look much more useful than the outgoing virtual assistant. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve used Siri in years, despite being quite proactive with Gemini when using an Android – and I think it’s clear why. Regular ol’ Siri and Gemini are in totally different leagues – but the upgraded Siri AI levels things.
I mean, that’s pretty much a given considering Siri AI is based on Google’s Gemini framework with some tweaking from Apple, but it’s still great to see after so many stumbling blocks, not just in recent years, but throughout its lifetime. Siri was the first virtual assistant, released ahead of both Google Assistant and Alexa, but the latter options continued to advance while Siri, well, stagnated.
With that in mind, Siri AI will be able to do much the same as Gemini on the Android side. It’s a more natural virtual assistant, both in the flow of conversation and in the inflexion of the virtual voice you choose, with a much better understanding of you and your needs.
It can perform actions on your behalf across a range of apps, whether it’s setting reminders or sending an email for you, and it’ll use context from apps on your phone to better understand what you need at a given moment.
It’s also smarter at understanding what it’s seeing, be it via the new Siri mode in the Camera app or when you ask a question about something you’re looking at on-screen, and new Write with Siri skills should let Siri draft message replies and the like in your actual writing style.
… But that’s not the real star of iOS 27
Now, while Siri AI is the big draw of iOS 27, I’d argue it’s not actually the day-to-day game-changer that Apple envisions it.
Sure, plenty of people will get use out of the upgraded Siri experience, be it getting Siri to do something on your phone or simply asking it to create a hyper-specific menu for a dinner party, but it’s what the new AI framework enables in Apple’s other apps that’s truly exciting.
Way more intelligent apps
Apple spent just as much time going over new AI-powered features in its beloved iPhone apps as it did explaining the concept of Siri AI at WWDC – and that’s what piqued my interest way more. While Siri AI is basically Apple playing catch-up with Gemini and other LLMs like ChatGPT, the app-specific features are genuinely new and quite exciting.
Siri in Safari may sound a bit boring, but it’s not. Apple has touted features like the ability to automatically organise the sprawling list of tabs in Safari, but I reckon Notify Me will be the big feature for many.
Rather than manually refreshing a website for, say, a new product release, you can describe what you’re looking for and get Safari to notify you when that change appears on the site – no more monitoring needed. It should make picking up particularly in-demand items much easier – and it’ll be much easier for me to keep track of my incoming deliveries, rather than refreshing them every 20 minutes. Nice.
I also love that Apple is using agentic AI in Safari and the Passwords app, letting the app proactively browse websites and change leaked passwords on your behalf. As someone with 96 compromised passwords online, that’s something I need right now.
Equally as impressive are the updates to the Photos app and the new editing tools in particular. Alongside a much-needed boost to Apple’s Clean Up tech are two new tools – Expand and Reframe. Expand works much like it does on Android phones, essentially expanding the borders of the frame using generative AI – but Reframe is something else entirely.
It essentially lets you reframe the image using AI – and I’m not talking about suggested photo crops here. If it works as Apple demoed during WWDC, you’ll be able to pinch, rotate and actually ‘move’ the position of the camera after taking a shot, with generative AI filling in the blanks where necessary while leaving the original image completely untouched.
The results in the demo were, to say the least, very impressive, and I’ve not seen anything quite like that on the Android side of things just yet.
There’s plenty more coming too. The Phone app will surface relevant information depending on who you’re on a call with; you’ll be able to add events to Calendar using natural language; and the Home app is getting new video camera analysis that not only describes the scene but also allows you to quickly find a particular video clip.
There’s also a massive Shortcuts upgrade that’ll get AI to create complex Shortcuts based on your description, and Image Playgrounds is getting a photorealistic overhaul too.
And, to be honest, I can see most of these being used way more often in daily life than the new Siri AI chatbot.
The proof is in the pudding
Of course, we’ve seen Apple promise the world when it comes to AI before – and that didn’t really come to fruition.
The promised Siri upgrade has taken two years longer than anticipated to complete (and needed the help of Google!), and even the first wave of Apple Intelligence features left much to be desired.
The first-gen Clean Up tool, in particular, was pretty terrible compared to even the basic versions you’d find on Android, let alone the top-notch results you’d get from Samsung’s flagship Galaxy series.
It was a similar story with features like recording transcription, which often misunderstood what was being said, and let’s not forget how underwhelming and unintentionally comedic Apple’s notification summaries were when that first launched.
What I’m trying to say is, these features all look pretty damn impressive when showcased in Apple’s overly polished WWDC showcase, but whether that’ll actually translate to good performance in actual use is yet to be seen. Roll on September, I suppose!
