Siri AI Has Already Transformed My iPhone Use

While its full capabilities demand extensive developer integration, the public beta of iOS 27 offers an intriguing preview of what's to come.

Today marks the release of the first public beta for iOS 27, bringing the operating system beyond the developer community. I have been rigorously testing this new OS since early June, scrutinizing its performance and evaluating whether it lives up to the ambitious promises Apple made during its keynote presentation.

This year’s iOS advancements can be likened to a "Snow Leopard" update, meaning the focus is less on introducing a plethora of new features and more on refining existing functionalities, addressing bugs, and enhancing overall system speed. Users can expect faster app launches, quicker Photos search results, and more efficient AirDrop transfers. The Messages app has been updated to include in-line replies and end-to-end encryption for RCS messages. Furthermore, Liquid Glass technology has seen improvements, offering greater legibility for text and around sharp edges. These are all commendable improvements, particularly beneficial for users with older iPhone models. However, the most significant and eagerly anticipated change in this update is the long-awaited debut of Apple’s revamped Siri AI, launched as an opt-in beta program. This time, it appears Apple may have genuinely succeeded, or at the very least, established a robust foundation for a truly capable Siri.

Just last week, I found myself contemplating attending a free concert in the city. The event was scheduled for four hours with three distinct acts, but I was only interested in seeing one specific band. Unable to find the performance order on the event page, I recognized a prime opportunity to put the new Siri AI to the test. With a simple swipe down from the top of the screen, I asked, “What order are the bands playing in?” After a few seconds of its new visual processing indicator, Siri accurately provided the information I needed: the band I wanted to see was performing last.

The core promise of the new Siri AI is to fundamentally transform how users interact with their iPhones. Previously, users would navigate to a specific app to initiate an action—whether calling a car, setting a timer, or ordering lunch. Now, the approach is inverted: you articulate your desired outcome first, and Siri AI intelligently sifts through all available apps and information to fulfill the request. In my concert inquiry, Siri analyzed the webpage content, conducted a web search, located the answer, and presented it directly to me. This eliminated the need to juggle browser tabs or scour the band’s social media pages; the information was simply there.

Over the past month of using Siri AI, I’ve been consistently surprised by its capabilities. On my very first day of beta testing during Apple’s developer conference, I successfully asked, “Can you add my WWDC briefings to my calendar?” Siri then accessed my email, parsed the relevant data, and accurately added six individual events with correct times to my calendar. It’s worth noting that this functionality was limited to my Apple calendar, a point I will elaborate on shortly.

These kinds of interactions have genuinely altered my digital habits. I now instinctively try Siri first for most tasks or simple questions, eager to see if it can handle the request. This has practically stopped me from opening my browser for many common queries, finding it easier, faster, and more enjoyable to simply swipe down and type a prompt.

For me, onscreen awareness has proven to be perhaps the most valuable new feature. The ability to ask Siri about content currently displayed on my screen significantly reduces the need for manual navigation. It becomes even more powerful when Siri can take direct action based on this onscreen context, such as adding an event to my calendar or providing directions to an address shown on the display.

More frequently than I anticipated, Siri successfully executes my requests, and when it tackles a somewhat complex task, the experience genuinely feels like magic. However, when it encounters limitations, I am quickly reminded that there is still work to be done to achieve the seamless "it just works" experience, where Siri’s failures are the rare exception rather than an occasional norm.

One of the primary areas where Apple is still refining Siri is its ability to accurately translate user requests into specific actions. For instance, when I asked it to “remind me to buy these tickets when they go on sale” while viewing a concert page, Siri simply created a reminder with that exact phrase. To trigger Siri to actually analyze the screen content and search for ticket availability, I had to be more precise, saying, “buy tickets to this when they go on sale.” Similarly, asking Siri to “route” me to a location often yielded no result, whereas “direct” me to a location typically worked. While I anticipate its word correlation will improve with more data, this reliance on specific keywords can be frustrating for a system designed for natural language interaction.

Currently, within the Siri AI preview on the iOS 27 beta, only Apple’s native applications have access to these new capabilities. For users deeply embedded in the Apple ecosystem—with data primarily residing in Messages, Mail, and Photos, and tasks managed through Reminders and Notes—the experience is exceptional. My daily use of several of these apps, such as adding a list of events from my email to my calendar, truly feels like a glimpse into the future. However, if I were to ask Siri, “When did Daniel say he was free to play Dota?” Siri would be unable to provide an answer, as Daniel and I communicate exclusively through Telegram, a platform the system does not yet access.

To support Siri AI, developers primarily need to implement two key updates: entities and intents. Entities define the types of data an app can contain, such as a photo, a recipe, a playlist, or a note. By integrating entities, an app enables Siri AI to understand precisely what kind of data it can extract for personal context. Conversely, an intent specifies what actions Siri can perform with that data, like playing, saving, or deleting. These app-specific entities and intents, in conjunction with Siri’s semantic layer for understanding spoken words, allow the assistant to control and retrieve data from third-party applications.

Consequently, if your digital life largely exists outside of Apple’s native applications, it will take time for your essential apps to fully integrate with Siri AI. This integration certainly won't materialize during the public beta phase. While developers can now begin building entities and intents using the iOS 27 SDK, users won't see these Siri AI updates pushed to their apps until the full version of iOS 27 is officially released in the fall, meaning patience is required.

Apple is heavily relying on developers to update their applications to support the new Siri, a scenario not unprecedented. Historically, every time Apple has introduced a significant new feature, such as Dark Mode or iPad app compatibility, developers have had to undertake work to ensure proper functionality. The perceived difference this time, however, is that most prior updates directly impacted the user experience within the developer’s own app. With Siri AI, Apple is asking developers to enhance a broader, system-level intelligence.

Developers I've engaged with express considerable excitement about these new capabilities, yet they also acknowledge that updating their apps for comprehensive support is a substantial undertaking. Matthew Cassinelli, who previously worked at Workflow (the company acquired by Apple and evolved into Shortcuts), notes, “The conceptual challenge for developers is creating comprehensive support for every screen and function within an app.” He adds, “But the transition to agent-based models allows specialized apps to surface relevant data dynamically, which makes them more useful to users who otherwise might not open those specific applications frequently.”

An illustrative example of this potential is the "LookBack: Contacts History" app. This application tracks your most recently added phone contacts, and if you forget to open it but ask Siri, “Who did I meet at the conference last week?” Siri can leverage the app to retrieve and present that information.

I find the argument compelling that Siri will help elevate smaller, specialized apps that users might not open daily, particularly benefiting independent developers. However, a more significant question arises regarding the willingness of major players like Google to enhance Siri’s capabilities. Google primarily generates revenue through advertising, and if Siri can directly surface information that would otherwise require opening Gmail, Google could potentially lose out on that ad revenue. That said, Google itself is actively pursuing similar "AI overviews," indicating it is already preparing for a future where AdSense may not be its sole primary revenue source.

The most compelling incentive I foresee for Google to adopt full Siri AI support is consumer choice. If a competing email application offers comprehensive Siri AI integration while Gmail does not, I am more inclined to use the alternative. I desire Siri to consistently deliver these seamless experiences, leveraging my personal context to perform actions for me. Should I encounter limitations in an app’s ability to interact with Siri, I might begin exploring other options. Whether Google’s entrenched market position is robust enough to retain the majority of users under such circumstances remains to be seen.

Ultimately, this remains a work in progress. We are not only engaging with a beta operating system but also a beta version of Siri. Moreover, it represents only a partial realization of the complete experience promised for the future. While impressive in its current form, its true potential hinges on developers adding comprehensive support for Siri AI and on Siri itself becoming significantly more accurate in interpreting and fulfilling user requests. So far, I have been pleasantly surprised by its capabilities.

The concert, incidentally, was excellent.