Siri’s ability to perform complex actions across apps is one of the Apple Intelligence capabilities which reportedly won’t be ready on time.
Siri will benefit from large language models (LLM) and generative AI features in iOS 18, lumped under the “Apple Intelligence” umbrella term. To understand the context of queries, the assistant will perform semantic indexing of your on-device data.
In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman wrote that a subset of the Apple Intelligence features won’t arrive until next year.
3 Siri intelligence features coming in 2025
1. Onscreen awareness
Siri will be able to understand what you’re doing and perform actions with your content in apps. If you receive a friend’s new address in Messages, for instance, you’ll be able to tell Siri to “Add this address to his contact card.”
Or, imagine you’re chatting with friends about LeBron James. Siri will analyze the chat so you can ask questions like “How many points did he score last night?” and get an answer based on your exchanges with a friend.
2. Intelligence based on your info
Siri will have the capability to deliver intelligence tailored to you based on your on-device data. Asking a simple question like “When’s Mom’s flight landing?” or requesting to “Play that podcast that Jamie recommended” will analyze past emails and podcast episodes to produce a satisfying result.
In the example Apple gave during the WWDC24 keynote, Siri not only found the flight details but also cross-reference them with real-time flight tracking to give its best estimate of an arrival time. In another example, Apple’s assistant locates and plays the podcast episode that might be mentioned in a text or email.
3. Controlling apps and devices
Siri can already change some settings, but iOS 18 will take this to a much higher level. With Apple Intelligence, Siri will be able to parse complex queries into individual commands chained together across apps. For example, you’ll be able to ask Siri to pull a photograph of you and your girlfriend soaking up sun rays at the beaches. With the request fulfilled, you’ll be able to follow up with another request asking to edit the image and email it as an attachment to a specific person.
Apple says there will be hundreds of new actions in and across Apple and third-party apps. Some examples of such queries that the company gave at WWDC24 include requests such as “Bring up that article about cicadas from my Reading List” and “Send the photos from the barbecue on Saturday to Malia.”
Siri will get smarter in 2024
When iOS 18 launches this fall, Siri will bring a redesigned interface and more natural conversations. You’ll also notice Siri’s much-improved voice recognition, thanks to LLMs, as well as deeper knowledge of Apple products. An improved Type to Siri for entering queries by text rather than speaking them is also coming this fall.
But the three aforementioned Siri features will come in the first half 2025 instead of 2024. Apple is no stranger to delaying some features until it smooths out rough edges. In fact, this has been its modus operandi in the past few years.
The company previews the most prominent new features every year at the WWDC. Any features not ready for prime time by the time the update drops in the fall get spread out across point updates released in the current and next year.