The best Siri features powered by Apple Intelligence won’t be available this year. Instead, smarter Siri will be available when iOS 81.4 launches next spring.
The new Siri features like onscreen awareness and precise control over actions inside of apps won’t be ready when Apple Intelligence arrives this fall.
These Siri features are “likely to go into beta testing for developers in January and then debut publicly around the springtime—part of an iOS 18.4 upgrade that’s already in the works,” Mark Gurman wrote in his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg.
Siri AI features launching across 2024 and 2025
So far, Siri’s ability to control apps and devices hasn’t impressed. Sure, you can ask the assistant to open an app, mute the volume, enable Dark Mode and the like, but that’s too basic. Siri is too dumb to parse complex queries into multiple in-app actions that could be chained together.
Apple Intelligence will change all that. At long last, we’ll be able to ask the troubled assistant to carry out multi-step tasks, such as editing a photo and then emailing it to a contact. Siri will also understand what’s on the screen at any given moment, which should improve the understanding of the context of your questions.
However, as Mark writes, neither of those upgrades will be ready when Apple Intelligence launches initially alongside iOS 18.0 this fall.
New Siri design and ChatGPT integration this year
That doesn’t mean Siri won’t get any AI this year; its refreshed design and ChatGPT integration will come “later this year.”
The digital assistants will use large language models (LLM) and provide generative AI features, combining on-device processing whenever possible and off-device processing via OpenAI for the more complex queries.
Apple Intelligence will be available on the iPhone, iPad and Mac. Apple will also bring these features to the Vision Pro headset with the release of visionOS 3 next year. The Apple Watch, Apple TV and HomePod won’t have Apple Intelligence.