The New Siri App in iOS 27 Will Change the iPhone Forever

Source Domain: uk.pcmag.com

CUPERTINO—Since its inception, Siri has remained an ephemeral assistant. It comes and goes when summoned, and iPhone users never actually see it. Although the iPhone’s screen lights up to signal that it’s listening, and it sometimes speaks out loud when responding or delivering results, there’s never been an actual Siri app. That’s about to change.

The new Siri and revamped Apple Intelligence are the core upgrades Apple is bringing to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS later this year, impacting hundreds of millions of devices. I spent the bulk of my time with Apple this week at WWDC learning about how the company rearchitected Siri and viewing numerous demonstrations of what it can do—and it could have a significant impact on how people use their iPhones.

For example, the Siri app lets you field more complex queries, view more detailed results, and take action on them. In a demo I saw at Apple HQ, a company representative asked Siri on the iPhone about meteor showers. Siri recommended waiting for the Perseids in August, and the Apple rep then used Siri to create an action plan for viewing the show at a nearby park. It was great to see the conversation flow from iPhone to iPad to Mac—and persist after closing the app.

More Than Just a Revamped Siri

AI-based mobile chatbots have been available on the iPhone for several years now. You can easily find ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others on the App Store. Many are free to use and do a fine job of assisting with queries and helping formulate plans. (The Siri that’s available today has access to ChatGPT if you want richer results.)

But iPhone owners have to proactively seek them out. They aren’t preinstalled on the iPhone, unlike many Android phones from Google, Motorola, and Samsung, which often include Gemini by default. This is a key distinction. Gemini often feels like a natural extension of the Google-centric experience on Android phones. Today’s iPhone chatbots don’t. More importantly, not every…

Source