Siri AI Is Becoming Apple’s Everything Tool

Don’t want Siri to use your interactions with a specific app? In your phone’s Settings, go to the Siri AI section and scroll down to App Access. Then, choose which app you want to change and toggle Learn from this App to the left. “Allow Siri to learn how you use this app to make suggestions across apps,” reads a beta version of the description under this toggle. These are enabled by default if Siri AI is turned on.

This revamped Siri is baked into the phone’s search function. So, if you swipe down in the middle of the screen, Siri pops up with a Search or Ask bar. You can type into that blank space or tap the microphone icon to ask your question. If you hit enter, more often than not it will send the query to Siri for answers. For example, I typed “What’s a good route for driving to Sacramento?” into Siri. It pulled up the Maps app with a suggested driving path pre-chosen. Not bad! If you want, you can still tap Show Results below the text bar for the more traditional web search vibe.

On-Screen Awareness

In addition to personal context from that indexing process, Siri can also pull details from what’s currently visible on your screen. This type of on-screen awareness was available before as Siri’s “Visual Intelligence,” and it contributes to Siri feeling like it’s actually helpful no matter what you’re doing.

This makes it easy to double-check something I’m seeing on social media. For example, I was scrolling on Bluesky and saw multiple posts about the singer Lorde criticizing Meta’s AI smartglasses, but I hadn’t seen a source for this news. So, when one of the posts was visible on my screen, I asked Siri AI, “Where did she say this?” I didn’t need to provide specifics about who “she” was or what comment I was referring to; Siri pulled that info from my screen. Then, Siri confirmed that this happened at a festival in Madrid and provided links where I could read more.

For Siri AI, seeing is believing. Well, at least seeing what’s on your screen and what’s around you. Beyond just on-screen awareness, Apple has a new Siri tab in the camera app, alongside your standard photo and video options. If you tap the circular button in the middle, Siri automatically analyzes the images and provides you with a quick paragraph of context. Tapping the message icon on the left uploads an image to Siri with the option to add a prompt for more details. Tapping the image search icon on the right browses the web for relevant links.

If you swipe down on that paragraph from Siri AI, then it expands into a longer answer with source links.

Courtesy of Reece Rogers

Everything, Everywhere

Siri AI is more than just Apple’s smartphone assistant; it’s also part of the user experience across the entire ecosystem. Siri is on iPads and Macs, with screenshot integrations on iPads and a dedicated shortcut on Macs. Even the Vision Pro has this new Siri, for the handful of readers who actually own that hardware. There are hardware requirements, though. For example, Siri AI is only available on the iPhone 15 Pro and newer devices—even if you can download iOS 27, it doesn’t mean you’ll automatically get the new Siri.

Zoning in on the iPhone, Siri AI’s features are even more widespread than I’ve already mentioned above. “Write with Siri” is another tool for when you’re drafting notes or composing text messages. For example, when I was texting my partner about how to organize our apartment, I tapped the Siri button, told it the gist of what I wanted to communicate (more storage bins). Then it drafted a paragraph-long text message that sounded decently like how I would write and loaded it into the message box. A step up from the auto-suggestions of yore.