In a landmark event at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple unveiled a series of major updates that promise to redefine its ecosystem of devices. Among the highlights was the long-anticipated revamp of Siri, now enhanced with advanced artificial intelligence capabilities. This transformation aims to elevate the virtual assistant from its current state to a more intuitive, personalized helper, capable of offering a richer user experience.
Delving into the specifics, Apple’s collaboration with Google has borne fruit in the form of Siri AI, a sophisticated iteration of the voice assistant. According to Mike Rockwell, Apple’s head of AI, the new Siri AI is designed to engage in detailed, conversational interactions, making it a more dynamic tool for users. This advancement is a significant leap forward, offering not just basic responses but nuanced and detailed dialogues.
Beyond conversational improvements, Siri AI incorporates innovative features such as image editing and writing tools. It also boasts onscreen awareness, allowing it to draw context from what the user is currently viewing, thus providing more relevant and precise answers. Additionally, Apple has introduced a dedicated Siri AI app, which will serve as a hub for accessing past interactions, making the experience more seamless and integrated.
The rollout of this AI-enhanced Siri spans across Apple’s entire suite of devices, including the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and the newly introduced Apple Vision Pro. This comprehensive integration ensures that users can enjoy a consistent and enhanced experience, regardless of the device they choose to use. As Apple continues to innovate, these updates set a new standard for what users can expect from their digital assistants.
In addition to offering image editing and writing tools, Siri AI also uses onscreen awareness to pull context from what’s on your screen to answer questions. Apple is also launching a standalone Siri AI app, where you can access your conversation history. Siri AI will roll out across Apple’s devices, including the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro.
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Apple is adding the ability to access its new Siri AI by swiping down from the Dynamic Island, where its responses will also appear. iOS 27 comes with a “Siri Mode” in its Camera app, too, which can recognize objects in your viewfinder and tell you more about them.
There’s also a new opacity slider for Apple’s polarizing Liquid Glass design. Apple says iOS 27 will be supported by the iPhone 11 and up.
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Apple’s bringing an AI-heavy update to macOS 27 Golden Gate, too. It’s building Siri into its Spotlight menu, allowing you to ask questions directly in the search bar and select files to ask about.
Similar to iOS 27, the latest version of macOS will allow you to adjust its Liquid Glass design with a new slider. Apple is making the window corner radius tighter in macOS 27 and is bringing back colorful sidebar icons.
Safari is getting AI tab management and more
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During the keynote, Apple showed off a bunch of handy new features for Safari, including a new tab management feature that will use AI to organize all your open webpages by topic.
There’s a new “Notify Me” feature that will allow you to ask Safari to alert you to changes on a webpage — such as if a product you’ve been eyeing comes back in stock — and a way for Safari to automatically update your compromised passwords for you. You can also ask Safari to create extensions just by describing them with natural language.
Apple Intelligence updates across apps
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A new feature in Messages will suggest photos to share based on your conversation, while the Phone app can present you with relevant information, like a flight confirmation code, when the call starts. Apple also says Mail will offer “more capable suggestions” and allow you to add events to your Calendar just by describing them. Some other upgrades include the ability to create your own shortcuts with natural language and use Apple’s Image Playground to make AI edits on your photos, such as changing their compositions and enhanced “distraction” removal.
Even the Home app is getting a notable update, enabling it to generate descriptions of camera clips and stitch together footage from different cameras with AI. Apple is adding the ability to view recorded clips with 4K resolution on supported cameras and a way to search through clips with natural language.
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Apple is making a big update to its parental control system. Now, parents who enroll their kid in a child account can choose which apps and content they want them to have access to, as well as require their kid to ask for permission before opening a new website. The company also redesigned its Screen Time menu, which it says will make it easier for parents to manage the time their kids spend on their phones.
