Siri, Apple’s digital assistant, is getting a major upgrade that will integrate it more deeply with the operating system and installed apps. Bloomberg reports that the new system will allow Siri to take control of all features within apps for the first time, thanks to a major change in its AI architecture. This means Siri will only require voice prompts to interact with apps, similar to the capabilities of Google Assistant on Android phones.
The most notable capability is that Siri will only require voice prompts to interact with apps, thanks to a major change in the AI architecture powering it and putting large language models in command, just the way Gemini or ChatGPT draw their own skills from such models. Letting Siri control iPhone and iPad apps is reportedly Apple’s core focus, and something Siri has been lagging far behind at when compared to Google Assistant on Android phones. The next-gen Siri will let users open documents, move notes across different folders, email web links, or access a specific outlet in the Apple News app.
Siri will start by accepting single natural language commands at a time, but down the road, Apple will let it handle a chain of multistep voice prompts as well. This is one of the biggest upgrades that would make Siri interactions more rewarding. Google Assistant already allows this chained voice query, such as “Hey Google, dim the lights and play music.” In Siri’s case, it would be able to accomplish tasks like editing pictures and sending them to a contact or summarizing a note and emailing it with a single voice command.
Taking a cue from what Microsoft’s Copilot and Gemini are promising, Siri will also summarize articles for users with a voice prompt. “The new system will go further, using AI to analyze what people are doing on their devices and automatically enable Siri-controlled features,” adds the Bloomberg report. In the early days, Siri’s integrations will be limited to Apple’s in-house apps, but the company already has the infrastructure ready for developers to integrate Siri smarts into their own apps.
Another notable upgrade that Apple has developed is related to notifications, something we haven’t seen so far. Using AI, the company aims to offer summarized recaps of notifications. This doesn’t just cover app notifications, call alerts, and messages — it will also include support for documents, news alerts, news articles, and webpages with different media formats.
