Apple Announces an LLM-Like Siri & Smarter Apple Intelligence

Veteran WWDC watchers may have expected the tech giant's event keynote to list new device-specific features, but Apple did something unprecedented. One of the main focuses of the June 8 announcement was the smarter Siri that we've been promised since 2024 and the app-specific AI features that will work across Apple devices. Not only is the new Gemini-powered Apple Intelligence capable of understanding personal context and having on-screen awareness, but it also has a brand-new Siri AI app with similar features to popular AI models like ChatGPT. Here's how Siri AI will change the way you interact with the entire Apple ecosystem.

Release Dates & Compatibility

• Availability: iOS 27 will be available this fall, most likely in early to mid-September. The developer beta was released today, June 8th, for testing, with the public beta scheduled to release in early July. We recommend against installing beta software unless you are particularly tech-savvy, since betas can be buggy and unstable. If you are interested in trying out the iOS 27 beta, make sure you take the proper steps when installing the beta.

• Compatibility: iOS 27 is available for iPhones as old as iPhone 11, however, Apple Intelligence is only available on the iPhone 15 Pro and newer models. Apple did go out of its way to claim that iOS 27 will make devices faster, even if you have an older iPhone model. The most powerful Apple Intelligence features will only be available on the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max or later, the iPhone Air, iPads with the M4 chip or later, and Macs with the M3 chip or later.

Now, let's dive into the new AI features coming to your Apple devices this year. To stay in the know on the latest iOS 27 news, don't forget to check out our free Tip of the Day newsletter.

The Long-Promised Smarter Siri is Here! We Hope…

Apple's WWDC keynote outlined a lot of ways that the smarter Siri can help us perform daily tasks by understanding personal context and having on-screen awareness. This means that Siri will be able to search through all of your information, including the contents of your text messages and emails, to help you create Calendar events, generate relevant Reminders, get Safari tab notifications, and so much more. Users will finally be able to use Siri for follow-up requests based on the previous answer/query or what's on your device's display. Basically, Apple is promising that you'll be able to use Siri like you use ChatGPT or Gemini. One example used in the announcement is that you can take a picture of a monument or landmark, use Siri to identify the landmark, ask Siri how close your friend Jim lives to the landmark, get Jim's address, then use Siri to plan a trip to the landmark with a stop by Jim's house in Maps. You can see other examples in the image below.

In addition, Spotlight search will now be much more powerful because you'll be able to search for specific content in a message you've sent or received, allowing users to make complex requests across apps, like, "Find the recipe that Mom mentioned last week in a text message," followed up with, "Add this recipe to the Notes app with a reminder to get the ingredients when I go to the store." We are also expecting the iOS 27 search feature to be much better when it comes to finding photos from specific places that include particular objects, people, or animals.

The New Stand-Alone Siri AI App

While you can still summon Siri with a simple, "Hey, Siri," or by holding down your Side button, Siri is also getting its own stand-alone app. This app gives Apple users AI features like we see when we use ChatGPT. Not only will you be able to start a brand-new conversation in the app, the app will store previous chats, including the questions asked, responses given, and any relevant images. Since I am still on the Siri AI waiting list, I can't tell you anything more specific about the Siri AI app just yet (and it is super frustrating!).

New App-Specific Apple Intelligence Features

Most of the core Apple apps have new AI features with valuable day-to-day benefits. One of the most exciting features is that you will now be able to set reminders for Safari tabs; for example, if you are someone who constantly refreshes your favorite band's website waiting for concert tickets to go on sale, you can let Siri do the waiting for you. You'll be able to close the tab knowing you'll get a notification when whatever you are waiting for happens.

The Mail app will be better at understanding the context of your emails and, therefore, deciding what is most important. Instead of showing you the newest email at the top of your inbox, the Mail app might show you something that came a week ago but is more relevant than anything recent because it relates to an upcoming deadline or event. While I am unsure about trusting AI to determine what is truly important and differentiate between relevant requests versus email scams, I am curious to see how this will work. When you first open the Mail app on your iPhone after updating to iOS 27, you'll see a notification at the top about how many of your unread emails are considered Primary emails. You can tap OK to agree to the default setting, or tap Customize to make tweaks.

Last year, iOS 26 gave us the AI-powered Clean Up tool. iOS 27 expands on AI-enhanced photos with the introduction of Extend and Reframe. Extend will allow users to add some AI-generated background as if they were "zooming out" of an existing image, while spatial Reframe will let you adjust the angle as if you were lowering the camera or moving to the left or right of the subject to better show the background, etc. Unfortunately, I have low expectations for these new AI tools because I've used third-party apps to attempt similar edits and did not have usable results. When I tried them on the iOS 27 Developer beta, both Extend and Reframe failed to work.

The Phone app will now use your personalized content to display important information on screen, saving you time. For example, if you're on the phone with an airline and you receive an email with a flight confirmation, your flight number will automatically appear so you don't have to dig for it.

The Shortcuts app has always been able to do things that don't feel possible, but it has also been one of the most difficult iPhone apps to master. Now, you'll be able to create an entire shortcut simply by writing text explaining what you want it to do, and your phone will generate the shortcut for you. (Think of it as vibe-coding for the Shortcuts app, if that helps.) If the generated shortcut isn't quite as expected, you can write out the explanation of what changes you want made.

iOS 27 & Apple Intelligence Security & Privacy

The new Siri will still be powered by Apple Intelligence, which now runs on Google's Gemini AI. Despite the shift to a third-party artificial intelligence model, there will be no changes to the security or privacy features. Your devices will still do as much as possible on-device and any off-device request will be done via Private Cloud Compute so that none of your personal data is retained. Most AI models use every user's data to train the AI, but in this case, Apple's data centers that will complete the requests have hardware built in to wipe their memory after every single interaction.

The EU and China are not going to get Siri AI or the new Apple Intelligence at the same time as the US. Due to the different laws and regulations, other regions will need to work with Apple to make sure that everything complies with their unique standards and rules.

The 2026 WWDC keynote event was full of surprises and exciting-sounding features. However, Apple now has a reputation for not always giving us the expected features when promised. So while it's exciting that Spotlight Search will be able to help us find something obscure from a text message or photo, this is something we've expected to have all along. Plus, most of these new features are not possible to test yet even if you download the iOS 27 developer beta like I did, so it isn't clear how well these features work or when they will be fully available. After all, Apple paid $250 million to settle a class-action lawsuit regarding the false Apple Intelligence advertising that was delayed until… right now, hopefully. Let's hope they won't have to pay out more millions because they can't deliver the features they announced today.

One thing is clear after Tim Cook's final WWDC keynote address: Apple is going all-in on AI. While the company has seemingly lagged behind in the AI revolution, its partnership with Google signaled to many that it would be giving up part of its walled-garden ethos to catch up with others in the AI space. This keynote drove home that point. Apple barely mentioned its separate operating systems—iOS, watchOS, macOS, etc.—instead focusing on how Siri AI would transform its entire platform, across devices. Is it too little too late? Or will people happily return to Apple's waiting arms when Siri suddenly rivals the big AI assistants like ChatGPT?