At its Monday developer conference, Apple detailed a major redesign of Siri: the company presented a generative AI‑based assistant that will be integrated throughout the Apple ecosystem — on iPhones, Macs and Apple Watch devices.
Apple had previously introduced the Apple Intelligence initiative, but development of the new Siri experienced delays that cost the company some prestige. According to Apple, the rebuilt system now goes beyond simple voice commands: it can maintain continuous conversations, answer complex questions, and take into account what is visible on the user's screen.
Screen awareness and conversation history
A key capability of the new Siri is so‑called screen awareness. The system will recognize which app is open and what content is displayed, and it will use that context to respond to user queries. Apple will also provide a dedicated app for Siri where past conversations and interactions can be searched.
AI everywhere: iOS 27, macOS 27 and app‑level features
Artificial intelligence will appear across many parts of the operating system and built‑in apps. Announced examples include:
- A dedicated Siri mode in the iOS 27 camera that recognizes objects and offers immediate information about them.
- Messages: automatic photo suggestions for conversations.
- Phone: the app may retrieve items such as flight confirmation codes during a call.
- Mail: smarter suggestions and recommendations.
- Calendar: creating events from natural‑language instructions.
- Safari: automatic thematic organization of open tabs, tracking product availability, and potentially automatically replacing compromised passwords. Users will also be able to create browser extensions via simple text instructions.
- macOS 27: Siri will be integrated directly into Spotlight, allowing users to ask about documents and files stored on their Mac in the same place they currently run searches.
Apple will also expand parental controls, giving parents more granular control over which apps children can use and requiring permissions for opening new websites. The Screen Time menu will be redesigned to make monitoring digital habits easier.
Compatibility concerns for older devices
The announcements raise a practical question: how will older iPhones, iPads and Macs keep up if Apple places AI behind so many features? Apple says iOS 27 will support devices back to the iPhone 11 series, but in practice not all AI functions are likely to be available on older models. That pattern was already visible during the first wave of Apple Intelligence, when several AI services were limited to newer, higher‑performance hardware.
Based on the conference, Siri is no longer a standalone feature but a central element of Apple's future software strategy. If AI becomes the backbone of most apps and services, the next few years could see an accelerated rate of hardware replacement among Apple users, since advanced AI capabilities may demand greater computational resources.
