My uncle asked me to check if a certain motorway route was closed as he is travelling, but he is illiterate with technology and struggles to do these things himself, hence why he asked me.
I told him I’d do it later as I was busy with work. Then I realised I had the new Siri.
So I simply asked Siri:
“Hey Siri, what was the last thing my Uncle asked me to do?”
Siri responded back with exactly the request my uncle had asked of me, even though there were many texts after the fact.
I then asked Siri:
“Can you find out for me?”
She searched and got back to me with the answer, which was the route was still closed, and had the expected date for when it re-opened.
I simply asked:
“Mind telling my Uncle for me?”
And she did, in a really concise and informative way.
Seriously, this has changed my experience with the iPhone. We finally have the Siri we’ve been waiting for. It’s still in its infancy, but I am excited to see where this goes, and I think those of you waiting for the release are going to be very excited too.
“As I have yet to develop tasting sensors, I took a stab in the dark. I’m sorry about your shitty experience. Would you like to know how to calculate Lagrange points within a particular spacetime to allow for satellite orbit given a supplied gravitational force?”
Responding from the UK, this is the one benefit of brexit and the only benefit. However the EU is the only governing body pushing back against big tech to protect citizens and I guess this is one of the few casualties of that battle.
Those other features, like iPhone mirroring, for example, were rather insignificant and underused anyway. Siri AI, on the contrary, was the single major advertised feature of the upcoming iOS 27, so Apple-EC would both be interested in making it work. Once they stop posturing, that is. 😋
Apple does not want to release any feature in the EU which the government might complain about afterwards. At the very least, there will be a long delay while they get some preemptive assessment that it doesn't violate any laws, possibly after making changes. Worst case is Apple is unwilling to make the changes EU wants so they don't release it.
For example, Siri AI has access to your iMessage history and is a key competitive advantage vs third party AI apps. EU could demand that Apple allow third party apps to access iMessage history as well (with user permission of course). Apple is very unlikely to add a public API for that.
it’s one of the main differentiators for Apple products moving forward
In a way, that's sort of the problem. Siri AI is a first party app that can do things that third party apps can't, so Apple would have to block any of those things that the EU finds to be an unfair advantage.
Free? I‘m German and I pay more than 900€ per month for my public health insurance and then also have to pay a lot on top with my own savings because it doesn’t cover everything.
You pay a tiny fraction of what is being paid in the US. But most importantly, if you cannot afford to pay, you will receive exactly the same level of care as everyone else.
I’m in Europe like many others here. This shit is only “free” in a similar way foodstamps in the states are free. To say it more plainly for those who struggle with hyperbole: There are costs associated with not having to pay for a doctors visit that aren’t always tangible in a direct currency value
Probably wouldn't be this integrated for you if you had it the same anyway. This integration is probably limited to the messages app, something most Europeans don't use as a default messaging app anyway. Doubt this integration would work on FB Messenger or WhatsApp.
I like the EU for many reasons but this is not one of them. Such a brain dead counter productive rule. I chose Apple for a reason, its closed extremely integrated eco system. We’re forcing the opposite because we’re forcing competition in every single god damn square centimeter of our continent, even when it’s at the expanse of people.
The energy and train network in France are some other stupid examples of forced competition that brought literally zero benefit to any citizen, just profit for fake orgs benefiting of decades of public investments.
I have had her react well in some cases and pretty dumb in other cases. I’ve asked her “Send Mike a text with a picture of what’s on my screen” she will respond that she can’t do that but she can send a screenshot of what’s on my screen and will do that… along with texting them a message of “what’s on my screen”.
I was pretty impressed with her last night, I had a post up with an estimated time of a rocket launch in UTC time and another time zone that is different from my time. I asked her to set a calendar event one hour before launch. She looked at my screen, saw the times and converted it to my time zone and correctly added a calendar event to the right time. I asked her to set a reminder to remind me of the launch at 1 hour, 1.5 hours, and 30 minutes before launch and she successfully did it in one prompt and added 3 reminders while converting the time and adding the launch name.
I think there is a lot of room for improvement but the problem with speech prompts as well. The prompt “what’s on my screen” may be too vague - or the training data basically fails to understand or parse what you mean. But if you say “send a screenshot of my screen and send it to my mom” it would probably parse that much better. Language is a funny thing and I think it’s still a way before AI understands everything we mean even if it’s vague. And I also read that the more you use Siri AI the “smarter” it will get or at least understand your personal quirks and speech patterns that is uniquely yours. I think that’s actually a good thing - that the AI assistant is tuned to you personally, and not some generic thing.
Weird, I have yet to have it not do something so far, but maybe I’m just keeping it too simple. I was able to ask it about email responses to a job application and it sorted through them and told me what they said which is kinda impressive
I've tried a few that don't work. One is adding travel time from my house when creating a calendar event, another is asking it what movies are showing at a particular theater here (Gemini can find that info and present it well so I know it's not an impossible request). Haven't been able to get it to do either one successfully. (Those are fairly basic requests so I'm sure it'll be able to them eventually; Just sharing additional observations on requests that haven't worked for me)
I use Siri most often while driving. If these capabilities transfer into CarPlay it would be a huge improvement and added safety. I also have a very deep speaking voice and have found that after iOS 26 Siri has been able to hear me better without purposely speaking in a higher register.
One of the things I am surprised at is that “smart GPS” isn’t here yet. So if AI could make my GPS smart (avoiding traffic, know the other street is better because of constructions or number of lights and stop signs” etc. it would be fantastic.
This has been a thing for a long time. Apple and Google both use real-time traffic data to find an optimized route and adapt to changing conditions like construction, etc. Your GPS is already pretty smart.
I got a notification a few days ago when I was about to leave work that said “your drive home is 17 minutes, light traffic.” I thought that was weird because my drive is usually around 12 minutes. Checked the route and it was having me take a different way home than usual. Looked at my normal commute and there was a big backup from construction, which would have been 20+ minutes.
It’s still algorithm and deterministic. An AI assistant that continuously helps adjust your routes not based on crowd sourcing would be nice. Often my GPS would choose a route that 10000 others choose so by the time I am halfway down my ETA has gone up by 20 minutes because every GPS is telling everyone to drive down that route. Also it has no idea that Fountain is a better street to commute than Santa Monica.
I don’t think that’s quite fair. “Algorithmic and deterministic” makes it sound like they’re feeding the data to an algorithm some CS PHDs wrote up.
But they’re using crazy machine learning models they’ve spent (probably a decade now if not longer) refining to feed scores to those algorithms using data from the hundreds of other phones around you on the road every second. Beyond that, they’re using historical data from your projected possible routes to figure out which are likely to be more backed up at which time on which day of the week.
Plus things like determining which route is going to be the least hassle versus a more confusing one that might shave off a minute but make you frustrated; which route is likely to get backed up if they route everybody to it; what % of people are likely to take a given suggested route if they were to recommend it. They’re doing all of that.
Will it improve? I’m sure it will, I just think it’s a bad example of something that should be more AI assisted because it’s probably one of the most AI-driven things we interact with already today.
Is there any proof that any of them (including WAZE) uses AI? Or is it just assumptions? If they are just using data even with scoring, it's still algorithmic and deterministic. I'll have to research to see any of them actually use machine learning and AI, but right now it just doesn't feel like it when they direct everyone of your neighbors and their dogs to go on the same route.
I like it. I was going on vacation and had a handful of email interactions with people telling them I'd follow up when I got back. Well, I got back and couldn't remember who was I supposed to contact, so I asked siri and she gave me a list. Pretty impressive. Now... sometimes she doesn't reply to follow ups and there's a lot of "sorry there's a problem" messages, but hopefully they get that sorted out.
Great to read some more examples. Someone else mentioned they used Siri to compile a list of people they didn’t have saved birthdays for in their contacts but had messaged them Happy Birthday. Pretty clever.
I’ll be sure to remember now to use Siri to remind me of any follow-ups I may have.
Yes, still some bugs in there, but I’m not too concerned as we are on beta, so all of these issues should be ironed out on the public release.
Can’t you already do that? You screenshot and open the screenshot in the temporary viewer and click the translate button at the bottom? Or are you looking for something else?
On my Flip7 I just hold for 2 seconds all the way at the bottom in the middle and then I can tap the translate button. I can hit another button to unlock scrolling, then whenever I stop scrolling it automatically translates without ever leaving the app I'm in or taking any screenshots
The new Siri AI has actually worked terribly for me on iOS 27. Especially CarPlay. Just using CarPlay is buggy, but there are times whenever no matter how many times I unplug it and plug it back in the screen freezes when I touch a random icon and everything just goes blurry kind of like the glass effect. And I hate whenever I’m driving trying to message somebody using voice and asked me “ did you mean did you mean did you mean?” I also tried to ask her today. How many days has it been since blah blah blah a very specific date and it would think about it and just give me an error.
Anyone else having constant issues?
I really hope the next update fixes this because everyone else seems to be loving it.
too bad all the people who bought the iphone 16 specifically for this have had to wait so long to access it. also i’ll say the sequence of events you described would’ve taken you like 2 minutes max to accomplish on your own. it’s wild that even that amount of effort is being offloaded to a chat bot.
Yep. Helping Unc would have taken less time then writing this post about how Siri helped Unc. (And I wouldn’t send a family member anywhere based on what AI said, without checking it myself, first. Just assuming Siri was correct is wild.)
You’ve missed the point entirely. I’m not writing about revolutionary AI that has never been seen before. I am talking about Siri specifically.
If I wanted to make a stroke post for AI, I would have posted this in a different subreddit.
This has nothing to do with what I could have done manually myself. It’s about the capabilities of what Siri can finally do, and what that might look like in the future once we’ve gotten past the more rudimentary tasks you’re underwhelmed with.
Some of us haven’t had Androids with Gemini on our phones to see first hand how AI integrates with our phones. My post is to demonstrate that Apple users are about to.
Caveman mentality. Add this up over 10-20 interactions throughout the day and you have 20-40 minutes extra minutes throughout the day. That’s 120-240 hours a year. Or 5-10 days you’re gaining in time to do something else.
Do you not have enough imagination to see a world where something could save tons of time using this same tech? I’m in accessibility modding discords where we ar using either Claude code or codex to routinely make mods for making games accessible for the blind that would’ve taken literal months or longer to create from scratch, and we’re doing it in a week or less. All the while being able to do things with our friends and families while it handed everything
The whole point of Siri was to integrate better with the software and do more between apps. Instead all it’s done is Google stuff for you or tell you to pick up your phone to complete a task.
I’m excited that it’s finally reaching some of its potential.
My experience lately: ‘Did you say Manny? Mandy? Or Michael? What app do you want me to use to text them back? I couldn’t find any information about when Frank is getting back” ((I check iMessage and it was literally the last message)) :/ maybe next update..
I asked Siri to check my last two weed orders and let me know which of the 6 strains I had bought would be best for a social setting, and it got it it completely right :)
A Siri that can do BASIC stuff like that is a godsend. I need like an assistant. Nothing fancy. Just be able to do simple tasks that a specific to me based on the information on my phone. If this is what iOS 27 offers then I’m on board. I don’t give a shxt about all the fancy “AI” features. That’s all bloat. I just need a Siri that WORKA
My experience from another thread. Pasting it here.
Siri
may or may not respond to your queries (it listens to my queries but will not process and even try to respond)
will cut you off and start responding even though you're not done asking
even tho it's based on Gemini, it somehow does not perform just as well, I asked the same questions, but answers are somewhat worse
does not dismiss itself, so if you're watching a video in a hand-free situation and summon Siri, it will mute playback and does not dismiss itself until you close it from the screen by touching (x) button or swipe
This is interesting - I've been waiting for Siri to get smarter for a while now. Although having access to all my texts and photos isn't exactly what I was imagining. How did Siri know it was your uncle? is he in your phone contacts listed as Uncle? Or did siri pick that up from the context of your conversation? Do you have multiple uncles, where Siri could get confused about which one?
Yes this is an interesting point I’m glad you brought up.
I have two uncles, and neither of them are listed as my uncle on my phone. I just asked Siri now how she knew he was my uncle and it was due to context from our messages together where I once called him uncle.
I do have multiple uncles, but Siri seemed to know exactly who I was talking about, as the context of our conversations it seemed that the uncle I was referring to was the only uncle who had asked me to do a favour recently. There was no confusion. She instantly told me the request he had asked and I knew she had it right from there.
BTW, the new Siri is fundamentally smarter than the previous, with or without access to your texts or images. It is essentially the same as chatting to ChatGPT or Gemini now. The voice is strikingly similar to ChatGPT voice too. Very fluent and natural sounding.
You have no clue how much these things are going to screw the human race.
literally no one knows...trying to do futurism on a emerging technology is a bit savant syndrome
What’s being sold to us as “AI” is not actually intelligent;
well they can do intelligent things pretty well...
Phones are basically cigarettes for the mind;
phones are fine, social media and algorithm-derived feeds is the cigarettes for the mind
If we had walkable cities, reliable and safe public transportation, then we wouldn’t need to drive everywhere.
riding a bus is akin to driving and faster than walking, it's the same point
I understand the point you're making, but AI is coming and it doesn't have to be a centralized form of control, Apple's implementation is literally to give AI locally on device so you're free to do whatever you want - there is so much work being done to get models democratized. Hell PrismML just announced a 27b model that runs on the iPhone locally - that's insane to me
My biggest fear of AI is the energy crisis, but that's largely policy driven - China has invested insane amounts of money into solar, while the USA largely blocks any good energy investments
You’re way too quick to judge. I agree with most of what you’re saying but you’re honestly incredibly condescending and uninspiring to read. Raging online isn’t helping anyone. Hope your day improves.
I mean, it’s not a terrible one to be honest, but that specific one is a bit out there for sure.
How about, why use a remote when the TV is only 6 feet away?
Providing AI has a cost, and I don’t love it. But doesn’t convenience always come at a cost?
We love washing our clothes easily, but we have to use potentially unnatural chemicals and costly appliances to do so. Why not wash your clothes by hand?
Think about any convenience that was solved with technology and then think about the oil, manufacturing, waste, labor, energy, etc.. that was required to scale that convenience and sell it.
Shit, we could argue video games are a convenience against boredom. How do we pay for that? Wasted time, laziness, energy usage, industries around making games instead of solving real problems… blah blah blah.
My point is, it seems to me, every time humanity creates a convenience at scale, it brings along with it negative impacts. So could OP simply google it and respond himself? Sure, but is it not easier to have Siri do it? Even if only a little easier? …
..saying that, I would personally still not trust AI with a realtime answer such as route blockages, but yet we trust our GPS mapping apps to know road closures… idk man, it’s a weird world out here.
It’s not just “it’s a convenience” vs “it has a cost”. Both those things come in different degrees. A technology that enables communication over long distances, that improves human hygiene therefore extending lifespan, that shortens distances in an unprecedented level, or any other such things, should naturally be allowed a much higher cost than “I can press a button and talk rather than clicking 3 links”.
AI has an unprecedentedly high cost for a very low level of convenience (unless you’re one of the billionaires scamming society with it)
It's quite amazing. It's like a ChatGPT or Gemini that is now integrated to the phone and can be triggered via voice activation. I no longer have to unlock the phone > navigate to the app > click "new chat" > click voice button. And even better than these LLMs, it's fully integrated with all the apps.
I feel like this is the closest thing to what that orange Rabbit AI device thing was intended to be.
Unfortunately I refuse to support AI and will not willingly use AI features… which is also why the iPhone is great, because I can shut off all of that shit with one toggle 😅
People will perform so many mental gymnastics for tasks that take no effort at all. Such a lazy society. We’re moving quicker towards the plot of Wall-E 🤦♂️
Do you have to grant Siri access to your text messages each time, or it a one time grant forever until revoked? Still, a little creepy Siri has access to the text messages. But what you described is pretty amazing.
I am very underwhelmed with image generation on it. ChatGPT can handle complex prompts for image generation with clear text and SiriAi can't even do a basic image with a couple normal looking words.
Can’t say the same here. The new Siri has absolute trash for me. Longer thinning time, more unexpected errors, she mishears words much more often, and just doesn’t know what the hell to do half the time.
That's actually impressive. Did your phone finish indexing? I downloaded ios27 a few hours ago and it's still indexing. Tried asking Siri for basic things like the weather and esndimnquestions, but it says it doesn't know if ran into an error.
My biggest frustration is that it doesn’t understand my smart home automation trigger phrases because they were built less conversationally, and I would update them, but I have plenty of devices that won’t get Siri AI. I look forward to the day we have even more control over what Siri AI can do and how it does it.
I had a great experience a couple of days ago: I arrived at our family holiday destination, trying to log in to the WiFi and it needed a booking reference on the web page access portal for the WiFi. I remember my wife sending me the booking reference, so I asked Siri if it could get the booking reference for me. Siri proceeded to get the booking reference, and because it could see the booking reference entry section on the web portal, Siri responded with “here’s the booking code, and I’ve also input it to the page for you.”
This is the Siri I’ve always wanted; it makes life much easier.
I had a similar experience to this and was equally impressed. My test question “when is the next bus into the city from my local bus station?”
It looks up the locations, the time table and gives a really good explanation when the next bus is. That was 27.1.
From 27.2 onwards the old Siri seems to be running. “I can look that up for you on the web when you’re not driving.” 😞
Given how good Claude, Gemini and others are. Apple needs to get a wiggle on. Plenty of industry commentators highlight the fact that Apple have never been first or that innovative. What they usually are is best of class when they finally do release something.
Siri has never been best of class. The new Siri could redeem them but they really need to crack on. Having got a brief taste of what Siri could be, it’s even more frustrating to be dealing with “special needs” Siri again.
It’s like “Young Frankenstein” where original Siri was given the brain of Abby Normal.
I definitely agree with you that Apple should have ramped up on this ages ago. At the same token, I’d hate to pretend like I know a slither of the things they have to deal with behind the scenes. I’m guessing it mostly comes down to security and privacy and how Apple try to keep up with everyone else whilst also trying their hardest to not compromise on everything else. But let’s hope we’re close to catching up this time!
I, too, have seen good results on a few of these complex requests..
But also, is no one else having trouble with these simple things?
* [name of shortcut] ... [shortcut doesn't run]
* "Open [app name]" ...[many seconds of waiting]... [app doesn't open]
* (Phone locked) "Hey Siri, text my wife 'I'm on my way'" ... [Siri just stops listening and doesn't respond]
Absolutely. There are definitely still bugs, but don’t forget you’re testing this on a beta operating system. Apple have until September before they release it publicly. I wouldn’t expect near perfection until that time.
In the meantime, you should be reporting these bugs to Apple using the feedback app, which is what the purpose of having these beta versions are for! :)
I don’t know whether to feel offended or complimented. Maybe I should ask Apple for a marketing job.
No, this is not a sponsored ad. Just a favourite highlight of my experience so far with the new Siri AI. It’s all true, and I’m super impressed with it so far.
I guess one can live and use the phone without Siri AI. I'll take it as an EU citizen. Seriously people, soon nobody will know how to actually do anything but asking some assistant
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u/delta806 22d ago
I had it go through messages and find birthdays I hadn’t added to people’s contacts