Apple opens redesigned Siri AI to public beta ahead of fall launch

Apple is bringing its redesigned AI-powered Siri to the public through the iOS 27 beta, marking the first time the company has made its overhauled assistant widely available beyond developers. The move comes after Apple officially announced the Siri overhaul at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. With some 2.5 billion active devices worldwide, the public beta represents the largest test of Apple's redesigned AI assistant and its direct answer to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other modern AI chatbots.

The new Siri transforms Apple's aging voice assistant into a capable, AI-powered tool with several key improvements. It can access information on a user's device—emails, photos, and messages—and respond to what appears on screen, similar to modern-day AI chatbots grounded in world knowledge. The assistant is deeply integrated throughout the operating system: users can invoke it by saying "Hey Siri," pressing the side button, or swiping down from the Dynamic Island (the black bar at the top of the screen). It is also integrated into iPhone's Spotlight search engine, allowing it to answer almost any question. For the first time, Siri has its own stand-alone app, though this addition seems somewhat redundant given how deeply embedded it is throughout iOS.

The upgraded Siri rolls out across all Apple hardware: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, CarPlay, AirPods, Apple TV, and Vision Pro. Under the hood, Siri leverages Apple Intelligence, including Apple's new Foundation Models that run on-device and use Private Cloud Compute. Apple built these Foundation Models in collaboration with Google and its Gemini model—not as a rebranded version of Gemini, but as models specifically built for Apple Silicon using proprietary data and a distilled version of Gemini, a process that creates smaller, highly efficient models embedded in iOS and other Apple software. Private Cloud Compute ensures users' personal data is not stored or accessible to Apple.

Early testing of the developer version showed promise on everyday tasks. Siri handled photo searches in the Photo Library, text summarization, calendar appointments added via text, and nutritional lookups using the camera view. It also fielded web-search-type questions about local events and news better than before. However, testers encountered occasional errors: one query for news about Iran prompted Siri to search contacts instead. Despite these glitches, the developer betas have been relatively stable this year, making the public beta easier to recommend. Apple expects to launch iOS 27 in September, and users with devices that must run flawlessly may want to wait for the public release rather than install the beta.

Apple's Siri overhaul, officially announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, represents a fundamental shift in how the company's voice assistant works. The move from a largely command-based tool to a conversational AI system that can understand context—reading what is on screen, accessing personal data, grounding answers in world knowledge—positions Siri as a genuine competitor to modern AI chatbots. The decision to release a public beta first, before the fall launch, reflects confidence in the maturity of the technology and the desire to gather real-world feedback at scale.

Underlying this shift is Apple's Apple Intelligence framework and Foundation Models, which the company built specifically for Apple Silicon using proprietary data and a distilled version of Google's Gemini. This technical choice—distilling rather than rebranding—suggests Apple prioritized efficiency and on-device capability. The integration of Private Cloud Compute further addresses a key user concern: personal data remains private and inaccessible to Apple itself. Early testing showed mixed results: the assistant excelled at practical tasks like photo retrieval and calendar management but occasionally misunderstood queries or threw errors, a baseline most new AI tools show during beta.