GoKawiilis a technology reporter who has been covering the industry since 2007. He co-hosts the Waveform podcast with MKBHD. A former engineer, he now specializes in topics like computational photography and social media protocols.
iOS 27 escaped the developer world today with the launch of the first public beta. I’ve been testing the new operating system since early June, looking for quirks and seeing if it can live up to the hype Apple promised in the keynote.
This year’s iOS upgrades are what one might call a Snow Leopard update. That means it’s light on new features and instead focused on fixing things that were broken and speeding up processes across the OS. App launches, Photos search results, and AirDrop transfers should all be faster. The Messages app now supports in-line replies and end-to-end encryption for RCS messages. Liquid Glass has gotten more refined, with better legibility around hard edges and text. These are all wonderful updates, particularly for those who have aging iPhones. But by far the biggest and most anticipated change in this update is that Apple finally, actually for real shipped the revamped Siri AI, in the form of an opt-in beta program. And this time, I think Apple might have actually done it. Or at least it finally laid the foundation for a successful version of Siri.
Last week, I was trying to decide if I had time to go to a free concert in the city. The show was four hours long with three acts, and I only really wanted to see one. I couldn’t find the order the bands were performing on the event page, which meant this was a perfect opportunity to pressure-test Siri AI. So I swiped down from the top of the screen and asked, “What order are the bands playing in?” Siri spun its new little wheel for a few seconds, then correctly told me the information I was hoping for: The band I wanted to see was playing last.
It’s practically stopped me from opening my browser for most things
The promise of the new Siri AI is to change the way you use your phone. Before, you went to an app and told the app what you wanted to do (call a car, set a timer, order lunch); now, you say what you want to do first, and Siri AI tries to look through all the apps and information available to it to handle the rest. So when I asked about the concert, Siri looked at what was on the webpage, then searched the web, found the answer, and presented it to me. I didn’t need to jump around browser tabs or look at the band’s Instagram page; it was just there.
In the month I’ve been using Siri AI, it’s surprised me in tons of different ways. On my first day testing the beta during Apple’s dev conference, I was able to ask “Can you add my WWDC briefings to my calendar?” and Siri looked in my email, parsed the data, and added six individual events with correct times to my calendar. I’ll note, it could only add it to my Apple calendar, but I’ll get to why shortly.
These interactions have genuinely altered my brain chemistry a bit. Now, I almost always try to use Siri first, just to see if it can perform the action I need or answer a simple question. It’s practically stopped me from opening my browser for most things, since it’s easier, faster, and more enjoyable to just swipe down from the top of the screen and type a prompt.
Onscreen awareness has probably been the most helpful addition for me. Being able to ask Siri about what’s on my screen saves me a lot of tapping around. When it’s able to take action from that onscreen awareness, like adding an event to my calendar or directing me to an address on my screen, it’s even better.
More often than I’ve expected, Siri is able to do what I ask it to, and when it performs a somewhat complex task, it feels like magic. But when it hits a wall, I’m reminded of why it’s going to take a bit of work to get to the “it just works” universe where Siri not working is the exception, not the norm.
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