Smarter Siri: Will Apple take longer than hoped?
Apple users have been waiting years for a smarter voice assistant. It should start with iOS 18.4. But it may take even longer.
Siri with Apple Intelligence: So far, the voice assistant can't do much more than before.
(Image: Apple)
Having real conversations with Siri? This is currently only possible if you use Apple's voice assistant to call up ChatGPT. Apple has postponed various new Siri features as part of Apple Intelligence to later versions of its operating systems. Observers currently assume that this will be the case with iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4. However, there appear to be internal difficulties, as reported by the financial news agency Bloomberg. The report states that the "AI overhaul" for Siri has run into "bugs that could lead to potential delays". One indication of this is the fact that Apple has still not released any beta versions of the new operating systems – on iPhone, iPad or Mac.
Practical new functions announced
The new Siri features were actually planned for April – to coincide with the rollout of Apple Intelligence in other languages. The new features include on-screen awareness, which will enable Siri to read screen content for the first time. This would allow users to interact with apps more directly via the voice assistant.
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"Personal Context" is also planned for Siri: This means that the voice assistant knows the user better and can respond to questions such as when/if a certain person mentioned an appointment in an iMessage message, for example, or when you first had contact with another person. Apple had even launched a television advertising campaign for the features.
Postponement to May conceivable
According to Bloomberg, it is now possible that the two functions will not be delivered until iOS/iPadOS 18.5 or macOS 15.5. Informed persons have hinted at this. "Apple is now considering postponing at least part of the overhaul to iOS 18.5 or initially only offering it on a limited basis," the report says. However, these updates are not expected before May.
But even with Personal Context and on-screen awareness, the new Siri is still far from perfect: it will still not be able to be operated like a chatbot in the style of ChatGPT. Apple is only planning such a "generative" Siri ("LLM Siri") with iOS 19, which is expected to be presented for the first time in the summer, but will not be available on devices until the fall.
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