Smarter Siri: You still have to wait for these functions
The voice assistant, which currently still annoys many users, is set to improve significantly. Some of this can be seen with iOS 18.1, some not.
Siri and iOS 18.1.
(Image: Apple)
Testers of the developer betas of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 and macOS 15.1 report improvements to Apple's Siri. After activating Apple Intelligence - which unfortunately only works with macOS within the EU – the voice assistant is much more intelligible than before. The system can now respond to the context of previous questions and answers, has a database with support information for Apple products, also understands when a query has been rephrased or briefly interrupted and is generally much more helpful. Previously, it was often necessary to know the exact commands to avoid being rejected or redirected to the web. However, not all Apple Intelligence functions have yet been implemented for Siri. Some of the most exciting new features will probably have to wait for months.
Personal context is missing
It is already possible to control apps for certain functions via Siri - such as setting an alarm or making a phone call, as has long been the case. However, the new "App Intents", which open Siri for numerous external programs, will come later. This also has to do with the fact that developers have to implement them first. The personal context has not yet been released. Siri is supposed to infer this from the content on the device.
For example, you can ask when a loved one is landing at the airport, which in turn is extracted from existing emails or iMessage messages. Mind you, all of this happens "on device", without Apple being able to view the data. The option for Siri to read the screen content and draw conclusions from it is still not implemented. It should be possible to ask specific questions about what is currently visible on the screen. Finally, the beta also lacks the use of ChatGPT as an alternative language model.
Apparently, before the end of the year
Apple appears to be planning to release many of the missing Siri features before the end of the year. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, this applies to the ChatGPT integration, for example, but also to the aforementioned personal context. However, in-app functions are not expected to arrive until 2025, as are language versions outside of US English.
Nevertheless, Apple seems to be making better progress with Apple Intelligence than previously thought. Although the beta was only released at the end of July, many features such as the "Writing Tools" already seem to work reasonably well - which is good for a wholly new language model. However, other announced features such as an image generator ("Image Playground") or the creation of AI emojis are still missing from the first beta.
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