Apple Unveils Overhauled Siri Assistant in Apple Intelligence Update

Apple released the next generation of Apple Intelligence on September 14, 2026, introducing Siri AI, which the company describes as an entirely new version of its assistant. Siri AI begins rolling out in beta in English with Apple’s 2027 software releases, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish support to follow in October.

Personal Context, Onscreen Awareness, and App Actions

Apple said Siri AI draws on personal context understanding to surface information from a user’s messages, emails, and photos, and that it adds more systemwide app actions, such as drafting an email from scratch or editing and sharing a set of photos. In one Apple example, a user asking what a family member suggested doing during an upcoming visit would have Siri search the messages, find a mention of baking a family recipe together, pull the cooking instructions from an email the relative sent earlier, and add the ingredients to a grocery list in the Reminders app.

Siri already takes actions in third-party apps, such as texting a friend in WhatsApp or playing a book on Audible, and Apple said users will soon be able to ask Siri AI to draft an email in Microsoft Outlook, search for a homework assignment in Notability, or add a restaurant recommendation in Tripsy. With onscreen awareness, the company said, Siri AI can answer questions or act on content displayed on the screen, such as finding upcoming home games on a sports team’s website and adding them directly to the calendar. Apple also said the assistant uses broad world knowledge and information from across the web to deliver up-to-date answers on virtually any topic.

New Access Points, a Siri App, and AFM Core Advanced

Beyond the Hey Siri wake phrase, iPhone users can invoke the assistant with the side button or by swiping down from the Dynamic Island. On iPad and Mac, Siri AI is integrated into Spotlight and into systemwide context menus, so users can Control-click to ask about images, files, or text on their screen. On Apple Vision Pro, Siri appears as a 3D visualization that users can place anywhere in their space and invoke by looking at it and starting to speak. Users can extend almost any response into a longer conversation with follow-up questions, and an all-new dedicated Siri app uses iCloud to privately sync conversation history across iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. A footnote in the announcement states Siri AI is not available for users under 13.

Apple said the assistant offers more expressive voices with adjustable expressiveness and pace, plus improved systemwide dictation that automatically handles capitalization, punctuation, and formatting as the user speaks. Those features run on products supporting AFM Core Advanced, which Apple calls its most advanced on-device model ever: iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, iPad models with M4 or later and at least 12GB of unified memory, Mac models with M3 or later and at least 12GB, and Apple Vision Pro with M5.

Visual Intelligence and Writing Tools

Visual Intelligence, Apple’s image-understanding capability, expands from iPhone to iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro. On iPhone it is built into the Camera app through a new Siri mode; Apple gave the example of a user looking at a music festival poster, asking for an artist’s set times, and having Siri automatically create multiple calendar events for the weekend. On iPad the capability works inside the screenshot experience, on Mac through a dedicated keyboard shortcut, and on Vision Pro users can ask about app windows or physical objects simply by looking at them.

Integrated Writing Tools let users describe what they need and have Siri generate a draft from scratch, or describe a change and have Siri update existing text. In Mail and Messages, Apple said, Siri can reflect how a user usually communicates with each recipient, including the punctuation and tone they typically use. Apple Intelligence also now proofreads automatically as users type across the system, including within most third-party apps.

Apple Intelligence Across Apple’s Apps

In Photos, a Spatial Reframing tool adjusts a photo’s camera perspective after it was taken, an Extend tool expands the frame, and Apple said the Clean Up tool removes distractions with better quality and more realistic infill. Image Playground runs on a new generative model on Private Cloud Compute and can now create photorealistic imagery; image generation also extends into the Siri app, and Apple plans support for the SynthID standard for identifying AI-generated or edited images in a software update later in 2026.

Safari can automatically organize tabs into topics, notify users of website changes such as product restocks or price drops through a Notify Me feature, and create custom extensions from a user’s description. Elsewhere, Smart Reply in Mail and Messages can draw on a user’s personalized writing style, Mail Suggestions can take actions with third-party apps, Call Context in Phone surfaces items like confirmation codes during business calls, Calendar accepts event additions and edits by simple description, Shortcuts builds automations from described goals, and the Home app groups related notifications into single activities, generates descriptions across sequences of video clips, and searches clips across multiple cameras, with a home hub and an eligible iCloud+ plan required.

Audio Intelligence on Apple Watch and a Health Redesign

Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, powered by the S11 chip, add a set of features Apple calls Audio Intelligence. Sound Recognition alerts users who are deaf or hard of hearing to sounds like sirens, alarms, doorbells, or a baby crying, even when their iPhone is not with them. Live Rewind shows the previous 15 seconds of a conversation as a text snippet after a double press of the Digital Crown, and Siri Recap automatically generates a title and key points from a conversation in the new Siri app. A faster Shazam displays song title and artist on the Music Recognition widget in the Smart Stack.

Apple said the S11 chip’s Secure Exclave, a hardware-isolated compartment, processes audio in complete isolation from the rest of the system and immediately deletes it, and that the features create and store no recordings, do not identify speakers, and keep raw audio inaccessible to the operating system, apps, the user, and Apple. Siri Recap produces high-level summaries rather than transcripts and is designed to exclude sensitive information such as financial details or government-assigned identifiers, while Live Rewind plays an audible chime and shows a full-display animation and microphone indicator when activated. Snippets and summaries are end-to-end encrypted, and each feature is opt-in. Live Rewind and Siri Recap arrive in beta in late 2026 in English, require an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone 16 or later excluding iPhone 16e, and will not initially be available in the EU.

The Health app receives a redesign with an Insights tab carrying a generated summary of a user’s most timely metrics and personalized guidance, plus a Longevity tab with Health Age, an Apple Watch feature Apple said shows how certain metrics are tracking relative to a user’s age. The new health capabilities arrive later in 2026.

Foundation Models, Availability, and Usage Limits

Apple said the new capabilities are powered by the next generation of Apple Foundation Models, custom-built in collaboration with Google and its Gemini models, running on device and on servers through Private Cloud Compute. The company said Private Cloud Compute does not store users’ personal data or make it accessible to Apple, and that outside experts can verify that privacy design at any time. Siri AI also uses a system orchestrator that taps the on-device Spotlight index and App Toolbox.

The Apple Intelligence features ship in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27 on iPhone 16 or later, iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, iPad mini with A17 Pro, iPad and Mac models with M1 or later, MacBook Neo with A18 Pro, Apple Vision Pro, and recent Apple Watch models paired with an enabled iPhone. Siri AI will not initially be available in the EU on iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS, and features that rely on it will also be unavailable there; Apple said it is working to find a path forward that preserves users’ privacy and security. Siri AI and the other new Apple Intelligence features will also not be available in China while Apple works through regulatory requirements.

Server-side features, including Siri AI, intelligent photo editing tools, Image Playground, and the AFM 3 Cloud models in Shortcuts, carry daily usage limits that Apple said can vary by feature, request complexity, system demand, and other factors. The company said expanded access to those features will be available for a fee in the future.