Apple is giving Siri a major overhaul in iOS 27. The update, expected later this year, aims to improve personalization, strengthen privacy, and open the assistant to third-party developers through artificial intelligence. The company hasn't said when the developer beta will drop, but internal work is underway.
What the overhaul targets
Apple wants Siri to feel more personal without collecting more data. That means running more AI processing on the device itself, not in the cloud. The company is also working to let third-party apps hook into Siri more deeply — so a user could, say, ask Siri to book a ride or order coffee without leaving the assistant. The change relies on on-device machine learning, not on shipping user data to Apple's servers.
Privacy is a selling point. Apple has long promoted that it doesn't build user profiles from Siri queries. iOS 27 will double down on that. The assistant will learn preferences and routines locally. The phone, not Apple's cloud, will handle the model training.
Third-party innovation gets a push
Developers have complained for years that Siri is too locked down. iOS 27 aims to answer that. Apple plans to release new APIs that let third-party apps define custom intents. A delivery app could let Siri check the status of a package. A music app could start a playlist. The company is betting that more integrations will make Siri useful enough to compete with Alexa and Google Assistant.
Apple hasn't detailed which apps will get early access. But the company typically seeds new APIs at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
Why now
Apple is late to the AI assistant race. Siri launched in 2011. Competitors have added smart speakers, visual routines, and generative AI features. Apple's own AI efforts — like the Apple Intelligence suite — have been slow to roll out. The iOS 27 Siri overhaul is part of a broader push to catch up.
The company is also under pressure from regulators to open its platforms. A more flexible Siri could head off antitrust complaints about Apple's tight control over its ecosystem.
Apple has said nothing about a public beta. Developers and users will have to wait until June for details. The question hanging over the overhaul is whether it will deliver enough to change Siri's reputation.
