Publish date: Jun 9, 2025

Apple did announce significant updates to Siri at their WWDC 2024 conference, emphasizing a smarter and more capable Siri powered by their new Apple Intelligence platform. New Siri was presented as the central component of the advancing Intelligence, designed to better understand natural language, relevance and context personal to you. It was about time, Siri was getting a major update.

Even the first Siri announcement, in June 2024, made clear it was not actually ready to roll out, and would not be available with the release of iPhone 16 and iOS 18 in September, as would be expected. But the first small delay to December 2024, was pushed to Spring 2025, then Fall 2025, then to sometime in 2026.

Apple has released other Apple Intelligence features, including a version of ChatGPT connected to Siri, however they did not make up for the undelivered promises. In addition, the iPhone 16 and iOS 18 roll out was marred by glitches and bugs. Some of the issues have been resolved in software updates, but others persist for some users, including unresponsive touch screens, slow refresh, finicky Face ID, AirPods keep disconnecting. Accessibility issues include VoiceOver muting, cursor jumping and Speak Screen not speaking. Some problems are fixed with a reboot, temporarily, In some cases Apple Accessibility Support suggested turning off all Apple Intelligence in settings, for now.

On June 20, 2024 a class action lawsuit was filed against Apple by shareholders who allege the company misled them about the progress of its AI integration, particularly with Siri, resulting in financial losses. The lawsuit claims Apple exaggerated its AI developments, specifically related to Siri’s advancement, ultimately reducing iPhone sales and Apple’s stock price.

The post below was published following the original WWDC 2024 with a video preview of AI features to come. Apple has since removed that video from public access. Here’s a new video that highlights the Apple Intelligence features available now.

Siri, Accessibility & Apple Intelligence

Publish Date: June 27, 2024

Rumors of Siri’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. At the 2024 World Wide Developers Conference, Apple extended a golden life preserver to the iconic voice assistant, finally saving it from years of embarrassment and pledging to grant it a new respectable position. A mea culpa of sorts, if not to Siri, to loyal Siri users everywhere.  The Siri reboot is empowered by Apple Intelligence, including a partnership with ChatGPT. So yes there is a possibility Siri will go rogue, but let’s hope Apple has figured out how to keep it friendly. 

Siri has been a primary accessibility tool, for people with vision loss, since its 2011 launch on Apple iOS. The conventional wisdom was that iPhone users with vision loss would adopt the VoiceOver screen reader, many did, but many more did not. While on staff at the Lighthouse in New York, I encountered a steady stream of inquiries from visually impaired people, and their families, asking for “talking computers.”  It took some time before I realized they were not looking for technology that would talk “to” them, they wanted technology they could talk to.  We may be finally getting closer to a truly conversational and universally accessible solution. 

Maybe, having not rushed into the frenzy, Apple can avoid the pitfalls of competitors, including Google, Microsoft and Open AI itself. Still that is no guarantee of success, but we can wish them well.  At his conference keynote, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook said, “I’m excited that we’ll introduce profound new intelligence capabilities that will inspire developers, delight users and make our platforms more useful than ever.” 

According to Apple, the next generation Siri has a new design and is even more capable and integrated. 

• With a more extensive knowledge of your device settings, Siri will help you learn new features with step by step directions

• Richer language understanding, will help Siri be better able to decipher what it is your trying to say

• Siri will be able to update Contacts

• Describe a photo or message you’re looking for and Siri will find it

The official website says, Apple Intelligence is “Built into your iPhone, iPad and Mac to help you write, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly.” 

• Writing tools will proofread, edit and summarize

• Prioritize time sensitive emails and summarize long messages

• Record audio from Phone or Notes app and get summary of transcript

• Smart Reply generates suggested response to emails

• Create custom Genmoji images

A work in progress, Apple Intelligence is free for users, and will be available in beta as part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia this fall in U.S. English.