Siri AI Hands On: A Smart, Helpful Assistant

Fresh Start

The evolution of Siri is striking, even in this nascent iteration. Whereas before Siri was a more limited, isolated experience, it’s now merged into the iPhone search bar and pops up if you swipe down in the middle of your screen. You can chat conversationally with it or swipe down on Siri’s answers to text any follow-up questions. These back-and-forths are stored in a dedicated app, so you can return to past conversations.

I quickly found that Siri AI’s bite-sized replies don’t drone on endlessly like many contemporary AI assistants, often sticking to a single paragraph. When I verbally asked for a nice beach hike route to see the sunrise near the Golden Gate Bridge, it succinctly recommended a popular trail in the Presidio neighborhood as well as an option in the Marin Headlands. Siri bolded key words in the text answer that appeared alongside the audible response for easy scanning. Since I wanted more info before heading out, I swiped down on the text answer to read additional details about each option.

Apple’s partnership with Google is a core driver behind this Siri overhaul. Google’s Gemini now helps power the voice assistant’s underlying model, Apple Intelligence. Siri’s output with this new model felt more attuned to what I was looking for, rather than just suggesting a couple of website links for me to dig through. When I asked generic questions, like “What should I do today,” Siri combed through my recent messages and highlighted recent plans I started discussing with friends but never finalized.

Another key aspect of Siri AI is hyper-personalization based on what you have on your device, whether that data is in your photos or messages. It also doesn’t keep you locked into Apple-only services; when I asked Siri to draft a text, the voice assistant confirmed if I wanted to send it through Apple’s Messages or Meta’s Messenger service.

This style of AI search requires Siri to index your phone, which means scanning and cataloging its data for easy reference. When I updated my iPhone to the developer beta for iOS 27, it took a little over a week for the device to fully index.

At WWDC 2026, Apple repeatedly referenced its privacy-preserving approach to Siri AI. As part of the company’s Private Cloud Compute, Apple claims it doesn’t store data from users and only pulls from it when you ask Siri a question. Similar to the previous version of Apple’s assistant, users who aren’t interested can turn off Siri AI in their settings.

I tested Siri AI on an iPhone 16 Pro Max, which will have many but not all of Siri AI’s features. Based on what’s been publicly released, only the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and the iPhone 17 Max will have all the fixings, like more varied voice options. As for the rest of the lineup:

• Every iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 model will be able to run the new Siri.
• Only the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will be compatible.
• Older models will not support this voice assistant.

Siri, Let’s Take a Hike

Like any good tourist, I started my morning off with a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge, where there are plenty of nearby hiking trails to wander around and soak up the views. Since Siri AI is also integrated with the iPhone’s camera app, I decided to open it up and snap a quick photo of the foggy path ahead of me to see how Siri would respond. I didn’t ask Siri any questions; I just showed it a snapshot of what I saw at the moment, and the AI tool responded with a short history of the Cypress Tree Tunnel located at Point Reyes National Seashore. Siri was right to clock the Monterey cypress trees. But the tunnel it referenced is an hour drive from where I was, potentially confusing for someone not familiar with the area.

Despite this apparent flub, the more I chatted with Siri while walking around, the more impressed I was at other functions, like helping uncover images from past adventures hidden among the thousands of photos in my camera roll. For example, when I asked Siri to find the photos from the last time I went to Costa Rica, it found everything from two years ago and displayed the images in the Siri app. Good times.

There are still rough edges in this early beta. When I asked Siri AI for photos from my camera roll of when I got hot pot with my friends, it pulled up multiple images of us all enjoying wagyu beef, which is what I was hoping to find. But it also pulled up images of us in a hot tub on vacation.

Siri, Now I’m Hungry

And then came the fluffy pancakes. Siri AI actually showed me two options for brunch, with online reviews and map directions for each. Siri highlighted one spot as the best for standard brunch with cozy vibes and another option as a more retro-inspired experience. I went with cozy vibes over anything else. (Its recommended spot was decent, even if the price was outrageous. Not Siri’s fault.)

On my way to the restaurant I pulled out my phone and asked Siri to take a selfie, to test its automation chops. It opened the camera app, gave a quick countdown, and then snapped a shot with the front camera. After I reviewed the image in the photos app, I asked Siri to text it to my partner Sam saying that I was about to eat too many pancakes, with a skull emoji at the end of the message.

I had to try this a few times before Siri got it right. It always did a great job finding the contact info for Sam and getting a draft started. Even so, it was overly literal with the dictation and included “with a” before the skull emoji. On one attempt it used a school emoji. And once, it asked if I would like to send this to Sam as well as Adam. To set the record straight, I only have one partner and don’t regularly text with anyone named Adam. (No offense to the Adams out there.)

Siri, It’s Sea Lion Time

I was so stuffed with carbs by this point that I was starting to feel like the sea lions at Fisherman’s Wharf. So, why not go see them next? I know that the number of animals hanging out on the floating docks ebb and flow during the different seasons, so I asked Siri whether it’d be worth going this time of year. Siri AI responded that it’s currently the off season, but I would still see some if I decided to go.

At Fisherman’s Wharf, I bobbed around the tourists trying to get glimpses of the sea lions. I kept chatting with Siri as I stared at the animals, which were-as promised-fewer than average but still noisy as ever. I asked questions about when this dock was built as well as for more sea lions facts. Siri was accurate and brought in context from Wikipedia and the official Fisherman’s Wharf website, with links I could click to dive deeper.

I only scratched the surface of what Siri AI can do by taking it on this San Francisco tourist route. Even so, I left feeling like Apple is actually starting to deliver on its promises about a new voice assistant. Finally.

In standard Apple fashion, the software looks stunning, sure, but it was the utilitarian vibe of Siri AI that felt like the biggest differentiator. It didn’t seem like this new Siri was trying to be my synthetic friend or say whatever I wanted to hear. Instead, Siri feels like a direct, straightforward assistant, who’s happy to be there but also not playing around.

Apple’s vision for Siri places it at the center of your smartphone experience, though it’s not limited to mobile. Siri AI will be integrated with most Apple devices, like iPads and MacBooks as well as Apple watches and the Vision Pro, for the handful of readers who actually own one.

Siri AI is the next-generation voice assistant that Apple has long promised customers. Unlike the ChatGPT or Claude app, Siri AI is woven right into the iPhone, so it’s even more ready to go beyond answering questions and start automating more aspects of the user experience. Despite that convenience, I’m curious if iPhone owners will break their current smartphone usage patterns and really reimagine their daily habits with Siri AI when it finally lands in their pockets. I’m sure going to try.