Siri is superpowered with Apple Intelligence

AppleInsider

Apple Intelligence makes Siri much more powerful, as it can understand the user given specific contexts, even if they stumble over their words.


Siri gets upgraded with Apple Intelligence

Siri has been the butt of the joke for years as it fell behind in the smart assistant race. Apple hopes to correct this trajectory by integrating Apple Intelligence throughout.

If you've been keeping up with WWDC news via AppleInsider, you'll note we shared all of these features ahead of the event.

Apple has built Siri to be more present throughout the operating system, acting as a true intelligent assistant that understands data from Messages, Mail, Photos, and any system app. For example, make plans by requesting a rescheduled meeting that takes into account data from Calendar, a planned movie date in Messages, and other system information.

Siri can understand the user better by understanding when mistakes are made in speech. This is especially important when dealing with accents or disabilities affecting speech.

The new Siri is built with the same technologies powering Apple Intelligence. It prioritizes privacy even with intimate access to user data, photos, and messages.

Siri can control functions across system apps. Like toggling features or opening apps to specific files.

Apps with Apple Intelligence Siri support:

• Books


• Calendar


• Camera


• Contacts


• Files


• Freeform


• Keynote


• Mail


• Magnifier


• News


• Notes


• Photos


• Reminders


• Safari


• Stocks


• Settings


• Voice Memos

Apple introduced the upgraded Siri as a part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. It will launch alongside the new operating systems in the fall.



Read on AppleInsider

MacPro

The dream comes true!

radarthekat

The intersection of technology and humanity.  Steve’s vision is on the cusp of becoming reality.  

SnickersMagoo

I thought Siri was also to have better assistance on Music selection?   But MUSIC was a not in the list of Siri improvements...

omasou

I really like the new Siri glow around the iPhone screen instead of the glowing sphere.

teflondon

SnickersMagoo said:

I thought Siri was also to have better assistance on Music selection?   But MUSIC was a not in the list of Siri improvements...

I was thinking the same thing! No mention of Apple Music

dasjetta

Homekit is the redhead step child as usual. 

indieshack

Notably no Apple Music, where it’s really needed

mpantone

It's notable that Craig mentioned that there would be additional Apple Intelligence features coming later.

Guys, this is not the final state of Apple Intelligence. This is just the beginning in the same way that many of Apple's other services and features have evolved.

Apple has a long and distinguished track record of not just dumping a load on the consumer's doorstep, wiping off their hands, and walking away saying "we're done here."

Anyone who believes there will be no additions or improvements to Apple's GenAI efforts is insane.

Apple is not capable of delivering everything everyone could ever want right now. Nor can anyone else. Patience is a virtue, you need to learn to crawl before you can walk. I really don't know why some people seem to have difficulty understanding this.

mpw_amherst

Will this be coming to Apple TV and HomePod? And if so, will it be on the original HomePods too? Guessing not if it requires A17 or M1 yet the HomePods could really do with a Siri upgrade. 

mpantone

mpw_amherst said:

Will this be coming to Apple TV and HomePod? And if so, will it be on the original HomePods too? Guessing not if it requires A17 or M1 yet the HomePods could really do with a Siri upgrade. 

Probably not if Apple is using the SoC as a limiting factor. My guess is that Apple has already tested many of these functions in their own labs on a wide variety of devices from different years running different SoCs.

Remember that the SoCs don't just differ by core counts or clock cycles. There are memory considerations, bandwidth considerations, etc. Even older A-series devices are getting shut out including the fairly recent iPhone 14 generation (there are plenty of those devices still around).

Everything will function the same tomorrow as they did yesterday. But if you want the newer functionality, you'll need to upgrade whether you think it's "fair" or not.

If you have owned Apple hardware devices more than a year, you should be familiar Apple's modus operandii about such matters.

mpw_amherst

mpantone said:

mpw_amherst said:

Will this be coming to Apple TV and HomePod? And if so, will it be on the original HomePods too? Guessing not if it requires A17 or M1 yet the HomePods could really do with a Siri upgrade. 

Probably not if Apple is using the SoC as a limiting factor. My guess is that Apple has already tested many of these functions in their own labs on a wide variety of devices from different years running different SoCs.

Remember that the SoCs don't just differ by core counts or clock cycles. There are memory considerations, bandwidth considerations, etc. Even older A-series devices are getting shut out including the fairly recent iPhone 14 generation (there are plenty of those devices still around).

Everything will function the same tomorrow as they did yesterday. But if you want the newer functionality, you'll need to upgrade whether you think it's "fair" or not.

If you have owned Apple hardware devices more than a year, you should be familiar Apple's modus operandii about such matters.

I’ve been with Apple since the Performa days. But I am still interested as to what kind of upgrade if any - Siri will get on HomePods, given it’s the only means of interacting with them. 

blitz1

I'd just be happy if I don't have to repeat my basic commands like "Call " 25 times before it understands me

mpantone

mpw_amherst said:

mpantone said:

mpw_amherst said:

Will this be coming to Apple TV and HomePod? And if so, will it be on the original HomePods too? Guessing not if it requires A17 or M1 yet the HomePods could really do with a Siri upgrade. 

Probably not if Apple is using the SoC as a limiting factor. My guess is that Apple has already tested many of these functions in their own labs on a wide variety of devices from different years running different SoCs.

Remember that the SoCs don't just differ by core counts or clock cycles. There are memory considerations, bandwidth considerations, etc. Even older A-series devices are getting shut out including the fairly recent iPhone 14 generation (there are plenty of those devices still around).

Everything will function the same tomorrow as they did yesterday. But if you want the newer functionality, you'll need to upgrade whether you think it's "fair" or not.

If you have owned Apple hardware devices more than a year, you should be familiar Apple's modus operandii about such matters.

I’ve been with Apple since the Performa days. But I am still interested as to what kind of upgrade if any - Siri will get on HomePods, given it’s the only means of interacting with them. 

My guess is one of the HomePod OS technical sessions in this year's WWDC will go over Siri changes. Remember that the WWDC Monday morning keynote is a very high-level marketing presentation. They don't delve into the minutiae of which feature will be available on which device.

As for porting new Siri functionality to HomePod, it's not Apple's top priority. Even in 2024 50% of their revenue comes from iPhone hardware sales, that's the driving force for innovation.

I've been with Apple since before Macs. Based on my own experience with the company, they will add no additional Siri functionality to the existing HomePod products. Future products that have a compatible SoC may have newer Siri capabilities but in any case they didn't even discuss Siri and Music. I assume Siri+Music improvements are coming. What no one but Apple knows is when.

You will have to be patient about improvements to HomePod OS.

A far more pressing topic for Apple is how to implement AI functionality on Apple Watch whose silicon is extremely limited in performance. Will AI processing be done on a paired phone (or maybe a nearby paired Mac) instead? That creates latency.

Let's face it, HomePod is pretty far down the hierarchy of Apple product families in terms of overall importance and adoption. My guess is it's also low margin. While I've never owned one, I'm not even sure if I'd call HomePod a smart speaker. It's more like a regular speaker with a microphone attached.

In this morning's keynote Apple did not cover usage scenarios that could (eventually) be handled by offloading AI processing loads to a suitable Mac nearby. This would allow them to put lower-specced (and cheaper) SoCs in devices like Apple TV, HomePod, AirPods (and other future wearables). My gut feeling is that we are a year or two away from Apple devising an approach that would make this a reality. Clearly Apple can't put an A17 or M4 SoC in an Apple Watch.

stoneyg

mpw_amherst said:

Will this be coming to Apple TV and HomePod? And if so, will it be on the original HomePods too? Guessing not if it requires A17 or M1 yet the HomePods could really do with a Siri upgrade. 

Couldn't they both rely on the Apple Private Cloud by default to process requests since they can't do any on-device processing? Or did I miss something in the Keynote that would limit that as a possibility?

chasm

SnickersMagoo said:

I thought Siri was also to have better assistance on Music selection?   But MUSIC was a not in the list of Siri improvements...

As far as I can tell, Siri commands to Apple Music are flawless. I ask it to play a genre of music, it does. I ask it to play a song by artist, it does. I ask it to play one of my playlists, it does. Ask it to play random favourites, and it does.

The only tricky bit I have to deal with is having Siri play radio stations on other services, such as my old college station which is on TuneIn. You have to VERY SPECIFICALLY say “Siri, play [call letters enunciated] radio on TuneIn.” Then it gets it right.

mpantone

chasm said:

SnickersMagoo said:

I thought Siri was also to have better assistance on Music selection?   But MUSIC was a not in the list of Siri improvements...

As far as I can tell, Siri commands to Apple Music are flawless. I ask it to play a genre of music, it does. I ask it to play a song by artist, it does. I ask it to play one of my playlists, it does. Ask it to play random favourites, and it does.

The only tricky bit I have to deal with is having Siri play radio stations on other services, such as my old college station which is on TuneIn. You have to VERY SPECIFICALLY say “Siri, play [call letters enunciated] radio on TuneIn.” Then it gets it right.

Apple Music -- like all streaming music services -- still struggles in handling classical music. Things like works performed by the same artist (e.g., Mozart piano sonata), works with multiple movements, operas that are split into "pieces" that are often just a starting fragment of the first lyrics. Even the dedicated Apple Classical Music service often comes up way short.

As far as I know, no one who is a serious classical music listener can rely on Siri (or any other assistant) to get the navigation correct here in 2024. Let's hope that Siri with some AI assistance can improve.

It's worth pointing out that Siri + Apple Intelligence still only recognizes American English. Well, a lot of opera is in languages other than English. So if I -- a native English speaker -- butcher the pronunciation of an opera aria  "Siri, play 'O KonÏg! Das kann ich dir nicht sagen'", it'll be a freakin' miracle if the right song is played. And I have multiple recordings of Tristan und Isolde in my music library. Will it know which one to play?

I would love to be able to say "Hey Siri, play that Wagner piece when that knight gets stabbed." Not sure we're there yet. I would love when someone will inform me that I am wrong.

d_2

blitz1 said:

I'd just be happy if I don't have to repeat my basic commands like "Call " 25 times before it understands me

And I would be happy if when replying to an email via Siri, it would see that the message came from Erin and not transcribe my Siri reply note with “Hi Aaron”

radarthekat

mpantone said:

chasm said:

SnickersMagoo said:

I thought Siri was also to have better assistance on Music selection?   But MUSIC was a not in the list of Siri improvements...

As far as I can tell, Siri commands to Apple Music are flawless. I ask it to play a genre of music, it does. I ask it to play a song by artist, it does. I ask it to play one of my playlists, it does. Ask it to play random favourites, and it does.

The only tricky bit I have to deal with is having Siri play radio stations on other services, such as my old college station which is on TuneIn. You have to VERY SPECIFICALLY say “Siri, play [call letters enunciated] radio on TuneIn.” Then it gets it right.

Apple Music -- like all streaming music services -- still struggles in handling classical music. Things like works performed by the same artist (e.g., Mozart piano sonata), works with multiple movements, operas that are split into "pieces" that are often just a starting fragment of the first lyrics. Even the dedicated Apple Classical Music service often comes up way short.

As far as I know, no one who is a serious classical music listener can rely on Siri (or any other assistant) to get the navigation correct here in 2024. Let's hope that Siri with some AI assistance can improve.

It's worth pointing out that Siri + Apple Intelligence still only recognizes American English. Well, a lot of opera is in languages other than English. So if I -- a native English speaker -- butcher the pronunciation of an opera aria  "Siri, play 'O KonÏg! Das kann ich dir nicht sagen'", it'll be a freakin' miracle if the right song is played. And I have multiple recordings of Tristan und Isolde in my music library. Will it know which one to play?

I would love to be able to say "Hey Siri, play that Wagner piece when that knight gets stabbed." Not sure we're there yet. I would love when someone will inform me that I am wrong.

One can imagine, in a world with 2 billion+ active Apple devices (meaning covering the vast common denominator demographic) how low this would be on Apple’s priority list.  Not saying it wouldn’t be nice to cover this capability, but there’s bigger fish to fry in the race to remain relevant among other tech giants competing for customers.

13485

mpantone said:

Apple Music -- like all streaming music services -- still struggles in handling classical music. Things like works performed by the same artist (e.g., Mozart piano sonata), works with multiple movements, operas that are split into "pieces" that are often just a starting fragment of the first lyrics. Even the dedicated Apple Classical Music service often comes up way short.

As far as I know, no one who is a serious classical music listener can rely on Siri (or any other assistant) to get the navigation correct here in 2024. Let's hope that Siri with some AI assistance can improve.

It's worth pointing out that Siri + Apple Intelligence still only recognizes American English. Well, a lot of opera is in languages other than English. So if I -- a native English speaker -- butcher the pronunciation of an opera aria  "Siri, play 'O KonÏg! Das kann ich dir nicht sagen'", it'll be a freakin' miracle if the right song is played. And I have multiple recordings of Tristan und Isolde in my music library. Will it know which one to play?

I would love to be able to say "Hey Siri, play that Wagner piece when that knight gets stabbed." Not sure we're there yet. I would love when someone will inform me that I am wrong.

I understand what you want, but it is not an easy task. I think the issue is that, first and foremost, you have to be more specific when referencing one of multiple portions of a work. And it's one thing to have Siri play the correct piece, but to also know the entire plot in detail so that it is understood "when the knight gets stabbed" without a specific textual reference in the databank is quite another thing. Maybe it's doable in the near future, we'll see.

BTW, that's "O König..." I would have 3 points taken off my German score in the old days. Doesn't matter in your context.

edK

It's been a year now since Apple announced Siri ability to interact with Health data, unfortunately it was only launched with US and Chinese based language. As at this moment many other countries (Europe, Canada, Indonesia etc) are still out of luck. Hopefully this upcoming enhanced Siri will be available to all users without boundaries, in the meantime I shall wait patiently for the interaction Apple promised a year ago.