Apple's Overhauling of Siri & Addition of AI Features oin iOS 27

Hinzugefügt: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]This is Twit.

[00:00:02]>> This morning, uh, I saw something fly through by way of a notification in Discord and then I said, "That seems interesting. Let me go back to sleep."

[00:00:15]Then later, >> that's your standard operating procedure. I understand.

[00:00:18]>> Absolutely. Later, I woke up and then read some more about it. And I am looking forward to hearing your take.

[00:00:24]So, let's get into our stories of the week.

[00:00:30]Shall I take you first?

[00:00:31]>> I will go first. I was gonna I didn't want to be rude, but here we go.

[00:00:36]>> That was very kind of you.

[00:00:37]>> Um, yeah. So, my story of this week is a story from Mark German over at Bloomberg uh with another Apple scoop. Um, you know, German has been talking a lot about these features coming up at the Worldwide Developer Conference that might be unveiled as part of these 27-year updates. and he is back with some more information about the revamps to Siri among other things in iOS 27.

[00:01:00]Now, we've taken it a step further this time because uh Bloomberg has also put together renders of what this supposed interface will look like based on quote information viewed by Bloomberg and people with knowledge of the company's plans who ask not to be identified because the software isn't public yet.

[00:01:17]Um, now Bloomberg also caveats this heavily by saying things like, "Well, a lot of times they test lots of different designs internally. The final version could look different than this. This is based on what we've heard." So, as always, take this with a bit of, you know, salt.

[00:01:33]>> Do we think really quickly before we get if if German was operating independently, >> do you think there would be as many caveats as there are in this article?

[00:01:46]You think that's that's I know this is complete speculation but I am just curious sort of there's there seems to be so many of these and we don't typically get this many if we're reading you know 9 to5 Mac or or uh Mac rumors or another one of these sort of more Apple focused sites where it's sort of I would argue kind of uh built in that you just know uh it's very possible that this might not be the final version.

[00:02:12]>> Yeah. I mean, Bloomberg has a reputation to upheld, even though they themselves have taken some sh flak over the years for things like, of course, they had that famous big hack story from many years ago where they claimed that these computers motherboards had been tampered with and it was kind of denied and shot down, but they never retracted or corrected the story in any way. So, it's not to say that they don't have their own challenges as well, but I think in this case, it's also just an acknowledgement of the fact that lots can happen behind the scenes. Um, and even before I had gone through and read the entire story, you know, I had some skepticism like these aren't screenshots, right? These are not screenshots of a phone running this uh a thing that other people have gotten in trouble for. Um, these are descriptions that then were turned into rendered art.

[00:03:00]So, even if they are broadly speaking close to what it might look like, the actual details may not be quite the same for a variety of reasons. Um, so what exactly do we see here? Well, uh, Siri has been relocated to the dynamic island in the latest iPhones. U, basically, you'll be able to summon it as you always do with a button or with a wake word. Um, it will then sort of pop up and you will have the ability to ask it queries. Um, one thing that he also reports is that you'll be able to swipe down from the top center of the iPhone anywhere in the system for a new interface which lets you search or ask.

[00:03:42]Um, which is not dissimilar from the visual intelligence feature that we saw Apple roll out both a couple years ago and then more recently with screenshots last year. Um, search generally being a pass through to your search engine of choice by default. Google Ask generally being a way to kick it to an AI such as chat GBT. Now this year we're expecting a little more builtin support for intelligence, you know, via Apple's partnership with Google using the Gemini models, but it's also suggested from this that there will be the abil ability to basically hook into various third-party AI models whether it's OpenAI or Claude or Gemini. So that's a part of this as well. Um, there will also be the ability to like have a chatbot style conversation right inside the standalone Siri app. Um, and that'll much like some of the other AI apps we've interacted with will store your chats and you'll have sort of the ability to go back to a specific thread or topic that you were talking about.

[00:04:40]We've heard this in the past also described as kind of like a messages style interface. That's not quite what this looks like here, but it certainly has that sort of idea that it will be broken down into discrete sections rather than just sort of one long ongoing conversation.

[00:04:55]Um, so you know, there are a lot of things in this that we kind of get slight ideas for how stuff is shaping up. I think putting stuff in the dynamic island is probably really smart.

[00:05:08]Obviously, Apple's put more and more stuff there over the years and it's a big part of what is going to, you know, be sort of front front and center for a big new feature like this. Um, but you know, obviously the big question is still going to be how well does it work?

[00:05:25]Uh, and how much will people end up using it? Um because for example, Mark German also talks about Siri being integrated directly into the camera with an interface that actually sounds very similar to what you get with visual intelligence right now, which is kind of siloed off into its own thing. And of course, the camera is a super prominent app on iOS. This would potentially expose it to way more users, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they'll use it. And in fact, some people may be annoyed if this thing is always there and isn't working well. So I think there's still some challenges to remain you know in terms of actually adopting all these things. Um and then one thing I was kind of struck by I mean and this is sort of a broader point about >> the how important is this to Apple right we've seen a narrative obviously that they're behind on AI. It's hard to deny that they have slipped up in the past.

[00:06:14]They've promised features they haven't been able to deliver. And of course you've seen a lot more development from you know the big AI companies. One thing I noticed they they posted on Bloomberg a uh you know a video and during the part where they talk about well it's like oh you know it's falling behind Open AI and it's falling behind Claude and Gemini and I I couldn't help but notice that both the like B-roll it uses for talking about Claude and the B-roll it uses for talking about Open AI I believe show them running on iPhones >> and it's like all right so you know those services are great but you need a device to run them on because neither of them make phones. yet. Uh, >> and so many of the the uh agents are running on Mac hardware.

[00:06:58]>> Yeah.

[00:06:59]>> You like the meme that you see all over where it's showing uh now that every now that a developer has their agent and it's a MacBook with its lid slightly open.

[00:07:09]>> Uh that Wow. Yeah, that's a really good point.

[00:07:11]>> Yeah. So, Apple end of the day, you still need hardware to run this stuff.

[00:07:14]It can't all work necessarily in the cloud. Um and everybody carries phones with them. nobody's going to stop caring of phones. And if they are still carrying a phones and want to use an AI, they're probably going to do it on the phones they already have. So, I don't think, you know, there are challenges, there are concerns to be had about it, but I don't feel like it's an existential threat for Apple the way it is for some of these other companies, maybe like Google. Um, it their entire business model simply doesn't hinge on this use of AI. And if people use AI on their platform, even if it isn't Apple's AI, that's still good for Apple. So, uh, obviously we're still week and a half out or so from WWDC where we'll see how much of this stuff is is accurate. Um, as always, the the the devil's in the details. Apple will have its own stories to spin and its own narratives to share about how and why these things work and why they've chosen to do things the way they have. And that's a big part that all that messaging is a big part of how those features are ultimately received.

[00:08:14]Do we think that this is the last um bit of do do we think that Tim Cook will be seen as sort of responsible for >> uh a is this his last big thing before he's done or has it already Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:34]Thank you. or has he has it already moved on in terms of sort of the the culture uh of of Apple attention that that we have? Yeah, I think this is a tricky one because it kind of bridges these two uh leadership trans like the two ends of the leadership transition.

[00:08:50]It's certainly a big part of the the push that Tim Cook has made during his last couple years, right? I mean, obviously, we saw Apple Intelligence roll out way back at WWC 2024. Uh, and here we are two years later and I think the fact that it never quite managed to ship some of those features was a bit of a a black mark on Tim Cook's time here.

[00:09:12]Um, you know, a lot of that again gets washed away by the tremendous tremendous financial success they've had. Uh, but I think it will also be a proving ground for incoming CEO John Turnis because he's going to inherit it. He's going to have to talk about ramping it up. And when it comes to this year's iPhones, um, which I'm sure Apple intelligence will still be a centerpiece of because it's not going anywhere, uh, you know, he's going to have to make arguments about those and defend the performance of those compared to its rivals. So, uh, you know, there's never a clean break between these kinds of, uh, administrations of a company. Uh, you always have to deal somewhat with what's left over from the people before you.

[00:09:52]And so that is I don't know if it's fair or not, but that is what John Turners has to deal with coming into this role is not only the tremendous success that Tim Cook has dealt with, but also the challenges that he's had. Yeah. I I also am kind of curious as far as this goes, you know, they're talk there talk about the standalone Siri app, right, that you would be able to interact with. And given that Apple is sort of letting you choose what agent you're using with these uh between the I think three big options of of anthropic and um I think it was an well regardless definitely choosing between Gemini or OpenAI. Do how do you think the general public the people who are not paying as close attention to it will perceive it?

[00:10:45]Because think about I think about uh Super Bowl and I think about where we have in the past seen uh a coach drawing uh some plays on the device in front of them and people are calling it an iPad and it's not an iPad. It's it's it was a Microsoft product at the time.

[00:11:04]I think >> it's only an iPad if it's making Certino otherwise it's a sparkling tablet.

[00:11:09]>> Exactly. So, do we think that this could reshape how the general public perceives Apple's sort of um prowess in AI if there's a standalone app even though it's backed by like do do you think that that level of detail matters to the standard person? And again, I'm not going to hold it against you if you're wrong in the end. I'm just curious to hear your take on it.

[00:11:32]>> Well, here are my renders that I've made. No. Um, >> yes and no. Here's the thing. one, I think this is going to be far more attached to Siri as a brand name, quote unquote, than Apple intelligence. You know, people or even AI, right? Like people have been using Siri for years as an assistant and and people are all too aware of its shortcomings, but like it's such a brand name that you see jokes about it, right? I'm thinking about sitcoms where like people like hold up their phone and tell Siri to remind them about something later, right? are like punchlines where people complain about like well I was talking to Siri and it did this and it's like it's a household name right and so there's a challenge there but also an opportunity I think and I think that by linking it so closely to that they have this ability to change the narrative on Siri more than they have the ability to change narrative on AI in some ways um because a lot of the AI stuff a it's going to be sort of white label Gemini people aren't going to know that really you know the average person doesn't care who makes the model they just care about the app on their phone. Um, and I think at the same time you will see this idea of, you know, I'm curious about the AI implementation because the ability to switch maybe your your agents for some of this anyway. It's unclear which parts of that work with that may only work with this search interface via the, you know, home screen or the system, you know, where you drag down as opposed to within the app where it's just Siri that's backed by Google. And so I I fully expect to see a situation where you'll see like Tik Tok videos being like, "Did you know you could change your thing?" So it talks to, you know, chatg and it's going to be way better for you. So go in here, change this settings. So when you ask questions, it doesn't ask Siri, it asks chatbt. Um 100% expect to see that as a viral video sometime in the first year.

[00:13:18]>> Absolutely. Um, I guess the last thing I would ask before we we uh head into a break, um, any of the stuff that you saw renders for and reporting on this morning stick out to you as, "Oh, I didn't I didn't think that that was going to be this soon." Or, "Oh, I didn't know about that at all." Or perhaps, "Oh, they're actually doing that." Anything like that for you?

[00:13:44]Yeah, I'm not excited about I think there's a grammar checker built in, you know, which is kind of their attempt to take on Grammarly. Um, and it's got a little like popup pain there that explains things and >> pop-up pain is exactly >> that is exactly how I would describe it.

[00:13:59]I'm currently uh in edits on a book which requires me to use Microsoft Word and go through and use both track changes and it keeps using the grammar checker and the grammar checker is just it is one of the most just bananas conversations I always feel like I'm having because I'll see two sentences that look virtually the same and it's like on this one you need to put a comma in this one you should stick the comma out and like put the basically the same construction like I get so annoyed as somebody who is into words that it's so frustrating and that it's so it works so badly at times. That said, I understand that there are a lot of people who are not professional writers and feel like, you know, a system like this can help them write better. And I don't want to be a total snob about it, even though I am oftenimes a total snob. Um, and so maybe some people will find this a beneficial feature, but I have been incredibly unimpressed with the writing tool stuff that currently exists in Apple Intelligence. I I can't say that I've ever used any of it. Um, and I don't I would be fascinated to know how much it's used just broadly. Not that Apple ever tells us these things, but like they're going to keep talking about how great it is. And I really don't know that I've ever run into anybody who's like, "Oh man, Apple Writing Tools, I love that stuff. I use it all the time."

[00:15:12]Never met a single person who says that.

[00:15:14]>> Yeah, same. I'm right there with you.

[00:15:18]So, we'll have to uh Yeah, I guess deal with the pain when it when it arrives.

[00:15:23]>> Turn it off. You can always turn it off.

[00:15:25]Probably probably. Yeah, pro hopefully.

[00:15:28]We'll have to wait till they announce it. We'll see.

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