Apple opens new Siri AI to public beta testers with iOS 27

Owners of iPhones can now test Apple’s redesigned Siri without a developer account. On Monday, Apple released the public beta of iOS 27. The AI assistant that the company first unveiled at its developer conference in June is now available for general users to test.

Apple counts about 2.5 billion active devices worldwide. With even a small number of beta installs, this is the biggest real-world test of the redesigned assistant so far. It comes before Apple’s planned September launch of iOS 27.

Getting into the beta beats through a few gates

Installing the public beta does not activate Siri AI on its own. Apple Intelligence must be enabled by users in Settings. Update to iOS 27. According to Mashable, you can join a waitlist by tapping “Try the new Siri (Beta).” Although some testers can get through the queue in a single day, approvals typically take five to ten days, and members of the developer program typically advance more quickly.

Some phones that do use Apple Intelligence still lack features like expressive voices, and older devices are completely shut down. Support for iPhones begins with the iPhone 15 Pro and continues through the iPhone 17 series and iPhone Air.

The iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max continue to be the only devices with the full feature set; iPads require at least an M1 chip, Macs do the same, and full access requires newer silicon along with 12 GB of RAM.

What the new Siri actually does

According to previous reports by Cryptopolitan, this is Siri’s most significant redesign since its launch in 2011. Apple granted Siri the ability to access a user’s emails, photos, and messages and respond to whatever appears on the screen. It can also gather information from the outside world, just like a modern chatbot. This allows it to field questions that would normally be directed to a search engine.

Apple also expanded the assistant’s functionality throughout the system. Users can start talking from the Dynamic Island by swiping down, in addition to saying “Hey Siri” or using the side-button shortcut.

Siri now integrates with Spotlight search and, for the first time, ships as a standalone app. The deep system integration renders the separate app obsolete, as Siri is accessible almost everywhere without opening anything. The assistant is also available for iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, CarPlay, AirPods, Apple TV, and Vision Pro, in addition to iPhone.

Siri is based on Apple’s Foundation Models. Apple collaborated with Google to create smaller versions of its Gemini model that are optimized for Apple silicon. That partnership has a hardware component.

Cryptopolitan reported in June that Apple intends to route cloud-based Siri queries through Nvidia Blackwell B200 chips hosted on Google Cloud. This is a departure from Craig Federighi’s promise at WWDC 2024 to keep such work on Apple’s Private Cloud compute servers. According to The Information, Apple made the switch after discovering that Gemini was too slow on its own infrastructure.