Apple reintroduces the AI-powered Siri it announced at WWDC 2024
Say hello to Siri AI.
After going MIA for two years, Apple's redesigned Siri has finally resurfaced. At WWDC 2026, the company showed off a new version of the AI-powered Siri we first saw in 2024, now called Siri AI. As announced at the start of the year, Apple has partnered with Google to rebuild Apple Intelligence and Siri on top of its rival's Gemini models.
On the iPhone, the new Siri lives inside the device's Dynamic Island, which debuted on the iPhone 14 Pro in 2022 before Apple brought it over to the regular iPhone in 2023. As before, you can wake the assistant by saying "Siri" or holding down the power button. Apple has also added a new swipe gesture, which involves pulling down from the top center of your device. Any of these actions brings up a new "Search or Ask" interface that allows you to do things like open apps, start text messaging, add calendar appointments and search through your notes. Over on macOS, users can wake Siri through Spotlight. Apple claims the search tool is intelligent enough to know when you're trying to ask a question of the assistant and will route the prompt accordingly.
On returning a response, Siri will display an interactive card that will pop out of the Dynamic Island. Users can swipe down on the popup to open a larger window where they can ask further questions of the digital assistant. "[Siri AI] can draw on personal context understanding to search across messages, emails, photos, and more, and get things done across apps with even more systemwide app actions," says Apple.
As part of the redesign, the company has made the assistant's voice more natural. Users can adjust the pace and expressivity of Siri's new voice, with individual sliders for each. The company says it has also improved voice dictation throughout iOS and elsewhere, with the feature offering better understanding of capitalization and more.
Mike Rockwell, vice president of Siri engineering, demoed the new assistant. He first asked Siri AI about an upcoming Suki Waterhouse concert to show how the assistant can draw on real-time information to generate an answer. In this case, Siri told Rockwell he had to enter a lottery to see Waterhouse perform, to which the executive asked if the assistant could save a reminder for him. In a separate demo, Rockwell showed off Siri's newfound visual intelligence, which allowed him to ask about the landmarks seen in the pictures on the display. With a follow-up voice command, Rockwell instructed Siri to add his family to a shared album, and the assistant dutifully responded.
Alongside the new Search or Ask window, Apple is releasing a dedicated Siri app to offer iPhone users with a first-party alterative to ChatGPT and Claude. Like those apps, the software allows you to converse with Siri through text and voice. You can also upload images and documents for the assistant to analyze. Apple says the dedicated app "makes it easy to revisit an existing conversation or open a new one," with your chat history synced privately thanks to iCloud.
Apple is also bringing the new Siri to watchOS and visionOS, where the company says it will tailor the assistant for each platform. In the latter, for instance, the company has created a 3D visualization for the AI.
Siri AI will launch in English first, with Apple promising availability in other languages to follow. Developers can try the new Siri today, with beta access rolling out to consumers later this year. Apple said it would release Siri AI in the European Union and China at a later date due to stricter regulatory requirements.
Apple first debuted the new Siri at WWDC 2024, promising a smarter, more personal digital assistant. At the center of that pledge was App Intents, a feature the company said would give Siri the ability to understand all the information stored on your iPhone. During one of the keynote's flashiest demos, Kelsey Peterson, Apple's former director of machine learning and AI, asked Siri for an update on her mom's flight. The assistant not only understood the request, but also provided real-time flight tracking information in the process.
At the conference, Apple did not allow the press to try the new Siri. What's more, The Information later reported that the demo the company showed publicly was essentially an elaborate concept video. Apple first admitted the new assistant was in trouble in March 2025 when it told Daring Fireball's John Gruber that it was delaying the upgrade to sometime "in the coming year." Clearly, Apple did not make that deadline. In May, the company agreed to pay $250 million to settle a class action lawsuit that claimed it mislead iPhone buyers in the US that the new version of Siri would arrive in 2024.