Apple has placed Siri at the heart of its AI push with the iPhone 18, presenting a significantly more capable version of its voice assistant with deeper access to personal information, apps and on-device intelligence.
Apple said Siri is already among the world’s most widely used digital assistants, handling more than 2.5 billion requests from users every day. The company said the latest version is designed to go well beyond basic voice commands, allowing users to interact with information across their devices and get things done more naturally.
One of the biggest upgrades is Siri’s ability to understand personal context across apps. For instance, users can ask Siri to recall information mentioned in emails or messages and use those details to complete tasks. Siri can also combine what it sees on the iPhone’s screen with broader, up-to-date knowledge to answer questions and help users act on the information.
The upgraded assistant can perform actions within apps users already rely on, including third-party applications. Apple said Siri works with more than 300,000 apps, allowing users to carry out tasks such as sending messages through WhatsApp, playing audiobooks on Audible, drafting emails in Outlook, finding assignments in Notability or saving recommendations to travel apps.
Siri is also becoming more versatile across the iPhone. Users can interact with it through the camera, ask questions about what they are viewing and carry out multiple actions through a single request. The assistant can also help with writing and editing virtually anywhere users type, including composing emails while on the move.
Apple is further expanding Siri into a dedicated app, allowing users to revisit previous conversations or start new ones. Conversations can be synchronised privately across Apple devices through iCloud, while Siri also supports richer interactions through voice and typing.
The new Siri is also designed to sound more natural. The iPhone 18 Pro uses Apple’s most advanced on-device model to power more expressive voices, with users able to choose from different options and adjust factors such as speaking pace and expressiveness.
The same on-device intelligence also improves system-wide dictation, helping users achieve greater accuracy with punctuation, spelling and capitalisation.
Apple is expanding Siri’s language availability as well, with English offered in beta and French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish scheduled to follow in October. Overall, Apple is positioning the revamped Siri as a more context-aware, capable and natural AI assistant that can understand what users need and take action across the iPhone.
