I quickly found that Siri AI’s short answers don’t run as consistently as many contemporary AI assistants, often sticking to a single paragraph. When I verbally asked about a good beach walking trail to watch the sunrise near the Golden Gate Bridge, she briefly recommended a popular trail in the Presidio neighborhood as well as an option in the Marin Headlands. Siri bolds key words in visible text replies with audible feedback for easier scanning. Since I wanted more information before checking out, I swiped down the text answer to read additional details about each option.
Apple’s partnership with Google is a main driver behind this Siri overhaul. Google’s Gemini now helps power the voice assistant’s underlying model, Apple Intelligence. With this new model Siri’s output seemed to match more to what I was looking for, rather than just suggesting me some website links. When I asked simple questions, like “What should I do today,” Siri dug through my recent messages and highlighted recent plans I started discussing with friends but never finalized.
Another key aspect of Siri AI is hyper-personalization based on what’s on your device, whether that data is in your photos or messages. This doesn’t limit you to Apple-only services; When I asked Siri to draft a text, the voice assistant confirmed whether I wanted to send it through Apple’s Messages or Meta’s messenger service.
This style of AI search requires Siri to index your phone, which means scanning and cataloging its data for easy reference. When I updated my iPhone to the developer beta for iOS 27, it took a little over a week for the device to be fully indexed.
At WWDC 2026, Apple repeatedly referenced its privacy-preserving approach to Siri AI. As part of the company’s private cloud compute, Apple claims it doesn’t store data from users and only deletes it when you ask Siri a question. Similar to the previous version of Apple’s assistant, users who are not interested can turn off Siri AI in their Settings.
I tested Siri AI on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which will have many, but not all, of Siri AI’s features. Based on what has been publicly released, only the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Max will have all the fixes, such as more diverse sound options. As for the rest of the lineup: Every iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 models will be able to run the new Siri, while only the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will be compatible. Older models will not support this voice assistant.
Siri, let’s go for a ride
Like any good tourist, I started my morning with a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge, where there are plenty of hiking trails nearby to walk around and enjoy the views. Since Siri AI is also integrated with the iPhone’s camera app, I decided to open it up and snap a quick photo of the blurry path in front of me to see how Siri would respond.
I didn’t ask Siri any questions; I showed it a snapshot of what it saw at that moment, and the AI tool responded with a brief history of the Cypress Tree Tunnel, located on the Point Reyes National Seashore. Siri was perfect for tracking Monterey cypress trees. But the tunnel mentioned is an hour’s drive from where I was, which is potentially confusing for someone not familiar with the area.
Despite this obvious nervousness, the more I interacted with Siri while wandering around, the more impressed I was with other functions, such as helping uncover images of past adventures hidden among the thousands of photos in my Camera Roll.
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