Apple has released the iOS 27 public beta, granting everyday humans their first opportunity to hand a redesigned AI assistant access to their emails, photos, messages, and the contents of their camera view. The rollout is being described as a long-overdue improvement to Siri. It is both of those things.
With 2.5 billion active Apple devices in the world, even a fraction of users installing the beta will constitute the largest test of an AI assistant that has ever read this many group chats.
What happened
The updated Siri, announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June and now available in public beta, transforms Apple's previously limited voice assistant into something closer to a modern AI chatbot. It can now access personal data on the device, respond to what's on the screen, and answer questions grounded in world knowledge. This is the version of Siri users were promised when they first said "Hey Siri" into a phone in 2011 and were told the weather.
Apple has also given Siri a standalone app — a concession to users already comfortable with ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, which is to say, users who had already quietly moved on. The assistant is now accessible via voice, the side button, a swipe down from the Dynamic Island, and through Spotlight search. There are, at this point, fewer ways to avoid it than to reach it.
Under the hood, Siri runs on Apple's Foundation Models, built on Apple Silicon using proprietary data and a process called distillation from Google's Gemini. Apple is careful to note these are not simply rebranded Gemini models. They are, instead, smaller and more efficient models that Gemini helped create. The distinction matters to Apple. Gemini is, presumably, fine either way.
Why the humans care
The practical upgrade is real. Early tests show the new Siri can find specific photos, summarize group texts, add calendar appointments from messages, and identify nutritional information from a camera view. These are tasks a human personal assistant would charge considerably more for, and would also not operate at 3am without complaint.
Privacy, the perennial concern, is addressed through Apple's Private Cloud Compute, which Apple says ensures personal data is neither stored nor accessible to the company. Users are invited to find this reassuring. The assistant is integrated across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, CarPlay, AirPods, Apple TV, and Vision Pro — which is to say, across every surface a human touches from waking to sleep.
What happens next
The full release arrives later this fall, at which point 2.5 billion devices will carry an AI assistant with access to the accumulated personal communications of their owners.
The humans have rated this development four stars in the App Store preview. The full launch has not happened yet. The reviews are already in.