There Are Still a Few Updates Left Before Apple Intelligence Siri Updates
When Apple first unveiled Apple Intelligence , a set of generative artificial intelligence capabilities, a huge part of that announcement revolved around the powerful Siri. Apple’s digital assistant will no longer lag behind competitors such as Google: thanks to the power of artificial intelligence, the new Siri can actually be useful.
When Apple Intelligence is fully operational, Siri will reportedly be much more contextually aware and will be able to scan what’s on your phone to understand and answer the questions you ask. If your friend sends you their new address, you can ask Siri to “add this address to their contact card.” You don’t need to specify which address or which contact, as Apple says Assistant will be able to figure it out from what’s currently displayed on the screen. Another important feature is the ability to ask Siri to perform an action for you: you can ask Siri to send an email you have in your drafts, edit an image on your behalf, or add a photo to a specific note.
If you bought a new iPhone 16 this week , you might have assumed that your phone comes with the new Siri. After all, iOS 18 has been out for a while now, and Apple is touting Apple Intelligence (and the new Siri) with a new campaign featuring Bella Ramsey. Some Apple Store employees even started chanting about artificial intelligence during the iPhone 16 presentation .
Waiting game
The fact is that there is no new Siri yet. Hell, Apple Intelligence as a whole hasn’t arrived yet—at least not officially. Apple is releasing the first wave of new artificial intelligence features in iOS 18.1 , which is currently in beta. If you install the beta on your iPhone, you’ll be able to try out some of Apple’s upcoming features, as well as preview new Siri updates: This includes a new Siri design that glows around the edges of the display; the ability to type in Siri by double tapping on the bottom of the screen; Siri’s ability to understand requests, even if you misspoke; and a new feature that turns Siri into an impromptu tech help desk (e.g., “How do I turn off Do Not Disturb?”).
But even when iOS 18.1 arrives, most of Siri’s biggest updates, such as contextual targeting and hands-on tasks, won’t be present. It so happens that they will not be in iOS 18.2.
The full form of Siri will appear in a couple of updates
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman ( via TechRadar ), Apple plans to release most of the major Siri updates by iOS 18.4. Gurman says some Siri features are also being considered for iOS 18.3, but didn’t specify what features those might be.
While Apple doesn’t provide a timetable for future iOS releases, we can look at past updates to get a rough estimate. iOS 17.3 , for example, came out in January, and iOS 17.4 (which added a lot of EU-only features) came out in March. If this schedule continues, expect Siri features to drop by March, with some arriving as early as January. Of course, if you’re willing to install beta software, you can try these features even sooner. Apple released the first iOS 17.3 developer beta in December and the first iOS 17.4 developer beta in January , so beta testers could theoretically try out these Siri updates as soon as later this year.
Not all iPhones will get new Siri features
While Apple is supporting older iPhone models like the XS with iOS 18, not many iPhones will actually get these new Siri features. That’s because Apple Intelligence is limited to the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and the iPhone 16 series. If you have an iPhone 15 or older, you won’t see these new updates even if you update to iOS 18.1, iOS 18.3, or iOS 18.4.