Hands-On With iOS 27's Siri AI

[HappyMBAowner]

If it's really based on Gemini engine (which I've been using for quite a while), it will be wonderful. I know that many people think AI is garbage. AI can be anything, but when it works (which happens with Gemini), it is absolutely fantastic and extremely useful. It saved me hours and days of work over the last 6 months, from designing a full 50 page document for a company, to simple questions about cooking, technology, science, medical information and so on. Of course, you can use AI to create stupid movies or images. But you can use it to really help you make you grow. People trash what's new based on nothing, since they don't use it and want technology not to evolve. Well, technology evolves. You don't travel the same way as in the middle ages and you don't watch TV with the same technology that was available in 1959. Movies are now IMAX. We don't travel by foot between continents anymore. We don't butcher people anymore when they need surgery. By the way, I didn't use AI to write this comment.

 

[HappyMBAowner]

I don't need to use it, the lackluster features speak for themselves. iOS 27 better be much improved or many people will be ready to jump off Apple island.

Google is 3 laps ahead of Apple in the AI race.

But Apple products are many laps away from Google on many many situations. For example: all Sony TVs are based on Google. And it is mostly horrendous. I watch TV through my Apple TV unit, cause this Google TV thing is good for one thing: giving me headaches.

 

[MNWildFan]

Well I'll try it when available to me after I am part of the cool club and out of the waiting list.

Same here

I just upgraded from my non Pro 15 to a 16 and joined the waitlist as soon as I got it setup back on Tuesday, but going on almost day 2 of my waiting

UGH, I surely hope my waiting won't be too much longer

I'm guessing they're doing this because this is the early beta testing phase of it and they don't want the servers to get too overloaded too soon; I get that it's annoying to have to be part of this waitlist and the waiting has been so long for many while for others they cleared the waitlist pretty much instantly

 

[MNWildFan]

Gah, if only I could experience this; didn't have an Apple Intelligence enabled phone as I was on a non Pro 15 before

But now I just upgraded to a 16 back on Tuesday, joined the waitlist and going on almost 2 days of waiting

I get why they're doing this waitlist right now because they probably don't want to overload the servers too soon, but still... Wish I could at least have some kind of estimate as to where in the waitlist queue I am instead of it just saying that I'm on the waitlist

 

[MNWildFan]

Wondering whether there's some sort of discrimination going on with who gets access. That is, not all people with developer accounts are getting access.
For that matter, I'm also unclear why there's a waitlist in the first place.

Yeah, I don't get it either

Some said they joined the waitlist and cleared it only within an hour whereas others joined it and have still have been waiting since Monday or whenever they joined it

My only guess is that they don't want to risk bringing the servers for it down so easily, but then again, I'm sure these servers are pretty beefy as is so yeah, I totally am with you as to why there's even a waitlist in the first place with knowing that

 

[gummybear2026]

Yeah, I don't get it either

Some said they joined the waitlist and cleared it only within an hour whereas others joined it and have still have been waiting since Monday or whenever they joined it

My only guess is that they don't want to risk bringing the servers for it down so easily, but then again, I'm sure these servers are pretty beefy as is so yeah, I totally am with you as to why there's even a waitlist in the first place with knowing that

There is zero reason to create a waitlist other than create a delusion that their AI product is top notch. Server load worries is nothing more than bs.

 

[matrix6028]

Just downloaded the Beta. All my Siri responses are from ChatGPT. I thought Siri was going to use Google AI?

 

[MNWildFan]

There is zero reason to create a waitlist other than create a delusion that their AI product is top notch. Server load worries is nothing more than bs.

Yeah, I think you're right

I mean, what other point does this waitlist serve in the first place and why did they even bother to create one if all it's going to do is stir up frustration for those who actually want to test it

 

[ThomasJL]

Wasn't Scott Forstall fired because he screwed up Apple Maps in an absolutely epic way?

Yes, but Scott Forstall had a pattern of releasing software that was initially buggy and then made very stable and reliable within a relatively short timeframe.

Firing Forstall was a net negative for Apple in terms of software stability and reliability. That should’ve been obvious since Forstall was known for being a perfectionist, but Tim Cook is too clueless and mediocre to recognize that. Cook has an MBA degree, so he is an inside-the-box thinker who has probably never had a critical thought in his life. MBAs worship McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, so it’s no wonder Cook runs Apple like a bean counter who doesn’t even try to be a product person.

 

[Dahveed 1954]

You can supposedly bypass the wait list and turn it on using this Terminal command. Enter the command, supply your password and restart your Mac.

sudo defaults write "/Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/GenerativeModels.plist" "EnhancedSiriWaitlist" -dict-add Enabled -bool NO

 

[ipedro]

View attachment 2637321
Not quite there, yet

Pretty darn close.

I think this exact setup could be built today, it's a matter of UI choice. Building an embodied AI that can speak in a human like manner in natural conversational language is now table stakes. Building custom presentations was demonstrated by Google Flow. The new Siri with its Symantic Index able to make sense of all your data and relationships and act on your behalf was the missing piece.

Apple doesn't typically look backward but it would be a fun exercise to recreate this video with working technology, even if it's just an internal video as a challenge for every department at Apple... that just so happens to leak out into the wild.

 

[theinstructor]

I've had access since early this morning.

a) its auto-correction is horrible.
b) it can't generate results in any type of .doc or .pdf
c) its functionality is ridiculously limited compared to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.
d) results seem to scrape from popular sites over relevance to query
e) I asked it what its own top capabilities were. LOL - it referenced 3 popular HR sites and gave me a mini-breakdown ln a format expected in a job interview.
f) I asked it, just now, for a recipe. The damn thing (spoken request) will only tell me about recipes - it won't give me an actual recipe for what I specifically requested. I can't even tap on the result and click-through to a full recipe.

and.. I'm out. This is a gimmick, still, at this point. Let's hope its system integration is where it shines.

So, what you’re saying is, this is simply Siri.The same garbage Siri we have all become used to.

 

[tiptopp]

There are a lot of negatives on this thread so I thought I’d add my more positive views. I was really disappointed when I bought my 16 Pro because Siri did so little of what was promised. I enjoyed the phone upgrade, and some of the new stuff, but it was a really bad case of over promising and hardly delivering at all.

So I didn’t have great hopes this week. However, considering this is a FIRST BETA, I’m really enjoying the new Siri. I got in the waitlist a couple of hours after the keynote, and was in before i woke up the next morning (I’m in the UK so that was 10pm to 6am).

I’ve tried a few things, like finding my passport number - which it found in a photo. And capturing a part-typed/part handwritten checklist, removing the ticks, adding in the manual items and formatting it for a Pages document. It worked first time (although frustrating that I had to paste it into Pages rather than it create a document). Yesterday I asked for a route to a specific place with a stop “about half way there” at a shop I could buy a specific camping product. I got a perfect response.

And one thing I’ve been waiting for - the ability to ask Siri to add three specific things to a shopping list in one request and for it to create them as separate items rather than one. At last this works.

So I, for one (one of very few on this thread), am so far pretty happy that it’s going in the right direction and that things will only get better over the next three months. It has its glitches (CarPlay is both better and worse - sometimes crashes, swipe down for Siri sometimes hangs, clicking on a doorbell notification crashes the Home app). But I’ve used every Beta since forever, I know what I’m getting myself into (early Betas used to be a nightmare), and I’m looking forward to even more progress.

 

[dandrewk]

Hilarious thread, reminding me of very early days of internet with UseNet. So much childish gibberish going on about how "Siri is useless", "Oh, gonna switch to Pixel now", "Never used it, never will" and "The new AI = Skynet + Matrix combine" (iow, FUD + Luddite).

All this from a dev. beta, many from users who haven't even updated.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Apple should not be encouraging us to swipe down from the Dynamic Island to activate Siri AI. This will lead to perpetually smeared selfies with finger oil or worse 😕.

The camera isn't centered in the dynamic island. If you're worried about that you can always swipe from the left side of the island.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Just downloaded the Beta. All my Siri responses are from ChatGPT. I thought Siri was going to use Google AI?

If you've just downloaded the beta you're likely still on the old Siri. Join the waitlist to get access to the new Siri AI in settings. You should be seeing the dark glass blob instead of the glowing edge when you trigger Siri.

 

[The Game 161]

I don't need to use it, the lackluster features speak for themselves. iOS 27 better be much improved or many people will be ready to jump off Apple island.

Google is 3 laps ahead of Apple in the AI race.

lol it's not ahead at all. In most answers it matches or even beats gemini. personal onscreen awareness is simply better with siri al. The fact you are making these statements without using it is comedy

 

[The Game 161]

Hilarious thread, reminding me of very early days of internet with UseNet. So much childish gibberish going on about how "Siri is useless", "Oh, gonna switch to Pixel now", "Never used it, never will" and "The new AI = Skynet + Matrix combine" (iow, FUD + Luddite).

All this from a dev. beta, many from users who haven't even updated.

yeah people either hate al or just are going on past issues with siri. siri al for beta 1 is very good. i've stopped needing to use gemini app thanks to siri al. onscreen awareness is a game changer and is the real use for al.

 

[gummybear2026]

lol it's not ahead at all. In most answers it matches or even beats gemini. personal onscreen awareness is simply better with siri al. The fact you are making these statements without using it is comedy

You can't even use it without sitting on some worthless waitlist. The blind faith you have in Apple is hilarious.

 

[JoeShades]

You can't even use it without sitting on some worthless waitlist. The blind faith you have in Apple is hilarious.

We should be like you, giving judgements about something without using it

 

[MNWildFan]

Ugh, days later and I'm still on the waitlist

I have to say though, I have been trying it on my MacBook Air (M2) as I was able to bypass the waitlist on there thanks to some Terminal commands

Basically, it's like Siri and ChatGPT had a baby and out popped this form of it we have now and I can't wait to finally be able to access it on my iPhone

 

[gummybear2026]

We should be like you, giving judgements about something without using it

The AI skillset offered by Apple is nothing game changing. I don't need to use the features to figure that out.

 

[The Game 161]

You can't even use it without sitting on some worthless waitlist. The blind faith you have in Apple is hilarious.

Maybe you need to search what the word BETA MEANS!! people are so entitled these days. it's only apple that lets people worldwide download this. They could easily put the beta profile to developers only who pay the fee but they don't. I had new siri 6 hours after i went on the wait list. others aren't so lucky but you need to understand this is WORLDWIDE. the wait is longer because of the interest.

 

[tiptopp]

The AI skillset offered by Apple is nothing game changing. I don't need to use the features to figure that out.

I accept that as a simple chatbot it’s nothing special and I revert to one of the others for some of what I want. But do you have any Apple products? If so, is there another AI product that can search across all of the messages, emails, photos and files on my iPhone and find a single piece of information that I’m looking for? And then arrange a meeting with relevant people to discuss it? Or one that takes natural language and turns it into a shortcut? If there is, I’d be interested to try it. If not, Siri AI is a game changer.

 

[gummybear2026]

Maybe you need to search what the word BETA MEANS!! people are so entitled these days. it's only apple that lets people worldwide download this. They could easily put the beta profile to developers only who pay the fee but they don't. I had new siri 6 hours after i went on the wait list. others aren't so lucky but you need to understand this is WORLDWIDE. the wait is longer because of the interest.

Siri has been BETA since 2011. The wait list is a fake narrative that Apple tries to spin.