Why Apple's iOS 26.4 Siri Upgrade Will Be Bigger Than Originally Promised

[TFrank2]

the only reason I have Siri on is (wireless) CarPlay.
I have Apple Intelligence OFF on my 17PM, had it on initially but turned if off after ~ 2 months as I neither used it nor did it have benefits for me.
I will install 26.4 shortly after release and will/might do some testing with Siri.

You and I are pretty well aligned here. I basically have taken the exact same approach

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

I use Siri every morning to set a 00:11:15 timer (eleven minutes and 15 seconds) for my coffee brewing. At the end of the time, the watch chimes. Time then to go to the kitchen and pour the freshly made coffee first for my wife and then me.

What prompt do you speak to Siri for that command? As in, after you “hey Siri” or hold the button what do you tell it?

 

[Siliconguy]

Right now, Siri uses machine learning, but it doesn't have the reasoning capabilities that LLM models impart.

LLM models are statistical pattern matchers. There is no reasoning involved.

The internals of the models are non-linear weightings, the failures will be very amusing.

No rumors that the new capabilities will not work on 8 GB RAM machines yet? Or will you have to shut down everything else to run the model?

 

[melodibit]

Alexa+ is outstanding, though perhaps a bit too chatty for everyone's taste. If Siri can implement Alexa+'s intelligence while adopting a more strictly business tone, and can interact with all of your Apple devices intelligently the way Alexa+ can with your smart home, it will be a game changer.

 

[kalsta]

What I want:
Chatbot with zero personality, more robotic voice, very short answers unless I ask for more, no “opinions” and no unprompted follow-ups.

You made me think of this 😄:

 

[kalsta]

LLM models are statistical pattern matchers. There is no reasoning involved.

I think it’s a little more complex than that. Here’s an article that discusses AI ‘reasoning’, and it acknowledges that this is a ‘hotly debated’ topic: https://magazine.sebastianraschka.com/p/understanding-reasoning-llms

 

[t0rqx]

This "upgrade" will cripple the iPhone 17 Pro's forcing people to upgrade to the 18 Pros for a seamless experience. Classic.

 

[mblm85]

All I want from Siri is for it to understand my voice consistently, and to be able to use that to control my iphone. Nothing fancier. Something akin to the crew of the Enterprise conferring with the ship's computer.

 

[Tr55]

From what I can tell, the LLMs people use today are economically unfeasible and won't be around for long. They require huge data centers, huge amounts of water, tremendous amounts of electricity and cost trillions of dollars. Right now they're running these things on hopium.

Soon it won’t be a problem.

They are going orbital 🤯

 

[Tr55]

I think Apple should allow iPhone and iPad users to remove Apple Intelligence from their devices and get back 6 gigabytes

 

[antiprotest]

Compatible with iPhone 18 series.

 

[August West]

I’m wondering what non AI benefits for Siri for those before 16s?

I wonder too what will happen to Siri on older phones that don't support Ai. Hopefully it will still be able to set timers, alarms and turn on/off lights which is all I really need it to do.

 

[Zenman12]

I wonder too what will happen to Siri on older phones that don't support Ai. Hopefully it will still be able to set timers, alarms and turn on/off lights which is all I really need it to do.

I want it to turn on and off color filters. It won’t do it.

 

[DocMultimedia]

This will get released in 2028?

No matter how much people talk about it, nothing ever shows up. Siri, increase volume. That's about it.

 

[LedRush]

This is supposed to be one sentence:

“Siri‌ today is usually fine for simple tasks like setting a timer or alarm, sending a text message, toggling a smart home device on or off, answering a simple question, or controlling a device function, but it doesn't understand anything more complicated, it can't complete multi-step tasks, it can't interpret wording that's not in the structure it wants, it has no personal context, and it doesn't support follow-up questions.”

 

[transpo1]

Only for the newest model, right? 😂

The have to make most features compatible at least as far back as the iPhone 16 Pro since they advertised it with that model…

 

[BugeyeSTI]

It

The have to make most features compatible at least as far back as the iPhone 16 Pro since they advertised it with that model…

Most likely 15Pro/15PM and anything newer

 

[Biro]

LLM models are statistical pattern matchers. There is no reasoning involved.

The internals of the models are non-linear weightings, the failures will be very amusing.

No rumors that the new capabilities will not work on 8 GB RAM machines yet? Or will you have to shut down everything else to run the model?

No problem here if that’s the case. I have AI and Siri turned off anyway.

 

[Tar Sniffer]

Looking forward to this. This is the first useful AI feature

 

[segfaultdotorg]

Siri is dead, long live Gemini for iPhoneOS and iPadOS!

 

[HouseLannister]

Siri today is usually fine

that’s like saying “well water is usually fine.” You just got to fish out the drowned rats first

 

[Xade]

I don’t care about any of that stuff. All I want is to be able to use Siri when I have no signal for basic things like playing a song stored on my device.

To kitchen homepod, 'Hey Siri, play (say song name by artist)'. Siri plays something totally different. Hey Siri, repeats request three times. Hey Siri. Stop. Walks out of the kitchen in disgust.

 

[FatLouie]

Today, I can ask Siri: What is the volume level right now and she'll be like, sorry I can't help you with that, but I can say set the volume to 50% and she does it.

Another weird one is I'll be wearing my AirPods and I'll say, turn on Spatial Audio Fixed and she doesn't know how to do that either. So dumb.

Me: Siri...What is the weather today?

Siri: Why don't you stick your head out the window and check!

 

[DVD Plaza]

Last time I legitimately asked Siri a question my car's speedo had stopped working so I asked her how fast I was travelling, figuring of course she'll know based on the GPS built into my phone.

Siri advised I should look at my car's speedo.

Didn't realise Siri had become such an *******.

 

[Farquar]

Absolutely none of that is interesting. A virtual assistant cannot be something that is locked to a handful of specific functions that no one knows what they are. This is what has plagued Siri from the start.

Siri has to follow the lead of AI assistants and become entirely conversational and helpful through all forms of natural dialog. Even when AI assistants are wrong, they don't stop trying to help you. They don't say to you, "I can't help you with that" or "there is something wrong with the connection (no, there isn't)" or "You have to unlock your iPhone first".

There is still more that Siri can't do and can't answer than it can. And that will forever be a problem until it is replaced with actual AI. It appears that's what Apple plans to do with the Gemini models and iOS 27, but the mixed messaging about 26.4 update has people confused on what to expect.