When Apple unveils iOS 27 on June 8, the company may reveal the first dedicated Siri app as part of the new system. Mark Gurman at Bloomberg has a new report that includes new details about Apple’s next attempt at embracing AI.
Siri as a standalone app
Gurman has previously reported that Apple is planning an upgrade to Siri in iOS 27 that treats the virtual assistant more like a dedicated AI chatbot.
Apple, of course, struck a deal with Google to use the competitor’s Gemini AI models to power upcoming Siri and Apple Intelligence features. Apple hasn’t released any of those features yet, but it first previewed them at WWDC 2024.
Apple later delayed its Personal Intelligence features beyond the iOS 18 release cycle. With iOS 26.4 now officially out, we hope to see the first Gemini-powered Siri and Apple Intelligence features in iOS 26.5.
Meanwhile, Gurman says that Apple has been testing a standalone app version of Siri. With iOS 27 just around the corner, this report is a good sign that we’ll see this materialize in June.
Gurman says that Apple’s dedicated Siri app is being tested on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The report dives into more details about how the app will look. It sounds like it will work a lot like Messages and borrow cues from existing AI chat apps.
A new Siri style
Top comment by Happy Hippopotamus
I think a lot of people, myself included, get confused about what Siri actually is. For a long time I assumed that when I was using speech-to-text in the Messages app, I was using Siri, but that is not the case. While both rely on speech recognition, they are different systems.
So I have to revise my view a bit. For simple tasks like creating an appointment or sending a message, Siri works reasonably well. Where it struggles is with certain contact names, especially ones that are long or not English. For example, if I say “call Natchimuthoo”, it often misinterprets it and starts dialling someone else entirely.
The real frustration for me is the voice-to-text dictation when writing messages. That has been unreliable for years. It will change “I won’t” to “I will” or the other way around, which can completely alter the meaning and has caused problems for me more than once.
On another occasion, I asked Siri for directions to a local shopping centre that I had only visited once before. Instead of giving me nearby directions, it directed me to a similarly named location in the United States, even suggesting that I take a boat across the ocean. That kind of error makes it difficult to rely on the system, even for fairly basic, location-based requests.
Unsurprisingly, the new Siri experience will reportedly include a new look as well. Apple last redesigned Siri as part of iOS 18, and the look has generally stayed the same through iOS 26.
The piece also includes details about how the next Siri design as part of iOS 27 on the iPhone will look:
One new design in testing places Siri at the top of the screen within the Dynamic Island, the mini-interface that Apple introduced in 2022. After it’s activated, Siri will prompt the user to “Search or Ask.”
When processing a request, a pill-shaped indicator labeled “Searching” appears, alongside a glowing Siri icon. Once results are ready, the interface expands into a larger translucent panel with Apple’s Liquid Glass design. Users can pull the menu down further to begin conversing back and forth.
Beyond a Siri app and redesign, Gurman reports that Apple is working on integrating Siri throughout the system in new ways with an “Ask Siri” toggle. Apple will also reportedly lean into the more capable Siri with a “Write with Siri” feature.
You can read the report in full at Bloomberg for all the details. Meanwhile, stay tuned to 9to5Mac as we head into WWDC season. Apple announced dates for its developer conference this week: June 8 through June 12.
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