Apple is testing a standalone app for its Siri voice assistant, along with a new “Ask Siri” feature that will work seamlessly across the company’s software platforms, as part of a broader artificial intelligence overhaul, Mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg News.
The updated Siri is designed to more effectively control features across iPhones, iPads, and Macs, access personal data, and engage users in natural, conversational interactions via both text and voice.
The new Siri is expected to be unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference as part of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27. It will include a redesigned interface, the ability to perform tasks directly within apps, and access to news content as well as the open web.
Many of the new features are powered by updated versions of Apple’s in-house models, known as Apple Foundation Models, which were developed in collaboration with technology from Google Gemini.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
After struggling to gain traction with Apple Intelligence, the company has been working to rebuild the AI platform around the new version of Siri. The goal is to transform the technology from a traditional voice assistant into a systemwide AI agent with deep integration across applications.
The updated Siri, code-named Campo, is designed to better control features within iPhones and Macs and tap into personal data — like messages, notes and emails — to fulfill requests. It also will be able to complete tasks within apps, access news content, and search the open web using Apple-built interfaces and models.
The most significant change is the ability to interact with users in a conversational, chat-like format — through text and voice. The move represents a clear break from the current Siri experience, which lacks conversational capabilities, and marks a strategic shift for the company… Even so, Apple is unlikely to characterize its new technology as a chatbot.
As part of the shift toward this approach, Apple is testing a dedicated Siri app for the iPhone, iPad and Mac later this year. It rivals outside AI tools while also giving users a central place to access their past interactions.
The app’s main interface will display prior conversations in either a list or a grid of rounded rectangles with text previews. Users can pin favorite chats, save older conversations, search across interactions and start new chats via a prominent plus button.
The conversation view resembles a thread in Apple’s Messages app, with chat bubbles and a text entry field. It also includes a toggle for switching in and out of voice mode and an option to upload attachments — such as documents and photos — for analysis…
Users will still be able to trigger Siri via the power button or voice command, but Apple is testing a redesigned interface that replaces the glowing edges effect introduced in iOS 18.
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…
Apple is also working to replace its existing on-device search system, Spotlight, with Siri.
MacDailyNews Take: Even given the current sorry state of Siri, subsuming Spotlight into Siri is long overdue.
The current fragmented experience — invoking Spotlight for on-device searches and Siri for everything else — has always felt clunky. A unified, more intelligent systemwide agent that can handle both local content search and deeper actions, especially with the expected deeper personal data access and app control in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27, should finally deliver the seamless experience Apple has long been building toward.
If the overhauled Siri (with its chatbot-like interface, redesigned UI, and third-party AI extensions) lives up to the promises, this integration could be one of the more practical upgrades users notice day-to-day.
Our little birdies continue chirping Very Good Things™ about the all-new Siri!
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