Apple has released the iOS 27 public beta, giving iPhone owners their first broad access to the rebuilt Siri the company previewed at WWDC in June. The change is not a cosmetic voice-assistant tuneup. Apple is turning Siri into a system-level interface for search, writing, camera analysis and app context, which means it can now reach into more of the phone than the old “set a timer” assistant ever did.
Access is still gated. Users who install the beta must also join Apple’s Siri waitlist in Settings and wait for a notification before trying the new assistant, according to WIRED. Apple’s beta software also carries the usual risk of bugs, so the sensible move is backing up the device before installing it. Siri AI is not available on every phone that can run iOS 27: Apple limits it to the iPhone 15 Pro and newer models.
A chatbot app, plus search everywhere
The most visible addition is a standalone Siri app with a chat-style interface. WIRED describes it less as a full chatbot replacement and more as a place to review prior conversations and resume old threads. Users can also start new chats there, although Siri is now built into iPhone search, so the app is not the only front door.
Apple includes controls for how long Siri conversations remain visible. In Settings, under Siri AI, users can choose whether to keep chats forever, for a year or for 30 days. Older conversations are deleted from the app once the selected retention window expires.
The beta Siri app still lacks some features common in ChatGPT and Claude, according to WIRED. It does not currently store user preferences as persistent memory, so a user asking for recipe help may need to repeat dietary constraints in later chats.
The phone indexes itself
The larger technical shift is indexing. After installation, iOS builds a searchable on-device store of personal data for Siri and search. Recent developer betas label the process “Optimizing Search and Siri” and show a progress bar, WIRED reported. In one test, indexing took a little over a week, though Apple’s timing may vary by device, storage and beta version.
Josh Clark, principal at digital-design agency Big Medium and co-author of Sentient Design: Crafting Intelligent Interfaces with AI, told WIRED that Siri has access to context that services such as ChatGPT and Claude “can’t easily have” because Apple’s assistant is integrated into the operating system.
That access lets Siri draw from texts, calendars, photos and other local information when answering prompts. WIRED reported that Siri could summarize a week’s plans by pulling details from recent messages and calendar entries. Users can restrict some of that learning by going to Settings, opening Siri AI, selecting App Access and disabling “Learn from this App” for individual apps. The toggle is enabled by default when Siri AI is on, according to the beta description cited by WIRED.
Screen and camera awareness
Siri can also use what is visible on the display. WIRED tested a social post about Lorde criticizing Meta’s AI smart glasses and asked Siri where “she” had said it, without spelling out the subject. Siri used the visible screen context, identified the claim and returned links, according to the report.
Apple has also added a Siri tab to the Camera app. A central button asks Siri to analyze the scene and return a short explanation. Other controls let users send an image to Siri with a prompt or run a web image search.
Nabila Popal, a senior research director at IDC, told WIRED that Apple has integrated Siri AI across its ecosystem, including iPhones, iPads, Macs and Vision Pro. Android users with Google Gemini may recognize some of the pattern already. For iPhone owners, the beta marks Apple’s clearest attempt yet to make Siri less like a novelty voice button and more like a control layer for the device.
This story draws on original reporting from WIRED.
