Apple’s first iOS 27.3 developer beta, released on 3 November, lets any app hook into Siri AI. Until now only a limited set of app types could. Developers can now describe what their app does and let Siri carry out those actions for the user.
The feature is in a developer preview for now. It arrives for the public with iOS 27.3 and the matching iPadOS and macOS 27.3 releases, which Apple has not dated.
App skills let Siri chain actions
Apple’s new building block is the app skill. A developer uses App Intents to tell Siri what the app can do, and a skill can join several of those actions into one request. Take a flight-tracking app, the example 9to5Mac cites: its skill can tell Siri which of the app’s actions suit a given question. Siri will also work out which app you mean from context: with a ride-sharing Live Activity running, asking to change the destination should reach that app without naming it.
More that Siri can do in Apple’s own apps
Apple is widening what Siri AI does inside its own software too. Apple says Siri can now take on longer jobs in fifteen of its apps, from Mail, Messages and Maps to Photos, Preview, Journal and Shortcuts. Asking Siri what it can do in a given app lists the options. The examples Apple gave include:
- Mail: unsubscribing from a mailing list and undoing a message you just sent.
- Safari: wiping browsing history, juggling tabs and windows, adding articles to the Reading List and closing tabs that are duplicates.
- Weather: adding places to your list and switching its alerts on or off.
- Files: organising content and deleting files you have not opened for a set time.
Siri AI is also coming to Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, Turkish and Norwegian. The Apple Intelligence launch in China is part of the same release.
Beta software can have bugs, and Apple often changes or pulls features before the final release. Anyone installing the beta on a main iPhone should expect that. Apple has not given a release date for iOS 27.3.
