Julie Clover
With Apple Intelligence, Apple aims to make Siri smarter than ever before. The personal assistant will be able to learn more about you, do more in your apps, and hand over the reins to a smarter virtual assistant when needed.
Some new features in Siri are available now, and some won't be available until 2025. This guide covers everything new in Siri powered by Apple Intelligence.
Updated Siri Design
Siri has a refreshed design on devices that support Apple Intelligence. Instead of the small wavelength that previously appeared when Siri was activated, a pink, purple, blue, and orange glow now appears around your entire iPhone, with the colors shifting as Siri listens for a command.
Better Language Understanding
Siri can better understand spoken language and queries, so if you stumble or change your mind mid-sentence, Siri can still understand what you're saying.
Siri can also preserve context between requests, so you can refer to something in a previous request and Siri will understand what you're talking about. So if you're using Siri to create a calendar event, you can just ask “What's the weather going to be like there?” and Siri will understand where “there” is.
Improved Voice
Siri has a new, more natural-sounding voice.
Type to Siri
There's a built-in “Type to Siri” feature that lets you type in text from your iPhone or iPad. feature, so you don't have to speak to Siri to interact with your personal assistant. To use it, double-tap the bottom of your iPhone or iPad to open the text panel, then from there, simply type your request.
The “Type to Siri” feature can be used in the same way as talking to Siri, and Siri can provide information without speaking out loud. This is a useful feature for social situations when you can't speak and don't want Siri to respond to you.
- iOS 18.1: How to Type with Siri
Siri on the Mac
While this guide focuses on iPhone and iPad, the new, smarter Siri is also available on the Mac. You can turn on Type with Siri in the Settings app, and it can be assigned to a keyboard shortcut, such as double-pressing the Command key.
Apple Product Knowledge
Apple has taught Siri about all of its products, so if you want to know how to use a feature or how to complete a task, you can ask Siri for help. Siri can provide step-by-step instructions on how to use features on the iPhone, iPad, and iPad. and Mac.
ChatGPT integration (iOS 18.2)
In iOS 18.2, ChatGPT integration is available with Siri. If the user asks something that Siri can't handle, ChatGPT can provide the answer instead if the user grants permission.
Siri can connect to ChatGPT and then pass the answer to ChatGPT without having to switch apps or use other tools.
Siri Integration ChatGPT can essentially be used to do anything you can do with the ChatGPT app or ChatGPT on the web, it's just an easier way to access ChatGPT.
Object Identification
For anything on your screen, like an image, you can ask Siri a question about it. For example, if you have a photo of a plant, asking “What is this?” will prompt Siri to send a screenshot to ChatGPT, and ChatGPT will try to provide context.
This works with images on the web, your photos, things you view through the Camera app, text, and more.
ChatGPT can be used to describe a scene, which is useful for people who may have vision problems. Open the Camera app, activate Siri, and ask “What’s this?” to get a detailed description of what’s in front of you.
The ability to send images from screenshots in ChatGPT is different from the Siri screen awareness feature that Apple plans to implement in the future.
Information from documents
For emails, documents, PDFs, and more, ChatGPT can provide a summary. When you ask “Can you summarize this?” Siri will send a screenshot or the entire document, including full PDFs. This is a useful feature for quickly reviewing the contents of a long document.
For long PDFs or documents, you will need to click the arrows to ensure that the entire document is sent to ChatGPT, not just a screenshot.
Instead of asking for a summary, you can ask a specific question about the document. If you're reviewing an insurance policy, you can ask “What are the limitations of this policy?” or “What are the exclusions?” to get more personalized information.
Checking spelling and grammar
If you've written an email, instead of selecting it and using Write Tools to check for spelling and grammar errors, you can ask Siri to take a look at it, and Siri will send a screenshot to ChatGPT. “Can you review this for errors?” works as a command for this function.
ChatGPT can also be used to rewrite and clarify what you've written, but note that it's not the same as Apple's own Writing Tools.
Generating Text and Images
ChatGPT can generate text from scratch based on the prompts you provide. For example, you can ask Siri to ask ChatGPT to write a poem or compose a polite letter to a friend, and ChatGPT will create something from scratch.
Some example queries you can use:
- Write me a poem about Apple
- Create a song about Google
- Help me write a letter to my friend
- Write three paragraphs about ginger cats
- Write me a social media post about Thanksgiving
- Rewrite this to make it more concise
- Create a bedtime story about a dragon
If ChatGPT has written something for you, you can click the copy icon to copy it to the clipboard and paste it into notes, messages, a document, or an email.
You can also generate images. Using the Dall-E 3 engine, ChatGPT can create realistic AI-generated images, something that Apple Intelligence can't do. For image requests, the easiest thing to do is tell Siri “Tell ChatGPT to make an image of [the thing you want an image of]” because if you just ask Siri to make an image or generate an image, it will often return web images.
Answering Questions
One of the best uses for ChatGPT via Siri is to get answers to queries that are too complex for Siri to answer. Questions that Siri can't handle will be passed to ChatGPT with your permission, but you can also force Siri to use ChatGPT instead of Siri's internal engine by changing the questions with “Ask ChatGPT”.
For example, a question about what kind of battery does an Xbox controller use would be sent to Wikipedia instead of ChatGPT, but specifically “Ask ChatGPT what kind of battery does an Xbox controller use” would prompt Siri to submit the question to ChatGPT.
ChatGPT responses can sometimes be more informative. If you ask Siri what to substitute for eggs in a recipe, you'll only get a few alternatives, but ChatGPT's answer to the same question will give you the amount of an ingredient you might want to add to equal an egg.
Some examples of queries that Siri would automatically turn to ChatGPT for:
- What are the five edible mushrooms found in North Carolina?
- What to pack for a trip to the beach in winter?
- What are the must-see places in Paris?
- What should I do this weekend?
- I want a banana bread recipe
- Give me instructions for slicing a mango
- When is avocado season?
- Suggest good songs for a quiet Friday night
- What are some indoor activities when it's raining?
What else can you ask ChatGPT to do
- Write code
- Debug code
- Get help with homework
- Perform calculations, translations, conversions, and more
- Generate gift ideas
- Give names to businesses, pets, characters, and more
- Create questions or riddles
- Plan a trip
- Create meal plans
- Get recipes for ingredients you have
- Create jokes
- Suggest movies, TV shows, and books based on certain parameters
- Summarize TV shows and movies
- Create drawing/writing prompts
While Siri can do all of these things with ChatGPT, the lack of continuity with the ChatGPT version of Siri makes it difficult to complete tasks that aren't one-off requests. For example, creating a meal plan works better with the actual ChatGPT interface because you can have a more meaningful conversation rather than relying on a single request.
ChatGPT Settings and Privacy
ChatGPT integration must be enabled, and after that, every request requires user permission. There is an option to disable the additional permission by turning off the “Confirm ChatGPT requests” option.
The toggle can be accessed by opening the Settings app, selecting Apple Intelligence, and then tapping ChatGPT. With this feature disabled, Siri will not ask for permission every time before sending information to ChatGPT. However, Siri will always ask for permission before sending a file to ChatGPT, even if the confirmation prompts feature is disabled. As for privacy, ChatGPT does not require signing in, and neither Apple nor OpenAI logs your requests. However, if you sign in to a paid account, ChatGPT may keep a copy of your requests.
ChatGPT – Free vs. Paid
The ChatGPT integration includes a limited number of requests that use ChatGPT-4o, the latest version of ChatGPT, for free. Once those are used up, the ChatGPT integration uses 4o Mini, which is less advanced and uses fewer resources.
ChatGPT Plus subscribers get more ChatGPT-4o requests. ChatGPT Plus costs $20 per month, and iPhone users who don’t already have ChatGPT Plus can sign up directly from the Apple Intelligence section of the Settings app.
Apple users essentially have access to ChatGPT’s basic plan, so requests that use advanced features are reset every 24 hours. With this plan, you can create two images per day.
ChatGPT vs. Apple Intelligence
The capabilities of Apple Intelligence and the integration capabilities of ChatGPT overlap to some extent, but there are also some differences. Apple Intelligence has tools for rewriting and editing what has already been written, but ChatGPT can write content from scratch.
Image Playground, Image Wand, and Genmoji let you create images, but Apple Intelligence won't create realistic images. Instead, styles are limited to those that look animated or sketchy. ChatGPT will create realistic images, however.
Apple Intelligence can be used to summarize documents, but only if you select the text and choose the Summarize option in the writing tools. Apple Intelligence can't answer more specific questions about PDFs and documents, so ChatGPT has an advantage for these types of queries.
ChatGPT Limitations
When you ask ChatGPT a question through Siri, you'll need to be sure to read the answer right away because it doesn't stay on the screen for long. Apple doesn't keep track of it either.
If you're signed in to ChatGPT, there's a history in your OpenAI account, but if you're not signed in, there's no way to save the information you get from ChatGPT and no log.
Other Chatbots
Apple has just added ChatGPT integration, but Google Gemini support is planned for the future.
Siri Apple Intelligence Features Coming Next Year
There are several Siri features that are still in development, and Apple plans to add those capabilities to Siri next year. The timing isn't set yet, but rumors suggest we'll see it in iOS 18.4 this spring.
Personal Context
Siri will be able to monitor your emails, messages, files, photos, and more, learning more about you to help you complete tasks and keep track of what's been sent to you.
- Show me the files Eric sent me last week.
- Find the email where Eric mentioned ice skating.
- Find books Eric recommended to me.
- Where is the recipe Eric sent me?
- What is my passport number?
Onscreen awareness
Siri will be able to identify what's on your screen and take actions related to what you're looking at. For example, if someone sends you an address, you can ask Siri to add it to your contacts card. Or if you're looking at a photo and want to send it to someone, you can ask Siri to do it for you.
Deeper app integration
Siri will be able to do more within and between apps, performing actions and completing tasks that are simply not possible with a personal assistant today. We don't have a full picture of what Siri will be capable of, but Apple has provided some examples of what to expect.
- Moving files from one app to another.
- Editing a photo and then sending it to someone.
- Getting directions home and giving Eric an arrival schedule.
- Sending an email I wrote to Eric.
The Next Phase of Siri
After all the Siri Apple Intelligence features have been implemented in iOS 18, Apple plans to introduce the next generation of Siri, which will rely on large language models. An LLM version of Siri is already in development, and it will be able to better compete with chatbots like ChatGPT.
LLM Siri will be able to support ongoing conversations, and it will feel more like talking to a human. Integrating a larger language model will allow Siri to perform more complex tasks, and in the future Siri will likely not need ChatGPT.
An updated version of Siri will replace the current version of Siri in the future. Apple is expected to announce the Siri LLM in 2025 with the release of iOS 19, but the update will likely not launch until spring 2026.
Apple Intelligence Privacy
Apple Intelligence was designed with privacy in mind, and many requests are processed on-device. For example, all personalized contextual learning is performed using on-device intelligence, and nothing leaves your iPhone. or iPad.
For queries that require the computing power of a cloud server, Apple uses Private Cloud Compute on Apple silicon machines to handle complex tasks while maintaining user privacy. Apple promises that data is not stored and is only used for user queries.
Devices compatible with Apple Intelligence
Apple Intelligence is available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, all iPhone 16 models, iPad mini with A17 Pro, all iPads with Apple silicon, and all Macs with Apple silicon.
Learn more
We've shared detailed tutorials on Genmoji and Image Playground, plus we have a general guide to the full set of Apple Intelligence features and a guide to the general features coming in iOS 18.2.
- Genmoji in iOS 18.2
- Image Playground in iOS 18.2
- Apple Intelligence Image Wand: All the New Features in iOS 18.2
- Everything You Need to Know About Apple Intelligence
- Everything New in iOS 18.2 Beta
Release Date
iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 with Image Wand The integration will happen in December, and Apple will likely schedule the software release for December 9.
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