Apple’s new Siri app preview shows how it plans to rival ChatGPT
▼ Summary
– Leaked renders show a redesigned Siri that can be triggered from the iPhone’s Dynamic Island for quick queries, with responses also appearing there.
– A new Siri-powered search mode, accessed by swiping down like Spotlight, will use an AI model built on Google’s Gemini technology.
– Apple is partnering with outside AI firms, similar to its Google search deal, while developing its own on-device AI models to prioritize privacy.
– A standalone Siri app is planned to rival ChatGPT, featuring chat history, document and photo uploads, and text interaction.
– Apple’s advantage is its 2.5 billion device install base, which far exceeds ChatGPT’s 900 million weekly users, offering a large audience for its AI features.
Just ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Bloomberg has published leaked renders showing what the company’s planned AI upgrade could look like on iPhone. The images, produced based on what Bloomberg saw and learned from sources, reveal a brand-new Siri app designed to rival ChatGPT and other AI chatbots, along with deeper integration of Siri’s new capabilities throughout the operating system.
In iOS 27, users will still be able to press a button to trigger Siri, but the animation and response will now emerge from the iPhone’s Dynamic Island , the black pill-shaped area at the top of the screen currently used for Live Activities. This mode works best for quick voice queries or searches, much like how people use Siri today. A new mode, however, puts AI-powered Siri search within easy reach by capitalizing on muscle memory for swiping down to access Spotlight Search. That gesture will still open search, but now those searches draw on a rebuilt AI model that uses Google’s Gemini AI technology under the hood for added intelligence.
From this interface, iPhone users can search, launch apps, start messages, check the weather, add calendar appointments, search notes, and trigger app shortcuts. Results appear as formatted text in a card-style display that also emerges from the Dynamic Island. Apple’s approach mirrors its earlier multibillion-dollar partnership with Google that made Google the default search engine on iPhone. Just as building a search engine from scratch was never in Apple’s playbook, AI presents a similar calculus , it’s too expensive and complex to go it alone, at least right now. So Apple is working with outside partners for AI technology users want today, while simultaneously building its own models, including local AI that runs on devices rather than the cloud. This approach lets Apple lean into its privacy brand without needing to catch up.
Bloomberg also notes there will be a new standalone Siri app , as previously reported , designed to compete directly with chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others. The app will surface past chat history and allow users to upload documents and photos, in addition to text. Scale remains Apple’s biggest advantage. While ChatGPT now has 900 million weekly active users, Apple’s install base , all devices, not just iPhone , stands at 2.5 billion. That gives the company an unmatched runway to introduce AI to people who haven’t yet adopted standalone AI tools.
(Source: TechCrunch)
