Apple just pushed iOS 27 into its first public beta, and buried inside a modest “Snow Leopard” style update is the one thing people have been waiting years for: a genuinely rebuilt Siri. According to The Verge AI, whose reviewer has been testing the software since early June, Apple shipped the revamped Siri AI as an opt-in beta program. And this time, it might have actually pulled it off.
Most of iOS 27 is about fixing and speeding up what already exists. The Verge AI reports that app launches, Photos search, and AirDrop transfers are all faster, Messages now supports in-line replies and end-to-end encryption for RCS, and the Liquid Glass interface reads more clearly around hard edges and text. Useful stuff, especially on older iPhones. But the headline is Siri.
What actually changed
The core shift is how you talk to your phone. Before, you opened an app and told it what to do. Now you say what you want first, and Siri tries to work across your apps and the web to handle it.
Some of the capabilities The Verge AI highlights:
- Onscreen awareness. Ask Siri about whatever is on your screen and it can answer or act on it, like pulling up directions to an address you’re looking at.
- Cross-app actions. In one test, “Can you add my WWDC briefings to my calendar?” had Siri read the reviewer’s email, parse the details, and create six correctly timed events.
- Web reasoning on the fly. Asked which order bands were playing at a concert, Siri scanned the event page, searched the web, and returned the answer without the user opening a browser.
The reviewer’s takeaway is telling: Siri has “practically stopped me from opening my browser for most things.” That’s a real behavior change, and it’s the kind of shift Apple needs if this version is going to stick.
Where it still trips
This is a beta, and it shows. The Verge AI is candid about the rough edges, and they’re worth knowing before you get your hopes up.
- Literal interpretation. Asked to “remind me to buy these tickets when they go on sale” on a concert page, Siri just made a reminder with that exact title instead of understanding the context. Rephrasing to “buy tickets to this” triggered the smarter behavior.
- Keyword sensitivity. “Route me” to a location usually did nothing, while “direct me” worked. For a system built on natural language, leaning on specific trigger words is frustrating.
- Apple-only reach. Right now only Apple apps get the new Siri powers. If your life lives in Messages, Mail, Photos, and Reminders, it feels like the future. Ask “When did Daniel say he was free to play Dota?” and Siri draws a blank, because that conversation happened in Telegram, which it can’t see.
That last point is the big one. The magic depends on Siri having access to your data, and today that means staying inside Apple’s ecosystem.
How third-party apps get in
Apple’s fix is a developer framework built on two pieces. Entities describe the kind of data an app holds (a photo, recipe, playlist, or note), so Siri knows what it can pull. Intents tell Siri what it can do with that data, like play, save, or delete. Siri’s semantic layer handles understanding your request. Once outside apps adopt both, the assistant’s blind spots should start closing.
What stands out here is that Apple didn’t ship a finished product. It shipped a foundation. The word-correlation quirks will likely smooth out as more usage data comes in, and the ecosystem lock-in eases only when developers do the integration work. But the underlying idea, talking to your phone and having it act across your whole digital life, finally feels within reach rather than promised.
For the full hands-on breakdown, including screenshots of where Siri stumbles, check the original report at The Verge AI.