Apple Opens Siri AI Public Beta with iOS 27, Bringing Chatbot-Like Capabilities to iPhones

Apple has released the iOS 27 public beta, opening its biggest-ever Siri overhaul to a broader audience. The update transforms Siri from a basic voice assistant into a capable AI chatbot that can access personal data — emails, photos, messages — and answer questions using world knowledge, similar to ChatGPT or Gemini.

The public beta arrives after a June WWDC announcement and a developer beta period. It makes the AI assistant available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, CarPlay, AirPods, Apple TV, and Vision Pro. Users can invoke Siri by voice, side button, or a new swipe gesture from the Dynamic Island. It also integrates with Spotlight search and now has its own standalone app.

Under the hood, Siri AI runs on Apple Intelligence, leveraging Apple's Foundation Models built in collaboration with Google. These are not a Gemini rebrand; Apple used Gemini to distill smaller, efficient models optimized for Apple Silicon. Privacy is handled by Private Cloud Compute, which keeps user data off Apple's servers.

Early developer tests show Siri handling tasks like finding photos, summarizing texts, adding calendar events from messages, and answering factual questions. However, the beta still has rough edges — one tester asked for news about Iran and got a contact search instead. Despite these glitches, the overall stability of this year's developer betas makes the public beta more reliable than in past years.

As with any beta, users should install cautiously. A full public launch is expected in September.