What's New in Siri on iOS 15

This guide highlights all the new ‌Siri‌ features included in iOS (and iPadOS) 15.

Personalization and on-device voice processing

Starting with ‌iOS 15‌, voice processing and personalization are done on-device. This helps ‌Siri‌ process requests faster, but also more secure. Most audio requests made with ‌Siri‌ are kept entirely on the ‌iPhone‌ and are no longer uploaded to Apple's servers for processing.

‌Siri‌'s ability to recognize and understand commands is improved when using the device, with ‌Siri‌ 'learning and remembering' the most engaged contacts, newly typed words and topics priority, all of this information is kept on the device and is private.

Personalization and on-device voice processing enabled via Apple Neural Engine. This feature is available on iPhones and iPads with the A12 Bionic chip or later.

On-device processing is available in German, English (Australia, Canada, India, UK, USA), Spanish (Spain, Mexico, USA), French (France), Japanese (Japan) Version), Mandarin (Mainland China), and Cantonese (Hong Kong).

Offline support

With on-device processing now available, there are plenty of ‌Siri‌ requests that can be handled offline. ‌Siri‌ can create (and disable) timers and alarms, launch apps, control sound playback, and access Settings options.

Apple says ‌Siri‌ can also handle Messages, shares, and requests from the phone.

Share via Siri

When you come across something you want to share like a photo, website, Apple Music song, or podcast, you can ask ‌Siri‌ to send it to a friend or family member, and ‌Siri‌ will do it.

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If it's non-shareable content, such as a message thread, ‌Siri‌ will take a screenshot and send it. All you have to do is say "Send this to [recipient]" and ‌Siri‌ will confirm the request and then send it.

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This feature works with ‌Apple Music‌, Apple Podcasts, Apple News, Maps, websites, photos, Messages, and more.

Improved context between requests

‌Siri‌ in ‌iOS 15‌ can better maintain context between voice requests. So if you ask something like "How late is the Taco Bell open?" (How long is Taco Bell open?) and then "How long does it take to get there?" (How long does it take to get there?), ‌Siri‌ will understand that "there" is Taco Bell from the previous request.

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This tends to only work when there is a single object, as in a situation with multiple Taco Bells, ‌Siri‌ needs to be made clear which one you're talking about. For that reason, contextual enhancements are limited.

Contact

‌Siri‌ also understands that if a contact shows a notification on the screen, that's the person you want to talk to.

So, if you open the contacts app to find a specific person, are chatting with someone in Messages, get text notifications, or miss a call, you can say "Message them I'm on my" way" (Text them, I'm on my way) and ‌Siri‌ will know to send it to the relevant contact you just interacted with or opened.

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HomeKit Improvements

‌Siri‌ can now be used to control a HomeKit device at a specific time. So, if you want the lights to go out at 7 o'clock, you can say "Hey ‌Siri‌, turn off the bedroom lights at 7.pm". This command also works for geolocation, so you can say things like "Hey ‌Siri‌, turn off the air conditioning when I leave".

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When you ask ‌Siri‌ to control a ‌HomeKit‌ product in this way, it creates an automation in the "Automation" Home app. If you want to delete an automation that ‌Siri‌ has created, you can do so in the Home app.

‌HomeKit‌ developers can also add ‌Siri‌ support to their products in ‌iOS 15‌, but using the ‌Siri‌ command with third-party devices requires users to have a HomePod to route requests. With ‌Siri‌ integration, customers will be able to use ‌HomeKit‌ products for ‌Siri‌ commands such as setting reminders, controlling devices, broadcasting notifications, and more.

Notify

‌Siri‌ has been able to notify incoming calls and messages when using AirPods (or Beats headphones) for a while, but in ‌iOS 15‌, that feature is expanding to all notifications.

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‌Siri‌ can automatically prompt time-sensitive notifications when ‌AirPods‌ are connected, if you enable the feature in the Settings app (under ‌Siri‌ or Notifications), and there are also options for ‌Siri‌ to issue notifications on per-app basis (if you want to hear notifications from a specific app) but those should be time-insensitive.

Message notifications in CarPlay

There's now a feature for ‌Siri‌ to notify incoming messages when the ‌iPhone‌ is connected to the CarPlay setup.

There's an option to turn notifications on or off when a message is read, and ‌Siri‌ will remember your preference. This feature can also be turned on or off using the Settings app.

Reminder notifications with AirPods

In addition to notifications, ‌Siri‌ can also notify reminders that appear when wearing ‌AirPods‌ or compatible Beats headphones.

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Add Siri Suggestions to the Start Page on Safari

With the ability to customize the Start Page in ‌iOS 15‌, there's an option to add a section for ‌Siri‌ Suggestions for sites you might want to visit or content you'd like to see.

Language improvement

Text-to-speech has expanded to Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish in ‌iOS 15‌.

Apple has also added mixed English and Indian language support. ‌Siri‌ can handle commands in a combination of Indian English and native languages, with support for Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Bengali, Gujarati, Malayalam and Punjabi.

Siri for Developers

Apple is tweaking the SiriKit interface and removing some of the ‌Siri‌ commands that developers can use with third-party apps.

Starting with ‌iOS 15‌, customers won't be able to use ‌Siri‌ in third-party apps to do things like order Uber rides, pay bills, or create new to-do lists in the to-do app. Many of these ‌Siri‌ functions can be replaced with Shortcut options that can be activated with ‌Siri‌ voice commands.

The above are some improvements in the functionality of the virtual assistant Siri on iOS 15. Are you excited about these changes? 

Isabella Humphrey

Update 07 October 2021