Apple is rolling out its most significant Siri overhaul yet to a wider audience by releasing the iOS 27 public beta, giving regular users an early look at the revamped AI assistant before its official launch later this fall. This public beta marks the first time Apple has made its AI-enhanced Siri available beyond developers. With roughly 2.5 billion active devices globally, even a small fraction of users installing the public beta will create the largest real-world test of Apple’s redesigned AI assistant—its answer to competitors like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and others.

The Siri AI update, first unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, transforms the aging voice assistant into a far more capable, AI-powered tool. It can now access information stored on a user’s device, including emails, photos, and messages, respond to content displayed on the screen, and provide answers grounded in world knowledge—much like any modern AI chatbot. The integration goes deeper into the operating system as well. Users can activate Siri by saying “Hey Siri,” pressing the side button as before, or swiping down from the Dynamic Island (the black bar at the top of the screen). It’s also woven into Spotlight, the iPhone’s built-in search tool, making it more powerful because it can now handle nearly any question.

For the first time, Siri has its own standalone app—a feature that might appeal to those already comfortable with chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini. However, since Siri is so deeply embedded throughout the iPhone, accessing it via a separate app feels somewhat redundant. Beyond the iPhone running iOS 27, the upgraded Siri is available across all Apple products, including iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, CarPlay, AirPods, Apple TV, and Vision Pro.

Under the hood, Siri AI relies on Apple Intelligence, which includes Apple’s new Foundation Models that operate on the device and use its Private Cloud Compute. Apple developed these models in collaboration with Google and its Gemini model, but they are not simply a rebranded version of Gemini. Instead, Apple built them specifically for its Apple Silicon using proprietary data, and they distill Google’s Gemini—a process that creates smaller, highly efficient models integrated into iOS and other Apple software. Private Cloud Compute ensures that users’ personal data is neither stored nor accessible to Apple.

In early tests of the developer version of Siri AI, the assistant handled basic tasks more effectively, such as finding specific photos in your Photo Library, summarizing group texts, adding an appointment from a text message to your calendar, and looking up nutritional information for objects in your camera view. It also performed better at answering questions you’d normally search the web for, like details about upcoming local events or breaking news. However, the developer beta occasionally threw error messages or became confused—for instance, when asked for the latest news about Iran, Siri searched contacts for someone with that name.

Still, it’s easy to imagine Siri becoming a more integral part of your daily digital life, especially since it doesn’t require opening an app to use. Overall, the developer betas this year have been fairly stable, making the public beta much easier to recommend this time around. Of course, installing any beta should be approached with caution—if your device must run flawlessly without errors, it’s best to wait for the official public launch of iOS 27, expected in September.