Hands on: Siri starts to get better owing to Apple Intelligence

Apple Intelligence now available
Apple Intelligence is now available, along with a completely refreshed Siri. Let’s look at what’s new with Siri and how it’s improving. According to the people we’ve spoken to, Apple’s voice assistant Siri will be the most anticipated upgrade with Apple Intelligence. It’s past time that Apple upgraded Siri to make it a viable option to other virtual assistants. It’s not the best before the Apple Intelligence update that will be in some version iOS 18. We’ve upgraded our iPhone 15 Pro Max – one of the two supported iPhone models – to the iOS 18.1 Beta, Apple’s big AI drive. It’s expected to arrive in October. While Siri’s new look is available as of August 2, 2020, many of its features are not yet available. It’s hard to tell how powerful the new AI-powered Siri is at this stage. Subscribe to AppleInsider YouTube Regardless, let’s look at how Siri is improving and what we still need. Apple Intelligence Siri’s new appearance Siri has a new look. The small glassy orb is gone and replaced by a colorful animation that emanates from the edges your phone. Siri looks good with Apple IntelligenceIt works on iPhone, iPad and even CarPlay. This light responds to your voice and moves like an onscreen visualizer. The animation will spread out from the top-right corner if you invoke Siri by pressing the side button. If you use the keyboard or your voice, it will come in from the sides. The keyboard is also new. Double-tap the bottom of your screen to bring up a keyboard where you can type your Siri questions. Double-tap the bottom of your screen to type Siri’s questions. It is easy to switch between typing and verbal questions. Tap the microphone button at the bottom right of the keyboard if you prefer to speak. Apple Intelligence – A better understanding Siri’s awareness has been improved. It isn’t just a new paint job. It can remember context even when you stumble. Siri will respond correctly to “Can you check weather tomorrow? No, no, check weather for Tuesday in Cupertino.” The legacy version of Siri returns a variety of weather information. If you say “set an alarm for three hours” but meant to say “set a three-hour timer”, the old Siri would set a five-hour timer, while the new Siri will set the alarm for 3PM. The context is vastly enhanced, aside from stutters. You can ask questions that require understanding of the previous question and its response. You can’t, for example, ask “old” Siri to “check when the Cleveland Guardians game will be?” and then add “that looks good; add that to my schedule.” The new Siri interface is better for many searches. The soon-to be outdated Siri gives you the Guardian’s calendar and then creates an empty calendar appointment without any attached information. The new Siri was able to perform the task. The updated Siri allows us to ask follow-up questions, such as adding a game on our schedule after asking what time the game was. You can ask Siri in the home to turn off all the lights, and then add “and those in the living room too.” Apple’s voice assistant is still unable to answer compounded questions. It can only answer one question if you combine two questions. We wish this worked with the upgraded Siri. “Text Faith and ask her what she wants me make for dinner. Then set a notification to start cooking by 5,” gave us one text message that contained the following: “what do you need me to cook for dinner? Then set a notice to start cooking by 5.” This may improve as the beta continues. Apple Intelligence: Product Knowledge AppleInsider’s readers will appreciate the next feature coming to Siri via Apple Intelligence. It will be able answer questions about Apple’s products, which will help reduce those late-night support calls that we are all familiar with. Siri can answer a variety of questions about your phone. You can ask questions like “how can I send a text message later?” or “how can I fix a picture when someone is blinking?” We have tested a few of these, and so far we’ve had mixed results. When it worked, Siri gave us search results to find out how to blink in photos. It gave us step-by-step directions on how to accomplish whatever we asked. It also included the two examples above. It was thrown for a loop when you asked “How do I record my omeprazole intake for the day?” This is not far from “how do i log medicine on my iphone”, which gave good results. Medicine databases are available and huge. Apple Intelligence should theoretically be able to understand context well enough to know that omeprazole was a medicine, and what we asked for. It is possible that average users don’t know how to ask a question in a way that will elicit a correct answer, so Apple Intelligence’s ability to parse this information needs to be improved. This is a beta version, so we hope that things will improve before the full launch. Apple has a new feedback feature when using Siri that can help provide the necessary guidance. Apple Intelligence – More of the Same — for Now The new keyboard and design have caused us to use Siri a lot more in the last few days. The more we use Siri, the more obvious it becomes that Siri is largely the same. While they may look better, many results still open a web browser or show web views. Siri is still not able to do much more than before, despite all the improvements. Siri is Siri. It’s obvious. It is currently missing a lot in terms of functionality compared to other virtual assistants. The old Siri orb has disappeared. The good news is that most of these features are on their way. Siri has only released a few new features, besides answering questions about your smartphone. Siri will be able take action and respond based upon what you are looking at in future updates. It will also be able understand personal context by pulling from your calendar, emails, messages, and more. Plus, it will be able to use a dozen different app intents in order to perform actions on third-party applications. These actions are applicable to browsers, eReaders and photo and camera apps. Siri will be getting ChatGPT later this yearNot to forget the much-anticipated integration with ChatGPT. This, along with other LLMs will add a wealth knowledge that is currently missing. All of these things will help Siri become a much better assistant. Only time will tell whether it is enough. Apple Intelligence, iPadOS 18.1, macOS Sequoia 15.1, and iOS 18.1 are all set to be released this fall.