Apple’s WWDC 2025 had new software program, Method 1 references, and a piano man crooning the textual content of various app evaluations. However one key characteristic received the quick finish of the stick: Siri.
Though the corporate constantly referenced Apple Intelligence and pushed new options like stay translation for Messages, FaceTime, and telephone calls, Apple’s AI assistant was barely talked about. The truth is, probably the most consideration Siri received was when Apple defined that a few of its beforehand promised options have been operating not on time.
To handle what many noticed because the elephant within the room, Apple’s keynote briefly talked about that it had up to date Siri to be “extra pure and extra useful,” however that personalization options have been nonetheless on the horizon. These options have been first talked about ultimately yr’s WWDC, with a rollout timeline “over the course of the next year.”
“We’re persevering with our work to ship the options that make Siri much more private,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s SVP of software program engineering, stated throughout Monday’s keynote. “This work wanted extra time to achieve our top quality bar, and we sit up for sharing extra about it within the coming yr.”
Apple’s relative silence on Siri stands out
Apple has long been criticized for the shortcomings of Apple Intelligence and for falling behind opponents like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google within the race to construct generative AI apps and providers. Apple’s AI fashions are not often talked about alongside its opponents in relation to energy customers exploring real-life advantages, not to mention extra superior AI agent capabilities.
The corporate’s relative silence on a customized Siri this yr stood out for a handful of causes. For one, there’s Apple’s personal advertising push: final yr, it ran TV ads for a revamped Siri displaying options that also haven’t arrived.
Then there are Apple’s opponents. Google and Microsoft are each pushing laborious on AI and transferring to quickly combine it into their working methods. For instance, forward of Google’s I/O conference final month, Android customers have been the first to get free access to a stay Gemini characteristic that allowed the AI assistant to see and reply to photographs and gadgets in your display screen. And as a part of Microsoft’s Construct convention final month, Microsoft introduced AI shortcuts in Home windows 11’s File Explorer that allow customers click on on a file and instantly see options like blurring facets of a photograph or summarizing content material.
In the meantime, Apple Intelligence’s stumbles have given folks a lot to poke enjoyable at within the months since their rollout. The characteristic’s rocky debut included notification summaries so off the mark that the corporate disabled them for some app classes after the BBC reported the device would conflate a number of headlines into inaccurate synopses.
The corporate’s technique on Monday was to roll out a large swath of small, useful updates powered by Apple Intelligence — and partly by ChatGPT — that would assist it catch as much as opponents by way of translation and search. Apple’s Picture Playground now integrates with OpenAI’s technology, and customers can faucet into ChatGPT to alter a pal’s picture into the fashion of an oil portray or different varieties of artwork. Apple gave developers access to the on-device giant language mannequin behind Apple Intelligence, and it additionally debuted live translation features that permit customers to translate between languages in Messages, FaceTime, and telephone calls.
At WWDC, Apple additionally pushed visual intelligence features aimed toward permitting customers to “search and take motion on something they’re viewing” throughout completely different apps. “Customers can ask ChatGPT questions on what they’re on their display screen to study extra, in addition to search Google, Etsy, or different supported apps to seek out comparable pictures and merchandise,” in accordance with Apple.
Some had been ready for Apple to make use of WWDC as a chance to announce it was increasing its AI choices for iOS past ChatGPT — as an illustration, permitting Siri to faucet into Google’s Gemini for advanced person queries — however that didn’t occur this time round.
Final June, throughout a stay session after an Apple keynote, Federighi mentioned that he hopes Apple Intelligence will finally permit customers “to decide on the fashions they need,” particularly name-dropping Gemini. One in every of Apple’s backend updates in February hinted at a Gemini integration, and in April, throughout Google’s search monopoly trial proceedings, CEO Sundar Pichai stated the corporate plans to ink a take care of Apple by mid-2025, with a rollout by the top of this yr. Everybody’s nonetheless ready for that.