iPhone iOS 18.1's Siri Debuts New Looks, But Promised Features Still Missing?

The revamp of Siri has been one of the most anticipated experiences under iOS 18.1, and since the arrival of this version, users who have eligible devices have already seen what the new and improved AI assistant has to offer. However, it is not yet all of the advanced features that the Cupertino giant promised to the world, and despite it already featuring Apple Intelligence, the AI voice assistant still has more to offer.

That being said, Apple already fulfilled some of its promises for Siri's modernization upgrades, and while they are lacking from what they claimed, it is a great way to get started on your daily experiences.

Siri Revamp Features on iPhones via iOS 18.1

The latest report from 9to5Mac highlights that the current Siri is not yet the "complete" revamped version despite Apple rolling out iOS 18.1, and while it already offers significant changes, there is more the AI assistant can offer. Based on its announcements from this year's WWDC, Apple has already delivered the revamp's promised features, especially with Siri's new look.

Whenever summoning Siri, users who have eligible iPhones, including the iPhone 15 Pro and later devices, the animation will no longer be the orb but will have Siri light up the screen's edges. Additionally, users may double-tap the home indicator bar to easily summon the AI assistant instead of using voice commands, for those who want to type.

This iOS 18.1 Siri version can easily understand words, offers in-depth knowledge of Apple products based on user manuals to guide users and can answer questions better.

Siri Promised Features Not Yet Complete

However, the report claimed that Siri is not yet "smarter' compared to its previous version, particularly as the iOS 18.2 update will be the first to roll out the anticipated improvements that will offer generative AI, as well as its ChatGPT integration, coming this December.

The next massive upgrade will come by 2025 with iOS 18.4, as Siri will be able to unlock "personal context" in this update, and it is where it can take into account one's data when answering queries or pulling up information. It is also in this version that Siri can be more of a "proactive" assistant that can edit messages, photos and more.

Siri Revamp with Apple Intelligence

Siri and Apple Intelligence were announced during the WWDC 2024 event, and it gave the world significant promises on what kind of on-device experiences are coming for users, offering massive improvements to the AI-powered features. It has been a long wait for Siri to get this upgrade as the AI assistant remained almost stagnant with its features as Apple did not bring significant updates before this.

With this, Apple introduced the next-generation features of its AI assistant to the world, offering improvements to its user interface (UI) which changes from the pop-up orb animation to the edges of the entire screen lighting up. It also gets Apple Intelligence improvements for generative AI and other experiences for on-device AI, as well as OpenAI's ChatGPT integration.

This massive introduction of Apple Intelligence turned out to be what Siri has been waiting for to deliver the next-gen features, and Apple promised to introduce them on iOS 18, but it will not be a one-time release. It is unknown if Apple's gradual release of its generative AI experiences is because they are developing its features or since the updates cannot handle it, but Siri is affected by this for it is yet unable to deliver its full capabilities with iOS 18.1.