Some new Siri features won’t be here until spring 2025

After years of stagnation, Siri is finally getting smarter in iOS 18, thanks to the power of Apple Intelligence. However, we may not be able to enjoy Siri’s full capabilities until next year. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, some of the key features of Siri’s major upgrade in iOS 18 won’t be released until iOS 18.4, which isn’t slated for release until spring 2025. The developer beta of iOS 18.4 is likely to appear around January, so this will be the earliest that anyone will get to try out some of Siri’s new capabilities.

Which Siri features won’t be coming until next year?

You’ll have to wait for Siri’s deep integration into apps

Something that’s always held Siri back from being a truly useful assistant for your iPhone is that she’s never been able to have full control over actions in your apps. You can currently ask Siri to open an app, and it’s even possible to do simple things such as getting Siri to make a call or send a message, but that’s about as far as it goes.

In iOS 18, Siri will gain the ability to perform far more actions within apps, and even across apps. For example, you’ll be able to ask Siri to search Apple Fitness+ for specific workout types, or to find the latest episode of your favorite podcast. You’ll also be able to use more complex requests involving multiple apps; you can open a photo in the Photos app and then ask Siri to add the photo to a message you’ve drafted in Messages.

These actions within apps aren’t just limited to Apple’s own apps, either. Developers are able to define actions within their apps that Siri can perform. This is going to make Siri much more useful, but unfortunately, it seems like we’ll have to wait until next year before these features are made available.

Another feature that is predicted to be held back until spring 2025 is on-screen awareness. This is the ability to ask Siri questions or give her instructions about the content currently displayed on your screen. For example, if a contact sends you their new address in Messages, you’ll be able to ask Siri to add the address to their contact card. Siri will be able to extract the address that’s displayed on the screen and add it to the contact, without you needing to do any copying or pasting.

Which Siri features will be arriving this year?

Siri will see improvements from this fall

Apple

It’s not all bad news, however. According to Mark Gurman, some of the improvements to Siri will be landing this year. One of the biggest announcements relating to Siri in iOS 18 was the news that she’ll have integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and this feature should be arriving this year rather than next.

If you ask Siri something that’s beyond her capabilities, she’ll ask you if you want to get ChatGPT to help with that. If you do, your query will be handed to one of the most popular AI chatbots currently on the market. You won’t need a ChatGPT subscription to use this feature, although if you do have one, you’ll be able to access even more ChatGPT features using Siri.

One other thing that is likely to be available from the outset is the new look for Siri. Gone is the glowing orb at the bottom of the screen. Instead, you’ll see Siri’s glow around the border of the entire display. It seems like a fairly minor change, but it does mean you won’t have a large Siri icon blocking your view of the screen in iOS 18.