Quick Summary
Siri AI was redesigned from the ground up to bring a new experience to iPhone owners.
While it's supported on phones back to the 15 Pro, it's unlikely that old Siri will get any new features moving forwards.
Apple announced a new version of Siri during WWDC 26, which drags the voice assistant kicking and screaming into the AI era. And so, after a false start in 2024 following the announcement of Apple Intelligence, a more capable Siri AI will debut with the arrival of iOS 27.
It'll also spell the end of the current assistant, which has seemingly had its run.
We've already tried out Siri AI, which now has a dedicated app, and it promises much greater scope than Siri previously offered. Like Google's Gemini is to Google Assistant, Siri AI is to Siri and that experience is going to be universal across all Apple devices.
It helps Apple reset its position with AI, having struggled to deliver the experience that was originally promised – and when iOS 27 lands, phones from the iPhone 15 Pro and newer will get access to the new and improved Siri AI.
The reason that Apple has taken so long to reach this point is because it basically had to start again. The voice assistant – first announced in 2011 – has become the subject of much ridicule over the years, as rivals like Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant outstripped its functionality.
But that now changes, with Apple's agreement with Google to use Gemini technology a part of the puzzle.
In a recent interview (via 9to5Mac), Mike Rockwell – who now leads the team developing Siri – confirmed that Apple "rebuilt Siri from the ground up, literally, tore it to the ground".
Apple had previously "built a first version of this that was sort of incremental on top of the original Siri that added tool calling, and we had it working. But we didn’t feel it was really delivering on the vision and the experience that we wanted to do".
That means the new Siri is now a completely different beast to the previous version: this isn't the old Siri with bits bolted on: "It allowed us to build a profoundly more capable Siri. So it’s a Siri that has its own application, it’s natively multimodal, it’s privacy from the ground up," said Rockwell.
While Siri will be supported on iPhone models back to iPhone 15 Pro – the same as Apple Intelligence – the very best version of Siri AI, which allows "expressive voices and more advanced dictation" will only be available on iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Those are the models that have 12GB RAM – something that Apple typically doesn't talk about, and doesn't include in the specifications on its product pages. Now, in the AI era, RAM becomes much more important.
It'll also be available on any new iPhone models coming later this year, of course – such as the company's first foldable, the iPhone Ultra.
For those with an iPhone older than iPhone 15 Pro, we expect that "old" Siri will keep plodding on, but a bit like Google Assistant, it will likely stay in place but get no new functionality.
