Siri AI Starts Working Inside Other Companies' Apps

Apple opened Siri AI to every app developer on November 3 in the iOS 27.3 beta, the test version of the next iPhone update that developers can install now.

Any app can now let the new Siri do things inside it when you ask in your own words, using what's on your screen and what it knows from apps like Messages and Calendar.

Apple says Siri AI working in other companies' apps reaches customers "in a few months," and app makers can start submitting these features to the App Store in the spring.

What Siri AI can do inside other apps

Apple's example is a ride app. You book a ride, watch it on the Live Activity, the live-updating card on your lock screen, then say "Hey Siri, change my ride pickup to a new address."

You don't have to name the app. Siri knows which one you mean when it's open on screen, when its Live Activity is running, or when you're already talking to Siri about it, Apple's developer documentation explains.

When an app is in the background, naming it works too. The documentation gives the example "Hey Siri, are the sneakers I liked in [app] on sale?"

Siri can also carry something from one app to another. Ask it to send your favorite sneakers to your partner in a messaging app, and Siri finds the sneakers you saved, works out who your partner is from Contacts and sends the details through that app. Answers can come back as cards in the app's own design.

How apps teach Siri AI what they can do

Siri can only do what an app chooses to show it. App makers mark the actions they want Siri to use, like checking a delivery, booking a reservation or placing an order, and describe them so Siri can match them to what you say.

For jobs that take several steps, Apple is adding app skills: short written instructions that tell Siri which actions go together and in what order. A shopping app's skill could walk Siri through searching, adding to the cart, picking delivery and checking out. Each skill is a short file of plain written instructions that Siri reads only when your request matches it.

Apps can also make Siri confirm it's you before it shows something sensitive, like financial details.

The 15 Apple apps that get Siri AI's new abilities first

Apple is adding the same abilities to 15 of its own apps in this beta: Calendar, Files, Finder, Journal, Mail, Maps, Messages, Music, Notes, Photos, Preview, Reminders, Safari, Shortcuts and Weather.

Apple's examples are finding a coffee shop you visited last week and archiving files you haven't opened in over a year. In the beta, Siri AI can also build and save a playlist in Music, schedule, edit or unsend a message in Messages, rename people and pets in Photos and sort your tabs in Safari.

To see what Siri can do in a given app, Apple says to just ask Siri.

When Siri AI in third-party apps reaches your iPhone

For now this is only for developers. Apple's documentation says the preview doesn't reach people who download an app from the App Store, so even a developer beta won't show it in your everyday apps yet.

Apple says it ships to customers "in a few months," and the App Store starts accepting these features in the spring. Apple is also running sessions for app makers on November 4 and 5.

Siri AI still needs an iPhone, iPad or Mac that supports Apple Intelligence. It works in English, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish, with Traditional Chinese, Norwegian, Turkish and Vietnamese coming soon. It isn't available in the EU on iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch, or to anyone under 13.

Siri AI arrived in beta with iOS 27 in September, and it is also the Siri on Apple's new HomeView screen. The cloud-based features have daily limits, and Apple has said more access will cost extra later.

Siri AI works in your apps only if their makers build for it

Until now, app makers outside Apple could only hook a smaller set of Siri AI's features into their apps. Opening all of it is what lets Siri AI work in the apps you use most, a big piece of the smarter Siri Apple spent two years promising.

The Siri that moves your ride pickup is still a few months from most iPhones, and what it can do in each app depends on whether that app's maker builds for it. Apple is pushing AI into its own apps in other ways too, like the assistant coming to Keynote, Pages and Numbers.

Sources

• Apple Developer News: Siri AI Developer Preview
• Apple Developer Documentation: Siri AI Developer Preview
• Apple Developer Documentation: Bringing custom actions and content to Siri
• Apple Developer Documentation: Orchestrating complex actions with app skills
• Apple Developer News: iOS 27.3 betas now available
• The Verge: Apple starts giving Siri AI access to third-party apps
• 9to5Mac: Developers can now create advanced 'app skills' for Siri AI
• 9to5Mac: iOS 27.3 expands Siri AI with many new capabilities across Apple apps