Apple's Siri AI Now Available to the Public

The latest version of Apple's smartphone software, iOS 17, is available for iPhone owners as a public beta. It's the first time Apple's long-promised revamped version of Siri is available to the general public. Showcased at the company's WWDC event in June as 'Siri AI,' Apple expanded on the original voice controls of the smartphone assistant, adding a chatbot-style app and further weaving it into the iPhone user experience.

In initial hands-on testing with a developer beta version of Siri AI, I was generally impressed by Apple's overhaul. It made the assistant feel actually helpful for navigating my phone and useful for tasks beyond voice-based interactions. Siri AI was able to help find old vacation photos, send quick texts, and pick a decent pancake spot—all from basic prompts—during limited tests.

It wasn't flawless, but the new Siri does feel worth giving a whirl, especially for iPhone owners who rarely, if ever, used the previous version. Siri now feels like part of the smartphone's infrastructure. 'They've integrated it across the entire ecosystem, so you can access Siri AI no matter where you are on the device,' says Nabila Popal, a senior research director who focuses on consumer devices at International Data Corporation.

'You can talk to it. You can also access it via an app. So, the accessibility of Siri AI and its integration across the operating system were really well done.' You can still turn Siri off if you remain uninterested, but what Apple is offering may convince some users to rethink how they fundamentally interact with their iPhones.

To try out Siri AI, users can sign up for the Apple Beta Software Program and download the public beta. It's always worth backing up your device before choosing to download beta software. After downloading, users need to go into their settings to sign up for Apple's Siri wait list; they'll receive a notification when they're off the wait list and ready to take Siri for a spin.

One of Siri AI's most immediately noticeable changes is the new chatbot-style app. The app is more of an interaction log than anything else. It's where users can keep track of past Siri chats or reignite previous threads.

Sure, users can also start new chats here, but it's not often necessary, since Siri is built into the iPhone's search functionality now. Don't want your Siri chats stored forever? Go into your phone's Settings, then find Siri AI and open up the Keep Conversations tab.

Here's where you can pick between 'forever,' a year, or 30 days. If you change this setting to a shorter timeframe, then chats older than that will be wiped from the app. Why this matters: The public release of Siri AI marks a significant shift in Apple's approach to virtual assistants.