We are very, very excited about the imminent arrival of iOS 15. Apple’s software presentation during the last WWDC left us with big surprises, including the implementation of big changes in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 such as improvements in Apple Maps, new Safari features, automatic text extraction from images and much more.
But one of the new facets of iOS 15 that went unnoticed during the presentation of the software was Siri. And it is that Apple has added all kinds of news to its virtual assistant with iOS 15 in its iPhone products, as well as in iPadOS 15 for the iPad family.
From iPadízate we have talked at length about the new changes that the signature of the bitten apple logo has implemented in its mobile software and we have published various tutorials such as this trick to edit PDF in iOS 15 in the Files application or this complete guide to using Look Around, the new street level view feature in Apple Maps. On this occasion, we will tell you everything you need to know about Siri changes in iOS 15. Shall we start?
All the news that will come to Siri with iOS 15
Apple has made big changes to its virtual assistant in iOS 15 software, although not all the news will be available from the beginning in all territories. These are all the new functions that Siri will incorporate with the arrival of iOS 15 to the iPhone.
More automation with HomeKit
Apple’s virtual assistant has been used for many years to control home automation accessories with HomeKit so that you can ask Siri to turn on the living room lights, lower the thermostat or even lower the blinds. In fact, you can not only do it on an iPhone, but also on an iPad, a MacBook, an Apple Watch or a HomePod.
Now with iOS 15, Siri will have a significant improvement in syncing with HomeKit. Now you can control HomeKit accessories at a specific time and fully automatically. That is, you can ask Siri to turn off the lights at home when it is 7:00 p.m. You will not have to configure it from the automation section of the Home application, you will simply have to ask Siri through a voice command.
In addition, this command will also serve for geolocation, so you can also request Siri to perform certain actions “when you leave home.”
Personalization and language processing
Apple has decided that with iOS 15 speech processing and Siri customization are made on the device, without using an Internet connection. What does this fact imply? That the process of executing Siri requests is much faster and that the security is much greater.
Siri will continue to improve your understanding, speech recognition, and learning about the needs of each user the more a device is used. Siri language processing runs through Apple’s Neural Engine and is available on devices with an A12 Bionic processor or later.
However, these news will not be available in all regions, at least for now. Siri data processing within the device will be available in German (Germany), Spanish (Spain, Mexico, United States), English (Australia, Canada, India, United Kingdom, United States), French (France), Japanese (Japan ), Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese (China, Hong Kong).
Support without internet connection
As in the previous section in which Siri will be able to process data on the users’ own device, it will also have offline support to make a wide range of requests.
Siri will be able to enable and disable timers, alarms, open applications, control audio playback, process messages, share content, and access configuration settings without an Internet connection.
This new Siri functionality became one of the big stars of the WWDC 2021 developer conference when Apple announced the changes to its software. Both iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 will allow you to share any type of content through a simple Siri voice command.
What does this mean? Well, very simple: if you see a photo that you want to share with someone, you just have to ask Siri to send it to a friend or family member. As easy as that. And when we say that “any type of content” can be shared, we are talking about ANY type of content: a photo, a website, a podcast, a song …
And if it is a type of content that cannot be sent as such, Siri will automatically take a screenshot and send it to whoever you want. More than convenient, right?
Context and understanding
Siri will understand the context of each request much better and will facilitate the use of several voice commands in a row. In such a way that if a user asks to know “where is the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia” and then “how long does it take to get there” Siri will immediately understand that “there” is “the City of Arts and Sciences. Sciences”.
Another of the most fantastic surprises of Siri in iOS 15 will imply that Apple’s virtual assistant will be able to detect who you want to contact if you have a specific contact file open on your iPhone, as indicated from Macrumors. Imagine that you are in the Contacts application and you have a friend’s file open, you can request to send them a message, send them an email, etc.
Presentation of notifications, messages and reminders
Until now, Siri could only announce call and message notifications when users were using AirPods. But as of now, after the release of iOS 15, that feature it will be extended to all notifications.
Siri will be able to announce any type of notifications when the AirPods are connected, as long as users activate the option to announce notifications in the notification configuration section of Settings.
On the other hand, Siri will also be able to announce the notifications of messages received in CarPlay and the reminders with the AirPods.
Other small changes
Among the novelties of Siri in iOS 15 we also find the possibility of adding Siri suggestions as one of the personalized elements of the Safari home page. In addition, Apple has also included language enhancements for Scandinavian countries such as Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish.