Apple’s published description of Siri AI names four kinds of access: content across your apps, what is on your screen, actions inside apps, and the open web. Nothing in Apple’s material describes a per-app switch for any of it.
Siri AI rolls out in beta with iOS 27 on Monday, September 14, in English first. What follows is only what Apple states about the reach of that assistant, in Apple’s own terms, with the boundaries it publishes and the ones it does not.
Key facts
| Item | What Apple publishes |
|---|---|
| What it can search | Content across apps, with Messages, emails and photos named |
| Onscreen awareness | Can “answer questions related to the content on a user’s screen” |
| How it finds things | A “System Orchestrator” that uses the on-device Spotlight index and an “App Toolbox” |
| Conversation history | The Siri app “uses iCloud to privately sync conversational history” across your devices |
| Status | Beta in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27 and visionOS 27 |
| Age limit | “Siri AI is not available to users under 13” |
| EU | Not initially available on iOS, iPadOS or watchOS |
The four kinds of access Apple names
- Personal context: Apple says Siri AI can search across apps, and names Messages, emails and photos as examples.
- Onscreen awareness: it can answer questions related to the content on a user’s screen.
- Systemwide app actions: Apple’s examples are drafting an email from scratch, and editing and sharing a set of photos.
- Broad world knowledge: it can get up-to-date information from the web on virtually any topic.
A fifth route is the camera. Siri mode in the iPhone 18 Pro Camera app starts a visual search from the viewfinder, and Apple lists the same Visual Intelligence idea on iPad through screenshots, on Mac through a keyboard shortcut, and on Apple Vision Pro by looking at something.
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The System Orchestrator, the Spotlight index and the App Toolbox
Apple describes the plumbing in two named parts. A “System Orchestrator” decides how a request is handled, drawing on the on-device Spotlight index and on what Apple calls an “App Toolbox.” Neither term is defined further on the pages Apple publishes for customers.
The Spotlight index reference matters because Spotlight is built on the phone, which is the strongest published hint that the search step is local. Apple does not state that outright, and does not say what happens next for requests that go to server-side models.
What the Siri app keeps
The new Siri app collects your conversations in one place, and Apple says it uses iCloud to privately sync that conversational history across your products, so a chat started on a Mac can continue on an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch or Apple Vision Pro.
Call Context is the other feature that reads across apps by design: Apple says it surfaces relevant information such as reservation codes and confirmation numbers when you call a business, in English only. It appears on iPhone, on Mac and, in Apple’s iPhone Duo material, as a widget.
Who Apple says cannot use it
| Constraint | Apple’s published wording |
|---|---|
| Status | “Siri AI is available in beta in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27” |
| Language | “Available in English to start” |
| Age | “Siri AI is not available to users under 13” |
| EU | “Siri AI will not be available initially in the EU on iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS,” and Apple “is working hard to find a path forward that preserves its users’ privacy and security” |
| Usage | Daily limits on server-side features, “including but not limited to Siri AI” |
| Hardware | An Apple Intelligence-enabled device, which on iPhone means iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max or iPhone 16 and later |
What Apple has not said
Apple has not published the contents of the “App Toolbox,” so there is no list of which apps Siri AI can read or act inside. It has not described a per-app permission, or a way to exclude an app or a photo library from personal context. It has not said whether onscreen content is evaluated on the device or sent to Private Cloud Compute. It has not published a retention period for the synced Siri conversation history, or a way to review which pieces of personal context a given answer used.
Siri AI arrives in beta on Monday, September 14 alongside the iPhone 18 Pro launch week, in English. Apple has published no date for the EU, and nothing at all about Siri AI in China, even though China is named as a launch market for both new iPhones. Our event recap covers the rest of what was announced on September 9.
