Siri AI is gaining a broader role on iPhone: it can now carry out actions across third-party apps. Apple says developers can integrate the assistant’s new capabilities as part of the iOS 27.3 Developer Preview, which is rolling out on Tuesday.
App developers can connect tasks to Siri
Apple says developers can bring Siri AI features into “all apps.” The assistant can draw on a user’s personal context, interpret natural language prompts, and use on-screen awareness to complete requests. Together, those capabilities let a request refer to what is happening in an app instead of requiring a user to navigate through its controls.
The update also introduces “app skills,” which developers can create to combine several tasks into one action. That gives developers a way to define sequences of app work that a person can ask Siri to carry out in a single request.
Requests can follow what a person is doing
Apple’s developer documentation says users do not need to name an app when it is already in the foreground, when it has a Live Activity, or when the conversation with Siri AI is about that app. The assistant can use that context to connect a follow-up request to the relevant task.
Apple illustrates the idea with a ride-share example. A person could request a ride, follow the app’s Live Activity while waiting, then tell Siri, “Hey Siri, change my ride pickup to a new address.” The request can be understood as part of the ongoing ride instead of a standalone command that has to identify the app from scratch.
Apple’s own apps are gaining more capabilities too
The expanded features are also coming to Apple apps. The company names Calendar, Files, Finder, Journal, Mail, Maps, Messages, Music, Notes, Photos, Preview, Reminders, Safari, Shortcuts, and Weather.
Apple says users will be able to ask Siri AI to do things such as find a coffee shop they visited last week or archive files that have not been opened in over a year. These examples show how the assistant’s use of personal context could connect a request to information or items already in an app.
Apple also says people can ask Siri AI what it can do in each app. That gives users a way to discover available actions without needing to know every capability in advance.
A broader opening for app-based assistance
Apple had previously made a smaller set of features available to third-party developers, according to 9to5Mac. The new announcement expands that access by describing support across apps, along with app skills for joining multiple tasks together.
The practical change is that Siri AI can work with the context of an app and its activity, rather than relying only on requests that name a destination or a simple action. The examples Apple gives span changing a ride pickup, locating a previously visited coffee shop, and handling older files.
The announcement is part of a Developer Preview, so it describes capabilities developers can integrate and the app support Apple is bringing to its own software. It also makes clear that users can ask Siri AI about the actions available within an app, as those capabilities become part of the experience.