Check out Apple’s new Siri skills on iPhone 16

First, Siri will understand if you stumble over your words, so you don’t have to start over what you’re saying. For example, in a demo from Glowtime, it showed that Siri still understands the question when a woman asks, “Hey Siri, who was the architect behind the museum—wait, not the museum—Palace of Fine Arts?”

Meanwhile, you can also send text messages to Siri in addition to questions or commands. The voice assistant can troubleshoot various functions and settings of your phone.

Another change: The voice assistant gets “screen awareness” and “personal understanding of context,” Federighi said.

When your friend texts you about a new album, for example, Siri will know about the on-screen message, so you can say “Play this.”

Siri will also be able to do specific things for you. Federighi lists examples like “pulling up the TV show recommendation your brother sent you last month” or being able to process a request to “send Erica the photos from Saturday’s barbecue.”

Siri has been criticized in recent years for not responding enough to voice commands, misinterpreting questions, and generally being unhelpful.

The New York Times reported earlier this year that Apple executives, including Federighi, decided Siri needed an overhaul after spending several weeks testing OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Apple and OpenAI announced a partnership in June to integrate ChatGPT into iOS, iPadOS and macOS this year.