Report: An iOS 18 update will enable Siri to control any app

It’s no secret that Apple is going to push hard into AI with its OS updates this year, and we’ll learn all about iOS 18 and macOS 15 at WWDC in less than three weeks.

Details have been leaking out in the weeks leading up to the event, and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has news of one we haven’t heard of yet. Siri, he claims, will be able to perform almost any function within apps. The feature is said to be coming in an iOS 18 update early in 2025.

Currently, Apple provides a limited number of “app intents” that developers can hook into that allow Siri to perform limited actions within those apps. It’s things like starting to play audio or sending messages.

Under the new system, Apple will use AI to analyze what people do on their devices, together with reading screen content (like button labels), to perform a much wider range of functions. The system will supposedly handle hundreds of different commands, and presumably won’t require developers to build their apps in a specific way to enable them all.

Initially, the system is expected to handle one command at a time and only in Apple’s own apps. Over time, Apple hopes to grow that to work in almost any app and to support multiple commands at once. Examples given would be to create a text summary of a recorded meeting and then text it to a colleague, or to crop an image and then email it to a friend.

The feature sounds like a nail in the coffin of devices like the Rabbit R1 or Humane AI pin, which aim to do similar things with apps and services on a much smaller scale and in a more limited fashion.

The feature isn’t expected to be available when iOS 18 launches in September, but rather will come in an update early in 2025. We’ll learn much more about Apple’s AI ambitions at WWDC on June 10.