Developers can now create advanced ‘app skills’ for Siri AI

Apple today announced a major new Siri AI initiative for third-party developers, allowing any app to create Siri AI integrations for the first time. The first versions of Siri AI were limited to a much smaller set of supported schemas.

The new ‘app skills’ also let apps teach Siri how to coordinate complicated multi-step actions. These features will become available as part of iOS 27.3, macOS 27.3, and aligned releases.

The app skills sound very similar to what other LLM-driven AI models offer, enabling richer understanding of complicated tasks.

For example, a flight tracking app skill will be able to cleanly map what app intents Siri should use to service a particular kind of user request; something that the first version of Siri AI was simply incapable of doing.

Of course, Apple itself has also taken advantage of the new Siri AI foundational features, with a significant rollout of new capabilities across Apple’s apps.

Here’s an example of what Siri will be able to do, from the developer documentation:

Siri can find custom content from one app, transfer it to a specified app, and perform an action. For example, somebody might request “Hey Siri, send my favorite sneakers to my partner in name of a messaging app.” Siri finds sneakers that the person added to their favorites, understands who the partner is, finds them in Contacts, then sends the sneaker information to them using the messaging app.

It’s also going to be a lot easier to initiate Siri actions for third-party apps. With the 27.3 update, users don’t have to explicitly mention the app’s name in many circumstances. For instance, if a Live Activity for a ride-sharing app is active, Siri will automatically understand that a request to “change the ride address” corresponds to the app driving the Live activity.

This gives you a sense of the kinds of things Siri will be able to do with the 27.3 release, coordinating more complicated actions across Apple and third-party apps. The new OS releases are in developer beta right now.

My favorite Apple gear and accessories

- AirPods 5: great noise cancellation earbuds and new lower price

- SwitchBot Wallet Tracker: never lose your wallet again with this Find My-enabled tracker

- Eve Outdoor Cam: Reliable and sleek HomeKit camera with integrated floodlight