Apple might finally let you ditch Siri for a smarter assistant

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Apple’s AI efforts are in disarray. The company’s smarter Siri will not arrive until next year. But thanks to the European Union, iPhone users might get something even better.

A report indicates Apple will allow you to replace Siri with another assistant on your iPhone.

EU might force Apple to open up iOS in a big way

Despite all its shortcomings, Apple does not currently allow replacing Siri as the default assistant on the iPhone. Due to the EU’s push, it has opened its ecosystem in recent years, though. European iPhone users can change default apps in a snap and switch to a different browser, Maps, and translate app.

In a deep dive into Siri, a Bloomberg report indicates that Apple may be preparing for its biggest change yet to “meet expected European Union regulations.” It will supposedly allow you to replace Siri with a third-party voice assistant, like Gemini, Perplexity, or even Meta AI. The change will supposedly also extend to iPadOS and macOS.

While you can download several digital assistants from the App Store, none of them can replace Siri. Google already allows users to replace Gemini as the default digital assistant app on their devices.

However, don’t get your hopes up based on the report. Apple has always done the bare minimum to adhere to EU regulations, and it might do the same with support for third-party digital assistants. So, don’t expect Apple to replicate Google’s functionality and let you entirely replace Siri with another voice assistant. And this change might not make its way to devices outside the EU.

Apple’s AI offices working hard on next-gen Siri

Following the blunder with AI-powered Siri, Apple’s AI offices in Zurich, Switzerland, are creating a new architecture for the digital assistant. The company will build the next-gen Siri on an LLM-based engine, making it smarter, more conversational, and better at understanding information.

As part of a major internal reorganization in March, Mike Rockwell, who led development of the Vision Pro headset, now oversees the development of next-gen Siri. He supposedly reports directly to Craig Federighi, Apple’s head of software engineering.