Apple Opens Siri AI to Every App Developer

Apple opened Siri AI to every app developer on November 3, 2026, with a Developer Preview in the first 27.3 betas for iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS. Any app can now bring its own content and actions into the assistant through App Intents, a framework developers already use for Shortcuts and Spotlight. According to Apple, the preview gives businesses and developers new ways to reach customers through voice requests.

Until now, Siri could work only with actions that fit Apple's preset schemas, such as sending a message or asking for directions. The preview removes that restriction. An app can expose its own actions, and Siri can find any item in the Spotlight semantic index rather than only items that match a schema. Apple said people can ask in their own words and Siri carries out the custom action, from checking a delivery to booking a reservation or placing an order. The assistant draws on personal context and what is on screen, according to Apple, so a request can refer to something the user is already looking at.

For requests that need several steps, Apple introduced skills. A skill is a written guide that tells Siri which actions to use and in what order, up to ten thousand characters long. In an example from Apple's documentation, a person tracking a ride through a Live Activity could ask Siri to change the pickup location without naming the app again. Developers still define every action and piece of content their app exposes, so the update does not hand Siri unrestricted access to installed apps.

What developers can build now

Apple is adding the same capabilities to fifteen of its own apps, including Calendar, Mail, Maps, Messages, Photos, Safari and Weather. The company said users will be able to ask Siri to find a coffee shop visited the previous week or archive files that have not been opened in over a year. Thousands of developers have already built integrations with Siri, according to Apple, covering tasks such as asking for directions, managing a to-do list, sending a message and catching up on an audiobook.

The preview is for testing only. Integrations run only in developer builds and internal TestFlight copies; App Store versions of apps and public TestFlight builds cannot use them yet. Apple said the first customer integrations will arrive in a few months, and submissions to the App Store for apps using the new integrations open in the spring. Apple is holding Apple Intelligence Group Labs for developers this week so engineers can answer questions about the new tools.

The limits developers still face

Several restrictions remain. The assistant is unavailable in the European Union on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch while Apple negotiates with regulators over the Digital Markets Act, though Mac and Apple Vision Pro are not subject to the same restriction. The assistant is not available for users under 13. Features that rely on server-side models carry daily usage limits, and Apple said expanded access will be available for a fee in the future. The limits apply to features that run on Apple's servers rather than on the device, including Siri and photo editing tools.

Final usage policies are still pending. Apple said it will follow up with more details about the terms for experiences enabled through the assistant, and integration behaviour may change during testing. Developers can experiment on Apple Intelligence devices set to any of six launch languages: English, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. Traditional Chinese, Norwegian, Turkish and Vietnamese are due to follow.

The preview follows a long build-up. Apple first showed the new Siri at its developer conference in June, and the assistant shipped in beta in September. Apple is also putting the assistant at the centre of its smart home plans, with a HomeView hub led by Siri, and Apple Intelligence has also opened to developers in China. Developers now have the months before spring submissions to explore, build and shape their integrations, and Apple asked them to try the preview and share feedback. The preview also gives Apple a chance to hear from developers about problems they find while building, before the wider release. Sources: Apple Developer and eWeek.