Apple opens Siri AI to all third-party apps and tests always-on Watch audio features

Apple on Tuesday released developer betas of iOS 27.3 and watchOS 27.3 that widen what Siri AI can do. Developers can now integrate Siri AI's new features in "all apps," letting the assistant draw on a user's personal context, handle natural-language prompts and use on-screen awareness to complete requests, according to The Verge.

The update also adds "app skills," which third-party developers can build to combine several tasks into a single action. Apple's documentation says users will not need to name an app when it is in the foreground, during a Live Activity, or in a conversation with Siri AI about that app. Its example is a ride-share user asking Siri to change a pickup address. Apple is also bringing the expanded capabilities to its own apps, including Mail, Maps, Messages, Photos and Safari.

On the Apple Watch, the watchOS 27.3 beta adds Audio Intelligence, first announced at Apple's September hardware event. Siri Recap uses ambient listening to produce a short sentence and bullet points summarizing a conversation. Live Rewind shows a text snippet of the last 15 seconds of audio when the wearer double-presses the digital crown. TechCrunch reports unsaved snippets are deleted after 30 seconds and unsaved recaps within seven days.

Both features are opt-in. Recaps can run on a schedule and be switched off from Control Center, and they do not record while the wearer is listening to music on headphones or using noise cancellation. Apple says Recaps omit sensitive data such as government identifiers and financial or authentication details, and do not identify speakers.

Opening Siri AI to all apps is a larger step than the smaller set of features Apple offered developers before. If developers adopt app skills, Siri could become a way to chain actions across apps without the user naming them, though how well that works will depend on developer uptake.

The Watch features are the more sensitive part. TechCrunch notes that features listening to human conversation are the potentially controversial ones, given backlash to AI recording devices such as Meta's AI glasses. Apple's response is architectural: it says raw audio is processed in a secure enclave, is not saved and is inaccessible to the operating system, apps or Apple, and that saved summaries sync end-to-end encrypted with iCloud two-factor authentication.

Those are Apple's own claims, laid out in a privacy overview, and the coverage includes no independent verification. The audible chime and on-screen animation when Live Rewind is used are meant to signal to bystanders that something has been captured.

Both releases are developer betas, so the open questions are when they reach the public, and how developers use app skills in practice.

Also worth watching is whether security researchers or privacy advocates test Apple's claims about the dedicated audio hardware, and how people nearby react to Watches that listen continuously.