iOS 17: What’s new with Siri and Spotlight

In iOS 17, Apple added a few new improvements to the on-device personal assistant Siri and the Spotlight search feature. There aren’t any major changes, but Spotlight search has been improved, and as for Siri, it’s easier than ever to use it.

This guide highlights all the Siri‌ and Spotlight features and changes in ‌iOS 17‌.

No more, Siri

In ‌iOS 17‌, you can just say “Siri‌” to activate ‌Siri‌ and drop the “Hey” that has been used as a wake-up word for years. Siri will activate when you say the word “Siri,” so you can speak more naturally.

“Sir, can you tell me what time it is?” is a phrase that “Siri” recognizes, for example.

Back-to-back requests

Siri is able to recognize and respond to multiple consecutive requests without having to reactivate it.

You could, for example, ask Siri to tell you the time, and then follow that up with a request to text your friend saying you’re all going to be late at the same Siri request.

Web articles

In Safari, there is a new Siri‌ feature that allows the personal assistant to read you an article on the web. As long as the site has reader view available, you can say “Siri, read this for me” to have Siri read the content of the page.

There are playback widgets, so you can fast forward, pause, resume and rewind from the lock screen.

Message Siri

When you ask ‌Siri‌ to send a message, you can now tap to select the app you want to send the message from. This allows you to send messages not only from Apple’s built-in Messages app, but also from third-party apps like Telegram and WhatsApp.

The feature is compatible with any third-party app that has “Use with Ask ‌Siri‌” enabled in the Settings app.

Siri and StandBy

Siri can be activated in Standby mode, the new option for turning a charged iPhone into a home hub. When you ask Siri a question, there’s a new full-screen UI that will show results in landscape mode.

If you ask about the weather, for example, you’ll see the current temperature and icons indicating weather conditions.

Siri voices uk

There are two new “British” Siri voices available in iOS 17, making the total four.

Siri in India

‌iOS 17‌ supports bilingual Siri‌ queries that mix English with Hindi, Telegu, Punjabi, Kannada, or Marathi.

Highlighted search

Search results have been improved with new app icons and colors to make it easier to see what’s what. If you search for cats, for example, and one of the results is an option to tap Safari to search the web, you’ll see the Safari icon instead of the previous magnifying glass icon.

Application shortcuts

When searching for an app, Spotlight now presents the app shortcuts in the top results section. If you search for photos and often go to the Favorites album, Spotlight will show you a link to directly access the Favorites album from the search interface.

Read more

Additional details about the new features in the iOS 17 update can be found in our iOS 17 roundup.