Apple is expanding Siri’s intelligence by letting third-party apps build what it’s calling “app skills.” These new integrations will allow apps to teach Siri how to handle richer and more complicated interactions—capabilities that had been missing since Siri AI first launched. The update arrives with iOS 27.3, macOS 27.3, and matching releases currently in developer beta. The rollout promises major changes in how Siri works across both Apple’s own and external apps.
What’s Different in App Skills
Until now, Siri AI operated with a limited set of schemas pre-defined by Apple. That meant developers couldn’t customize complex flows or chain together multiple actions using Siri. The new “app skills” model gives developers freedom to define their app’s intents, enabling Siri to coordinate multi-step tasks. For example, a flight tracking app can now map the user’s request directly to actions within its domain in ways previously impossible.
One vivid use case shows what’s possible: a user can ask Siri to “send my favorite sneakers to my partner.” Siri will locate the user’s favorite shoes, identify the partner via Contacts, and send that sneaker information using a messaging app. All steps—understanding the content, tracking the user’s intent, selecting the recipient, and transmitting through another app—happen without the user naming every app involved.
Smarter Siri, Fewer App Mentions
Starting with the 27.3 updates, Siri will get better at inferring which third-party app to use based on context. For example, if you have an active Live Activity for ride-sharing, and you ask Siri to “change the ride address,” Siri will understand this refers to the ride-sharing app in use—no need to explicitly state the app’s name. The idea is to make Siri feel more proactive and natural.
Apple is also using these underlying improvements to enhance the functionality of its own apps, scaling up capabilities across the ecosystem. The new features are currently accessible via developer beta releases and will be made broadly available when the operating system updates ship in full.
These updates touch on the foundation of Siri AI’s long-planned evolution from a voice command assistant into a more autonomous, intelligent helper. By allowing richer third-party participation, app skills could finally close a gap between what modern large language model-powered systems already do and Siri’s capabilities.
Why it matters: this injects much greater flexibility and power into Siri. Developers can now build holistic user experiences involving multiple apps without forcing the user to spell out every component. Users should expect smoother, more intuitive voice interactions once the 27.3 update lands. Going forward, track Apple’s developer documentation and betas to see which apps implement app skills first—and how securely Apple handles data and permissions when coordinating actions across multiple apps.
