The new version of Siri is now widely available as part of Apple’s public beta software for devices including the iPhone, Mac, iPad and Apple Watch. While I definitely discourage you from installing it on a main device, if you have a spare device hanging around it’s quite fun to try out.
The jury is still out a little bit as to how universally useful the new Siri will be. From my point of view, part of that is that it still clearly has gaps in local knowledge. My version of Siri is set to the UK because that’s where I live and my phone uses English (UK).
So a request for ‘train departure times from Newport station’ (there are a lot of Newports in the US and UK) did indeed take me to the correct Newport station in Wales, UK – presumably based on proximity – but it would only give me the location/directions for the station rather than the train departure times.
To me, this indicates it can’t always think on its feet – all it would have had to do is a web search for ‘train departure times from Newport station’, something Google Gemini doesn’t have a problem with.
So I wasn’t really expecting Siri to be able to help me with an upcoming camping trip arrangement. And, while it didn’t actually stick me together an itinerary in the same way that ChatGPT did, it actually suggested a more succinct array of suggestions.
I used Siri AI running on an iPhone 17 Pro for this. I do have it on a Mac and iPad, but I reasoned that most people looking for information like this would be doing it on an iPhone.
Siri’s response to my camping call for help
My prompt in this case was “Plan me a camping trip near Woolacombe in Devon from 1-8 August and suggest things to do and any events to go to.”
And here – as with other results – it seems obvious that Siri AI is designed more for brevity than rivals such as ChatGPT or Claude. ChatGPT in particular, often seems to generate stacks of text which you then need to interrogate yourself to pick out the salient parts.
Siri AI also seems to be less focused on doing the entire legwork for you for a query such as this – so whereas ChatGPT maps out a suggested itinerary for me, Siri gives me the following:
- A list of 5 campsites to choose from that are all fairly highly rated alongside a mini map – all with distances and a button to take you straight to directions.
- Three suggested things to do, such as surfing and walking the South West Coast Path – fairly obvious but fine.
- Three suggested events on during that time period – outdoor painting sessions, a fair and family-friendly activities at a farm.
- It then follows that up with a bunch more campsites (a little odd I thought) again with a small map of where they are in relation to my search area.
- And finally, there are three local attractions to choose from.
So it’s a bit of a mix of everything – again, it feels like a conscious decision that Siri doesn’t tell you what you should do and instead leaves you to make the actual plan. In that way it has failed to make what I asked for – a plan – but it has given me the structure to make one.
The information provided is useful, but there could be links to more details. Things like the local attractions have been sourced from good websites, but for something like Lundy Island – where it is suggested you take a boat trip – there is no link to book the boat or find out if you need any other tickets. Or even to find out about the island in general.
As such, a lot of this response is just information without an obvious next step. Hopefully Siri will improve on this aspect in future versions and there’s definitely a feel to Siri AI that Apple wants to ensure the experience is consistently good rather than being brilliant from the off.
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