Developers can now use App Intents to pass onscreen data to Apple Intelligence. Apple’s latest iOS 18.2 beta and other betas support testing of this new system, which will enhance Siri’s contextual awareness in a future release. Users who eagerly updated to iOS 18.1 for access to Apple Intelligence were disappointed by minimal changes to Siri. However, developers can start integrating support for the app intent system now.
According to Apple’s developer documentation, the app intent system allows developers to make onscreen content available to Siri and Apple Intelligence. This means users can send active onscreen data to AI for processing. While this beta testing version has limitations compared to the promised features for Siri, it is a step in the right direction.
Apple has provided examples of how the app intent system can be used, such as asking Siri questions about a web page or requesting a summary of a document. Users can currently send content to ChatGPT through Siri and ask for actions on that content, but the new app intent system will provide a more direct approach.
In the upcoming iOS 18.4 release, users may start seeing these actions in third-party apps, breathing new life into Siri by combining Apple’s on-device information with generative technologies.