Key app developers have yet to adopt Apple’s new Siri AI

When Apple unveiled a new and improved version of its digital assistant Siri at its developer conference in June, one employee demonstrated what the assistant could do.

After the employee asked Siri about a dessert his daughter had mentioned, the assistant found her text message about coconut cookies. He then included the cookies in the party menu, which he shared with the group chat.

But try doing that with WhatsApp and Apple’s new assistant, Siri AI, says it can’t find any messages because it doesn’t have access to the messaging app.

Siri, the artificial intelligence that should be available to the general public this year, is an indicator of what Silicon Valley believes is coming for computing: artificial intelligence agents that control applications and browse the web on behalf of the user.

Apple’s success with Siri AI depends largely on third-party developers with a lot at stake. If developers allow their apps to work with Siri AI, apps could become more useful on Apple devices because their content will be easier to find. But big brands like Amazon, Google and Meta could also risk sidelining their own assistants or making it harder to add AI to their apps in the future.

For now, it remains an open question whether developers will get involved with Siri AI. As of last week, some core apps, including Gmail and WhatsApp, didn’t work with the early version of Siri AI available to app developers, and it’s unclear if they will.

Amazon, which promotes its own AI agent, Alexa+, offers minimal support for Siri AI in its Amazon shopping app. Asking Siri AI to order paper towels from Amazon launches the app and searches for the item, but stops the order. Amazon did not immediately comment on whether it plans to expand support.

Google, which declined to comment, has not updated its Gmail app to include support for Siri AI. The search giant offers a similar feature for users to find emails in Gmail by talking to its AI assistant Gemini.

Meta also declined to comment on its plans for Siri AI.

If larger companies like Amazon, Google and Meta work with Siri AI, they risk consumers choosing to use Apple’s assistant instead of their own. Similar to the mobile platform war, when they failed to sell their own smartphones, they could once again cede power to Apple.

While some surveys have found that developers are generally enthusiastic about Siri AI, other reports said companies are dragging their feet due to concerns about control by Apple.

Mixed support from developers has implications for Apple’s ambitious Siri AI plans. When Siri AI rolls out to consumers this year, it will likely be able to use some apps but not others, which could create a confusing experience that will discourage iPhone owners from using the assistant.

“That’s the worst,” said Carolina Milanesi, a consumer technology analyst at research firm Creative Strategies. “You don’t know what you can and can’t do, so you end up not doing it.”

After a decade-long mobile platform war that ended with Apple owning the most lucrative app store and Google controlling the most popular operating system, the tech industry is moving to another battle to develop the most capable AI assistant.

Many Silicon Valley executives believe that chatbots and agents developed by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and now Apple could replace operating systems such as the iOS software that powers the iPhone. Instead of people ordering groceries, hailing taxis and answering messages using their devices, these tasks could one day be handled by AI agents.

Apple had similar ambitions with the previous version of Siri. In 2011, Apple introduced Siri with assistant sample pull out a list of Greek restaurants and provide time in Paris. At the time, Siri was groundbreaking, and competitors like Amazon and Google soon followed suit with their own versions of the assistant.

But Siri languished over the next decade. In 2016Apple opened up Siri so people could use third-party apps like Uber and Lyft after talking to the assistant. But by then, consumers were widely disillusioned with Siri, using it for simple tasks like checking the weather and setting a timer.

In 2024, Apple said it will redesign Siri. That effort fizzled, culminating in the company delaying the Assistant upgrade. Apple is now taking another stab at improving Siri. In June, the company introduced Siri AI as a more capable and conversational assistant.

When Siri AI makes its public debut this year, it won’t be starting from scratch with developers. If developers set up tasks with a previous version of Siri, such as hailing a ride with Uber or Lyft, those actions will still work with Siri AI.

However, in order to test Siri’s new AI capabilities, developers must adopt Apple’s new framework for the assistant. Apple doesn’t have much incentive to encourage developers to adopt this framework, other than telling them it will make their apps more useful and engaging for users.

“It’s going to be a spectrum of who plays ball and who doesn’t, how deeply they integrate anything,” said David Barnard of RevenueCat, which helps brands manage their app subscriptions.

Developers could treat Siri AI as just a way for users to open their apps, or they could “go as deep as they can go,” Mr. Barnard said.

Smaller developers can also rethink their work with Siri AI. It could also close the door for developers to add their own AI features to their apps or have users pay them for those features.

AI assistants could also pose privacy riskssuch as accidentally leaking people’s private conversations through security breaches, Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, which develops the encrypted messaging app Signal, said in a recent interview.

“The question is, will it just push out all the apps?” said Eric Seufert, a mobile advertising analyst who runs Mobile Dev Memo, a blog about the app economy. He added that developers will ask, “To what extent, in the long term, does the integration limit my relationship with the consumer and hurt the business?”