Apple’s very own Siri is the oldest digital assistant in the world. Since being integrated deep into iOS in 2011, the personal assistant is being invoked billions of times, by millions of users across the planet. It listens to your commands, makes appointments, plays songs, and even tells you jokes. Unfortunately for the old-timer, it’s not as bleeding edge as it once was.
Thanks to Google Assistant’s intelligent machine learning, Siri has lost some ground, with many calling it a dated digital assistant. However, Apple is most definitely not ready to throw in the towel. The Cupertino giant has pledged to make Siri better in iOS 15 and the hints are already starting to appear in the first beta of iOS 15.
In its iOS 15 demo, Apple talked in length about Siri’s on-device processing, which would now be able to work even in offline mode. This new level of on-device processing would allow Siri to take on more intricate tasks, which can go a long way in making Siri as great as it once was.
As noted by Reddit user, xshareddx, Siri in iOS 15 beta can now automatically filter through the texts you send and suggest you link someone’s birthday with their contact card, if possible. This phenomenon takes place in the Messages app after you wish them a happy birthday.
For example, if you wish someone on the 10th of June, Siri would show a prompt up top, asking for permission to add their birthday — June 10th — on their contact card. When the ‘Siri found a birthday’ prompt appears at the top, simply tap on the ‘Update’ button to add the birthday to their contact card. Next year, Siri will remind you to wish your contact on their birthday.
Please note that it is an iOS 15 beta feature and might not come to the final build.
