It’s been 13 years since Siri was announced alongside the iPhone 4s. It has definitely come a long way.
Released in Beta on iPhone 4s, Apple’s Siri Turns 13 Today
Siri wasn’t invented by Apple – it was an app on the App Store. Then, it was quickly acquired by Apple and released again in beta exclusively for the iPhone 4s on 4th of October, 2011.
I remember the first-ever live demo of Siri by Scott Forstall – he presses the the Home button on the iPhone 4s for a couple of seconds, Siri comes up and then he asks the following:
“What is the weather like today.”
Siri does its magic and tells Scott, and the audience, the weather. The crowd hadn’t seen anything quite like this, neither had I. It was game-changing stuff in 2011.
Fast forward to this day, Siri is set to receive its biggest update yet, powered by Apple Intelligence. This means Siri can understand you using natural language, something it badly needed for a long time given how good the competition has become.
For the simplest tasks, Siri has done its job quite well, but its simplicity is going to retire in the months to come. It’s going to be a new era of Siri and one that will further elevate the Apple experience across the board.
I wasn’t a fan of Siri for the longest time, but with the release of iPhone 6s, it became my favorite feature with the introduction of ‘Hey Siri.’ It was nothing but a cool party trick that your iPhone is always listening. However, setting up alarms, timers, reminders became so much easy.
And oh, you could control your lights and other smart home things, too.
Today, Siri is an important part of my life and I feel privileged to watch it evolve into what it is today. Seeing it turn 13 feels surreal.
