THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

Turning 'Type to Siri' into a Textual Launchpad for My Favorite Commands

• Federico

Those who have been reading MacStories for a few years know that I’ve been looking for a proper “text-only” mode for Siri for a long time. What I’m about to share today is, in fact, a follow-up to a story I first published in 2018. Talk about a much-deserved “finally”.

Let me backtrack a little. Earlier this week when I was recording Connected with Myke, Apple released the first developer beta of iOS and iPadOS 18.2 with the next round of Apple Intelligence features. In installing the update, I realized that, even though I live in Italy, I can now use AI features as long as I keep my device in English and use my American App Store account. That was not the case months ago when Apple Intelligence was actually geo-restricted; now, it seems like the system doesn’t care anymore. So out of curiosity and because it’ll be my job to eventually incorporate these features into my annual iOS and iPadOS reviews, I decided to give Apple Intelligence a try.