- Apple is working on making other voice assistants available in iOS according to a new report
- The move is expected to be required to conform to European Union regulations
- You can make your iPhone’s Action Button load up either ChatGPT or Gemini right now
According to a new report from Mark Gurman at BloombergApple is working on adding the ability to use alternative voice assistants, including AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini, instead of Siri on iPhone for the first time.
The move comes because Apple will need to comply with expected European Union regulations.
Gurman quotes “a person with knowledge of the matter” as a source for his story, but he has a track record of being accurate when it comes to predicting what Apple is going to do next.
According to the same report Apple is still working hard at making Siri, via Apple Intelligence, more conversationally believable, and have even set up offices in Zurich to create an “LLM Siri” in the future that will be more intelligent.
So, it’s certainly not a case of Apple abandoning Siri for other voice assistants, but it looks like it will have to allow third-party voice assistants to replace Siri on the iPhone if it wants to keep selling iPhones in the EU in the future.
Using AI on your iPhone
Of course, that could mean that the ability to use a different voice assistant could be limited to only iPhones sold in the EU, but either way, it opens up the possibility of using Google Assistant, or even ChatGPT or Gemini with your iPhone if you prefer it to Siri.
Siri can already handoff complex requests to ChatGPT, but the implementation is clunky, and certainly not as smooth as it would be if ChatGPT was handling all the voice assistant tasks by default.
Of course, you can actually use ChatGPT and Gemini with your iPhone right now via their apps, but a while ago I discovered a nice hack for calling up the voice mode of each AI from a simple press of the Action Button.
While the AI chatbots can’t interact with your phone settings like Siri can it at least gives you a feel for what it would be like if ChatGPT or Gemini was your voice assistant, and it’s an excellent way of opening the AI apps quickly if you want to ask a question and need an answer fast.
Calling up ChatGPT and Gemini
If you’d like to try this right now then simply follow these steps:
In Settings choose the Action Button, and then Shortcut. Scroll down the list of apps you see here and choose either ChatGPT or Gemini, and then choose either ‘Start voice conversation’ or ‘Talk Live with Gemini’, from the options that appear..
(It’s important to do it in the way described above and not access ChatGPT or Gemini via the ‘Open App…’ button, because this won’t give you the voice mode options.)
Now, when you give the Action Button a press and hold, you’ll jump straight into a voice chat with your preferred AI chatbot.
I actually set this up a while ago on my iPhone and I still use it all the time. I find it really hand for when I have a question that needs an answer and I’d rather ask ChatGPT using my voice than start typing with the keyboard.
Remember, if you want to turn off Siri completely, or reduce accidental Siri activations, then in Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Talk & Type to Siri you can turn “Hey Siri” off and change the settings for activating it.
