Siri is getting an upgrade in iOS 16.5 – but is it too little, too late?

Recently, the iOS 16.4 update – the latest version of iOS 16 – was released. In all, it brought a handful of minor updates to the iPhone range. New emojis, a new page turning animation in Apple Books, some UI updates – nothing you'd feel compelled to write home about.

But the public release of iOS 16.4 also means that its follow-up – iOS 16.5 – has been released on Apple's developer beta. And one of the earliest takes from that is much more intriguing – an update to Siri.

Siri's had a tough time of it over the last few years, becoming the butt of many an online joke for a slightly janky user experience. Users report having relatively run-of-the-mill requests turned into odd Google searches, while slight deviations in your choice of phrase can yield wildly different results.

So, what's new here? Well, not lots – you can now ask Siri to start and stop screen recording for hands-free control. You'll need to be quite specific with the phrasing once again, as Siri uses "take a screen recording" to take a screenshot – "start a screen recording" is the one you'll need.

It's hardly the ground-up redesign that many were hoping for. But I'm hopeful that all is not lost.

As we know – or at least, very strongly suspect – Apple's annual WWDC event will take place in June. That's usually the place where we get to see a whole new version of iOS – in this case, iOS 17.

In my opinion, an update to the way Siri works is likely to be seen here. Apple have put a lot of work into their HomeKit architecture lately, along with the release of the Apple HomePod (second generation) smart speaker. 

Given that their entire smart home infrastructure relies on Siri, I think there could be a pretty major overhaul in the upcoming release. Well, at least I hope there is...