Since iOS 10, Siri has been working with third-party apps. Developers can use SiriKit for their apps if they fall within one of the categories that can take advantage of it. Examples are apps for payments, notes and reminders, chat, calls and photos. But for a number of categories, some commands are no longer available from iOS 15, Apple has announced.
These Siri commands in iOS 15 no longer work
Apple has disabled certain commands for a total of seven categories in iOS 15. It concerns these types of apps:
- CarPlay (including adjusting climate settings in the car)
- Lists and notes (including creating a new task list)
- Payments (including paying bills and searching)
- Photos (searching photos)
- Book a ride
- Visual Codes (displaying QR codes via Siri)
- Calling (displaying call history)
This means that, for example, you can no longer ask a calling app that works with Siri in iOS 15 to show your call history. You can also no longer create a new to-do list via the voice assistant for reminder apps that work with Siri, and ordering a taxi with Siri, for example, is no longer possible. The option via the Maps app will remain for that category, if the app supports it.
As for CarPlay, this only worked for a limited number of cars. You could then use Siri, for example, to adjust some settings of your car, such as the heating, the seat settings, the audio source and other things. These functions no longer work from iOS 15. Siri will of course remain available in CarPlay for calling, sending messages and starting a route. Third-party CarPlay apps that work with Siri will also remain available, such as WhatsApp. So it's all about controlling the car itself.
In the past, countless apps have come out that use Siri in this way. The ING app used to work with Siri, but it stopped doing so not too long ago. With the new change that Apple has announced, the number of options for third-party apps has become a lot more limited. The reason for this is not entirely clear.
Apple warns developers to modify their apps if they still use these affected commands. For a full list of Siri commands that no longer work in iOS 15, check out this page.
New things for Siri in iOS 15 too
Apple has been focusing more and more on the Shortcuts app, which also lets you create automations with third-party apps that you can launch with a Siri command. Apart from removing these commands, Siri in iOS 15 also gets new functions. You can read more about this in our overview.