Siri Now Remembers What You Told It Last Week, and It Reads Your Voicemails Too

Siri now remembers what you told it last week. Apple shipped iOS 27.2 on Monday, October 26, and the headline change is memory. According to Apple's release notes, published in full by Ars Technica, Siri AI can now recall your past conversations, so you can ask about something it told you before, like the restaurants it recommended last week.

That sounds small. It isn't. Memory is the feature that turns an assistant from a smart search box into something that actually knows you, and it is exactly the thing that makes people nervous about chatbots. We already gave our verdict on the September 14 overhaul in our iOS 27 Siri review. This update is less about whether Siri is good and more about how much of your life it gets to hold onto.

Quite a lot more, as it turns out. Apple says Siri AI can now draw on photos attached in Messages, Calendar event attendees and your voicemails, along with better results from Safari history and Reading List. Engadget described it as Siri pulling information from more granular places. Put plainly, the photo your sister texted you, the people on your Thursday meeting invite and the message your doctor left on Tuesday are all now fair game when you ask a question.

The off switch got easier to find

Apple clearly knows how that lands, because the same update ships a privacy control alongside the new reach. A setting called Excluded Apps lets you choose which apps Siri, Search and suggestions can access, all from one place. MacRumors reports that this replaces the older App Access setup, which made you exclude apps one at a time. That is a real improvement. It also puts the burden on you to go and find it.

The memory itself is tied to your Siri conversation history. Apple's support pages say Siri app conversations sync across devices signed in to the same Apple Account, and a Keep Conversations setting lets you choose how long they stay. Pick 30 days or 1 year and older conversations are permanently deleted, according to Apple. What Apple's notes do not explain is how the recall feature decides what to resurface, and nothing in the release notes says memory can be switched off separately from the history. If you want Siri to forget, the blunt tool is deleting the chats.

The update also adds granular text selection, so you can copy just part of a Siri reply, and it brings Siri AI to five more languages: French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. Siri AI still needs an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max or any iPhone 16 model or later. Apple's support pages still label it a beta.

Two big markets remain locked out. Apple's own notes state flatly that Siri AI is not available in the EU or mainland China. In Europe, Apple blames the Digital Markets Act. In a June newsroom post, the company said EU rules would force it to give rival assistants deep access to users' private data and apps, and that regulators rejected its proposed Trusted System Agent and an 18 month phased rollout.

"their refusal to engage constructively on solutions that preserve privacy and security means we do not currently have a timeline for Siri AI's availability on iOS and iPadOS in the EU." Craig Federighi, Apple

Brussels does not buy it. European Commission spokesperson Ricardo Cardoso told The Verge that nothing in the DMA prohibits Apple from introducing new products and services in the EU. In China the issue is local AI regulation. Bloomberg reported this month, as relayed by 9to5Mac, that Apple plans a limited Apple Intelligence launch there in December with iOS 27.3, but without Siri AI.

So the irony is hard to miss. Apple argues it cannot hand rival assistants broad access to your messages and data in Europe. Everywhere else, its own assistant just got broader access to your messages, voicemails and photos, plus a memory of what you asked it. Apple says its approach is private by design. With 27.2, users are being asked to take more of that on trust.