Apple’s Siri will finally work without an internet connection with on-device speech recognition

In iOS 15, Apple’s digital assistant Siri will process audio on-device by default, allowing you to use the capability even if you don’t have an active internet connection. According to Apple, the update will make Siri more responsive.

Apple claims that processing audio on the iPhone will make Siri use more private. This is consistent with the company’s long-held preference for implementing machine learning features on-device rather than transferring data to the cloud for processing.

In a news release, Apple stated, “This addresses one of the main privacy issues for voice assistants, which is unsolicited audio recording.”

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Obviously, if you don’t have an internet connection, you won’t be able to use Siri to do things like search the internet. Apple’s digital assistant, on the other hand, may be used for simple navigational tasks such as managing your music, accessing programs, setting timers, and so on. Making these functions available offline is also a huge step forward in terms of accessibility.

The functionality, however, will only work on iPhones and iPads with the A12 Bionic CPU or later. That includes the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR; the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max, and iPhone SE (second generation); the iPhone 12, 12 Mini, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max; the iPad Mini (fifth generation); the iPad Air (third and fourth generations); and the iPad Pro (fifth and fourth generations) (eighth generation).