How to Search Your Personal Photos, Messages, and Files with Siri AI

Siri AI has officially leveled up. Apple Intelligence transforms your voice assistant into a tool that genuinely understands you and your surroundings. It can now see what is on your screen, dig into your personal context, and understand the world through your camera. Let's dive in.

Tapping into your personal context

Siri finally remembers your life. It can search across your photos, calendar, messages, and files to connect the dots. You no longer need to hunt through different apps to find a specific memory or document.

Here's how to try it

You can ask Siri highly specific questions about your past activities.

1. Activate Siri and ask a natural question. For example, ask "What was that restaurant in Miami my family and I ate at back in March of this year?"
2. Siri will instantly identify the location as Versailles and bring up photos you took during that meal.
3. You can ask follow-up questions without repeating the context. Say "Show me more pictures from this" or ask "Did we see a movie there too?" to pull up a ticket confirmation PDF for Project Hail Mary.

This works just as well for finding files shared by specific people. You can ask Siri to "Find the Cornfield Chase C Major PDF I texted to Asher Robles and Jordan Robles on June 17, 2026." Siri will locate the exact PDF file stored locally on your device and give you a button to open it directly.

Siri's new on-screen awareness

Siri now knows exactly what you are looking at. If you stumble across a vague social media post featuring a movie clip, you can ask Siri to identify it. It can even pull addresses from passing mentions in an article and give you directions.

Give it a spin

Try this the next time you are scrolling through Instagram or a website and want more information.

1. Keep the app open with the content visible on your screen.
2. Activate Siri and ask "What TV show is this from?"
3. Siri will read the screen, identify the content as Game of Thrones, and give you direct links to stream it on apps like Apple TV or Max.

Pro tip: This feature is incredible for recipes. If you are watching a video for Cottage Cheese Pizza Crust, just tell Siri to "Add these ingredients and steps for the recipe to a new note." Siri will grab the text directly from the screen and create a beautifully formatted Apple Note for you.

Understanding the world with Visual Intelligence

You can point your camera at the real world and let Siri do the heavy lifting. Visual Intelligence can translate signs, identify famous landmarks like the Luxor Temple, and look up products for you to buy.

How it works

1. Open the Camera app on your iPhone.
2. Tap the Siri icon near the shutter button, or just press and hold the Capture button.
3. Point your phone at a menu in a foreign language.
4. Tap Translate at the bottom of the screen. Siri will transform the words into English right before your eyes.

You can also use this for shopping. Point your camera at an Anker Laptop Power Bank (25K, 165W) on a desk. Take a picture, and Siri will look it up, give you a summary, and provide a direct link to buy it from the Anker website.

A few more quick wins

Apple Intelligence brings a host of smaller quality-of-life updates to your daily routines.

• Instant Home Automations: You can tell Siri to "Create a home automation to lock all the doors at midnight." Siri will build the routine for you instantly.
• Expressive Voices: In your Siri Settings, you can now toggle on Expressive Voices Preview. This lets you adjust sliders for both the pace and the expressivity of Siri's voice.
• Password Fixes: Open the Passwords app and tap Security. Siri and Apple Intelligence can automatically fix compromised passwords for you. Just tap Get Started under the prompt to automatically fix 67 passwords.

Go explore

Siri is no longer just a basic timer and weather checker. With on-screen awareness, deep personal context, and visual intelligence, it acts like a true digital assistant. Try asking it about your next flight confirmation number, or have it pull up a photo from your last family vacation. The results will surprise you.