In the past, for any App Intent developers provide to the AppShortcutsProvider, there needed to be explicit phrases provided to trigger the AppShortcut from Siri -- and if the user try to trigger the Shortcut using a slightly different phrase then the Siri does not work. With Siri AI, will App Intents that don't fit any schemas work without needing every phrase to be explicitly programmed?
Does Siri AI work with app Intents that don't fit any Schemas?
Thank you for the post.
In the past, developers were required to provide explicit trigger phrases within an AppShortcutsProvider to enable Siri interactions. This approach relied on exact matches, meaning that if a user phrased their request differently, Siri would not trigger the shortcut.
With the introduction of Siri with Apple Intelligent and advancements in the App Intents framework, the system now utilizes on-device learning to support a better are more flexible matching This allows Siri to recognize phrases similar to those defined in your code without requiring every variation to be explicitly programmed. This capability is enabled by default when you rebuild your app with the latest SDKs.
To further enhance your app, you can adopt system-defined App Intent schemas. Schemas act as a contract between your app and the system, allowing Apple Intelligence to identify, query, and understand your app's actions and content using natural language. When you conform your AppIntent to a schema, Siri AI can match user requests to your actions conversationally, without the user needing to memorize specific commands.
Please watch this 2 videos as will provide you with a better context. https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2026/295/
https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2026/345/
App Intent donating data to the system https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appintents/donating-your-apps-data-and-actions-to-the-system
My favorite samples to add schemas for iMessage, Calendar, Music and Photos. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appintents/integrating-your-messaging-app-with-apple-intelligence
Hope this helps.
Albert WWDR
If our App Intents usecases don't fit with any of the Schemas, are we able to define a custom Schema? I'm just confused about the capabilities of the Schema, what's allowed, not allowed, etc..
Not sure why they continue to play coy about this, but the correct answer to your question is no. In the current incarnation of Siri AI and App Intents, the only way to get Siri to invoke your intent or use your AppEntities is if they are schematized. If not, Siri won't do anything new.
The "solution" they give to this is AppShortcuts, which run your intent based on a phrase invocation. The claim made by the DTS Engineer is presently false. It does not interpret invocation phrases naturally now, they must still be explicit and exact.
Please file some enhancement requests along with me so we can try and get custom schemas that expose IndexedEntities and other intents to the system one day.