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Apple’s newest update for the iPhone include a hidden, important AI feature.

This week, Apple released a new beta version of iOS – 26.6 – that includes few obvious big features, apart from a change to the number of contacts that a user is able to block. But it also contains a more quiet change that users might not even notice.

When the software update is installed, it begins a process of “re-indexing” that gets the phone ready for one of Apple’s biggest updates in years. “This update includes bug fixes, security updates and optimises the Spotlight index to prepare for iOS 27,” Apple’s own notes read.

iOS 27 – which was revealed at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference event in June, and which will be released in September – brings a host of changes, including design tweaks and new tools to protect children online. But by far the most substantial is the introduction of “Siri AI”, a whole new version of the digital assistant that has been entirely rebuilt.

The new version of Siri makes heavy use of artificial intelligence to make the assistant useful in a variety of ways. If a user asks about a restaurant that a friend recommended a year ago, for instance, it will be able to look through the phone’s data and find that message – even if it did not use those words – and take action on it.

To do that, the new version of Siri needs to re-build its “index” of the data on the phone. That allows it to take the data that it needs, such as photos and messages, and search through them using artificial intelligence tools.

Early users of the upcoming iOS 27 update have reported that process taking a long time. As well as potentially affecting battery life and performance, that also means that the new version of Siri may not be available for many days after the new update is installed.

Now, Apple says that process will happen quietly when iPhone users install the new update. That means that the re-indexing should be done when the new iOS arrives in September – and that the new version of Siri should be ready for use when the update is installed.

The latest version of iOS 26.6 is available as a beta now. It is likely to be pushed to users soon – when it will be available as a normal software update through the Settings app.

While Apple does make tweaks to its existing software over each summer, the company is now focused on the upcoming iOS 27 update. That means that further big updates may be unlikely and will probably not include significant changes.

The release of iOS 26.6 comes about a week after Apple opened the public beta of iOS 27. That means that anyone can start using the update software now – but it comes with warnings about potential bugs, slower performance and incompatibility with services and apps.