How to switch back to old Siri instead of Siri AI in iOS 27

Learn how to get back the classic Siri without all its new AI capabilities on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac running iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 Golden Gate beta.

For context, Apple’s latest versions of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS bring a major Siri overhaul powered by a custom Gemini model running in the background.

Using new Siri on iPhone with new animation

Thanks to this new Apple-Google partnership, the new Siri is significantly improved and understands commands better.

Plus, there is a Siri app that’s much like ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude. But note that Apple has limited some aspects of the Siri app (for example, you can’t code using the Siri app).

All things considered, Siri is now close to what the general public has always imagined a voice assistant to be. That said, if you don’t want to use the new Siri AI, Apple offers a way to opt out.

Here are some reasons not to use the new Siri AI:

The new Siri has personal context, which can dig deeper into your app data like Messages to provide relevant answers, and you don’t want that to happen (even though Apple says it has taken measures to protect your privacy and data security).
You mostly use Siri for basics like alarms, timers, calls, etc., and these commands actually still work faster in the old Siri.
You don’t like the Spotlight Search that comes by default in iOS 27 and want to switch back to the old search.
The new Siri in beta is buggy for you and causes random issues.
You don’t want your child to use the new Siri AI, as AI can make mistakes and give answers that aren’t always appropriate.
You’re fundamentally opposed to AI and don’t want to use it for reasons best known to you.

Block new Siri AI and opt for classic Siri

You can make this change on one or all of your devices. If you’re doing this on your child’s device, make sure you have set up Screen Time passcode for them.

iPhone or iPad

1) Open the Settings app on your device running iOS 27 or iPadOS 27 (currently both are in beta).

2) Tap Screen Time.

3) Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions.

4) Enable Content & Privacy Restrictions if it’s off, then tap Siri.

5) Tap Siri and select Siri Classic in place of Siri AI (beta). You can also totally block Siri (both AI and Classic versions) from here.

Switching to Classic Siri in iOS 27 Settings app

6) Now, restart your iPhone or iPad. Skipping this step may not always apply the change made above.

7) After restarting, invoke Siri, and it should not show the new iOS 27 oval Siri AI orb but the previous Apple Intelligence edge glow animation or the old circular purple orb.

Old Siri and Classic Siri with edge animation in iOS 27

Additionally, opening the new Siri app will throw an error, as shown in the screenshot below. However, you can still access your past conversations in the Siri app.

Siri Al is Not Available popup on iPhone

Mac

The steps are similar to iOS.

Open System Settings on your computer running macOS 27 Golden Gate.
Select Screen Time.
Click Content & Privacy.
Make sure Content & Privacy is switched on, and click Siri.
Set Siri to Siri (Classic) in place of Siri AI (Beta), then click Done.
Restart your Mac to get back the old Siri.

If System Settings gets stuck while you’re following the steps above, quit it and try again; it should work.

Any day you want to use Siri AI, follow the steps above again and enable it. Also, check out these tips to customize the new iOS 27 Siri app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.