- Siri AI receives a new gesture in iOS 27
- It’s taking over the well-established Notification Center gesture.
- That breaks 15 years of muscle memory and can be hard to get used to.
When Apple introduced Siri AI at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 8, it understandably wanted its AI-enhanced virtual assistant to become a key part of people’s everyday lives. But in doing so, it appears that the company has taken a step that could upset a significant portion of its user base.
That’s because invoking Siri AI involves a new gesture: you swipe down from the top of your iPhone screen. Well, it’s new for Siri, as swiping down on the iOS screen previously launched the Notification Center. That means users of the best iPhones could be left frustratingly confused after updating to iOS 27.
The iOS Notification Center is where you see and interact with all your alerts on your iPhone. Apple has used the swipe down gesture for Notification Center since 2011, which means we’ve had 15 years of training to reinforce this gesture. It will take some getting used to Siri AI taking over this swipe motion, if it ever makes it to the final version of iOS 27.
Notification Center hasn’t been removed entirely: in iOS 27, you’ll be able to load it by swiping down from the top left corner of your screen. Fortunately, that gesture isn’t used by any other iOS features, so we won’t be left with a cascading series of muscle memory interruptions. But it’s still something that many people won’t be familiar with.
the new order
While I understand Apple’s desire to make Siri AI as prominent as possible, I anticipate making a lot of mistakes by swiping in the wrong place until I get used to the new arrangement. After all, I’ve had an iPhone since the days of the iPhone 3GS, which means I went through those full 15 years of swiping down to get Notification Center. Breaking that type of habit is not always easy.
Additionally, swiping down from the top left corner is a completely new action, as no other feature currently occupies that space. It’s not that I’m used to interacting with that side of the screen from past experiences.
Still, if I have learned anything from Apple, it is that its gestures are incredibly intuitive and can be learned with very little effort. When the iPhone This time I’m crossing my fingers for similar good luck.
And besides, if Siri AI proves to be even half as impressive as what Apple hinted at at WWDC, I’ll be happy to have it so prominently on my iPhone. Notification Center isn’t going away, it just has to make way for the new kid on the block.
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