By Glenn Fleishman
Siri Classic brings old things back to life
A lot of mythology swirls around the Coca-Cola Company’s strange set of decisions in 1985 to release a reformulated version of its historic carbonated beverage in April—the so-called “New Coke”—then, a few months later, start producing the original flavor as “Coke Classic.” Movies, books, and lengthy blog entries offer competing narratives about what actually happened.
In the end, Coke Classic won. People liked its taste better, and New Coke—renamed Coke II in 1990—disappeared entirely in 2002.1
You might think this is an analogy for Siri AI and the original Siri, which Apple has sort of dubbed “Siri Classic.” I say “sort of” because you might not know Apple uses that name at all for the Siri-before-Siri AI.
And I don’t think Siri Classic has the great taste we all missed with the release of Siri AI. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
This column is really about how you can turn off Siri AI and some Apple Intelligence features in the version 27 operating systems, even though you can’t per se disable Apple Intelligence altogether.
Hidden uncanny valley settings
When Apple introduced Apple Intelligence, it appeared in Siri & Apple Intelligence in Settings and System Settings. If you so chose, you could disable Apple Intelligence and leave everything else on.
The release of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 omitted that switch. You can still turn Siri on or off altogether, and some clever folks realized you could set Siri’s language to one not supported by Siri AI and Apple Intelligence2 to disable it, although that choice can cause other inconveniences.
If that’s not to your liking, you can flip a variety of Apple Intelligence features off using Screen Time. This isn’t a hidden feature, but it’s not advertised—you can’t find it in Settings/System Settings: Siri, for instance.
Take a deep breath and go to Settings: Screen Time: Content & Privacy Restrictions: Siri, or System Settings: Screen Time: Content & Privacy: Siri. You can choose Siri Classic from the Siri menu, and it’s like you’re living in fall 2025 to summer 2026 again!3 Siri Classic is almost identical—perhaps actually identical—to the version available in the version 26 operating systems.
If you choose to re-enable Siri AI, go to the same place and choose Siri AI (Beta). Go to Settings: Siri and re-enroll in the beta, too.
That doesn’t seem very intelligent
You can flip off—er, disable—other Apple Intelligence features, too:
- Writing Assistance: So far, I’ve never found Writing Assistance (formerly Writing Tools) to be of any use. I keep Siri AI active, but disable this feature.
- Image Creation and Realistic Images: Disabling these options ensures that you don’t accidentally generate images, and that Siri doesn’t, either.
- Extensions: This option prevents ChatGPT from being consulted, whether pseudo-anonymously (without an account) or otherwise.
Apple has other locations for turning off Apple Intelligence features scattered throughout Settings and apps. To exclude apps you don’t want to be used by Apple Intelligence for information it gathers across your system, go to Settings/System Settings: Siri: Excluded Apps, tap or click Add Apps, and pick apps. (Tap or click Edit to revise this list.)
Other places to make changes, either in Settings on iOS/iPadOS or as noted, are:
- Message summaries: Apps: Messages (iOS/iPadOS) or Messages: Settings: General (macOS), disable Summarize Messages.
- Email summaries: Apps: Mail (iOS/iPadOS) or Mail: Settings: Viewing (macOS), turn off Summarize Message Previews.
- Notification summaries: Notifications: Summarize Notifications, then disable Summarize Notifications.
- Priority notifications: Notifications: Prioritize Notifications (iOS/iPadOS), and turn off Prioritize Notifications.
- Personalized Smart Replies in Mail: Apps: Mail, then disable Personalize Smart Replies.
- Voicemail suggestions in Phone: Apps: Phone (iOS/iPadOS) or Phone: Settings: Calls (macOS), turn off Suggestions in Voicemail.
Why is off so frightening?
With a Siri that mostly delivers on what Apple promised a few years ago, you can see why the company wouldn’t want to have a simple “off” switch on Apple Intelligence features. Yet, if public opinion is any guide, some people don’t want to use LLMs in any substantive form.
This Siri AI downgrade is an option, but it feels like a half measure compared to a true off switch for Apple Intelligence, even if it were buried like the Siri Classic choice.
[Got a question for the column? You can email glenn@sixcolors.com or use /glenn in our subscriber-only Discord community.]
- It’s a real sign of confidence when a product is renamed a few years after its introduction. That kind of renaming is used to escape the stank of bad decisions, like Philip Morris changing its name to Altria. ↩
- Apple just updated supported languages for Siri AI and Apple Intelligence; consult this press release. ↩
- You can also disable Siri entirely from this location or from Settings/System Settings: Siri. ↩
[Glenn Fleishman is a printing and comics historian, Jeopardy champion, and serial Kickstarterer. His current books in preparation, which you can pre-order, are Flong Time, No See, and That One Matt Bors Comic. Other books include Six Centuries of Type & Printing and How Comics Are Made.]
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