HOT 263: What Does Siri and Spotlight See When I Search? - Siri and Spotlight Search
Hands-On Tech (Audio)
Leo Laporte
4.3 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 19 April 2026
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Hands-On Tech, Mikah tackles a listener's privacy concerns about what app developers can see when iOS and Apple Intelligence search through your apps, along with whether it's possible to bulk-manage Siri suggestion settings across all installed apps.
Don't forget to send in your questions for Mikah to answer during the show! hot@twit.tv
Host: Mikah Sargent
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Coming up on Hands on Tech, let's ponder what it means when Siri goes to work on your phone. |
| 0:09.5 | Stay tuned. |
| 0:10.6 | This is Twitter. |
| 0:17.2 | Hello and welcome to Hands on Tech. I am Micah Sargent, and today we're getting nerdy. I love this. We got a great question in that really kind of had me wondering myself, why haven't I thought more about this? It comes in from an unknown listener, |
| 0:39.0 | and it is, I think, a fascinating question. So buckle in because it does take a little bit |
| 0:44.3 | to get through, but I promise it's worth it. So unknown rights, I have a question that I |
| 0:48.9 | haven't been able to find an answer to, though not sure if the audience can help. |
| 0:53.2 | Regarding the, quote, Siri and search permissions |
| 0:56.2 | in iOS versions, what do apps see when Apple searches inside them with the show content in |
| 1:03.2 | search setting? As a programmer, I'm not sure if the app is able to see, hey, my files were |
| 1:08.6 | searched for X, with X being what I typed into my phone's |
| 1:12.1 | search bar and gather that as telemetry. I'd imagine Apple would do the search in a way that |
| 1:17.2 | the app can't like searching an index, but I'm not sure. This has me a bit concerned about what |
| 1:21.8 | apps can see if Apple intelligence peers into them. As an easier addendum that I want to signal boost, because I think |
| 1:28.3 | the answer is no, is there a way to automatically turn off the suggestion options in the same |
| 1:34.3 | settings, Siri, and search pane for every app I have and ever will install? I currently do it |
| 1:40.2 | manually because my disdain for those suggestions is mostly unrivaled, but would prefer a way to have |
| 1:45.2 | them off automatically. The same with Apple suggesting I share my map ETA with someone when I say |
| 1:50.6 | drive to so-and-so's house. I can turn the ability to manually send ATA off along with the suggestions, |
| 1:56.9 | but not just the suggestions. Reminds me of how many emails and iOS versions it took to get Apple |
| 2:03.4 | to allow me to turn off automatic balloons on the happy birthday messages without turning on reduced motion, |
| 2:09.7 | all while reduced motion had a toggle to leave those animations on, and they didn't see the irony. |
... |
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