Apple has made it easier to control which apps Siri can access on your iPhone, replacing several scattered privacy settings with a single menu in iOS 27.2.
The new Excluded Apps setting lets you block selected apps from Siri, Search, and suggestions without having to adjust multiple switches individually.
It’s a useful change for anyone who wants to take advantage of Siri AI without giving the assistant access to every app on their device.
Apple Puts Siri’s App Controls in One Place
Previously, restricting Siri’s access to an app involved navigating through several settings.
Users had to open Apple Intelligence & Siri, find the individual app, and disable options such as “Learn from this App” and various suggestion settings.
Preventing an app’s content from appearing in Search required another adjustment elsewhere in Settings.
Those controls weren’t always easy to interpret, either. Some affected Siri’s ability to learn from app activity, while others controlled what appeared in search results.
With iOS 27.2, Apple has consolidated these options into a single Excluded Apps list.
Adding an app to that list prevents Siri from accessing it and excludes its content from Search and suggestions.
How to Exclude Apps From Siri on Your iPhone
You can manage the new setting in a few steps:
- Open Settings on your iPhone.
- Tap Siri.
- Select Excluded Apps.
- Tap Add Apps.
- Choose the apps you want to exclude and confirm your selection.
You can block multiple apps at once rather than changing their settings individually.
To restore access later, return to Excluded Apps, tap Edit, select the minus button beside the app you want to remove, and tap the checkmark to save your changes.
What Happens When You Exclude an App?
Blocking an app affects more than whether it appears in Siri suggestions.
For example, excluding Messages prevents Siri AI from reading or replying to messages through the assistant.
The restriction also affects Siri’s onscreen awareness feature, which allows the assistant to understand and interact with content displayed on your iPhone.
If an app is excluded, Siri can no longer use onscreen awareness to interact with that app’s content.
These limitations are intentional. Excluding an app means giving up certain Siri features in exchange for tighter control over what the assistant can access.
As Apple continues expanding Siri AI’s ability to work across apps and understand onscreen information, the new setting gives iPhone users a simpler way to decide where those capabilities should stop.
