A Siri alternative that does not claim to replace it entirely

Siri is the system assistant and it wins on one thing: it listens with the iPhone locked and the app closed, because it runs on a coprocessor no third party app can reach. Nia wins on the rest: it understands a long sentence with several conditions, remembers what you tell it, chains several actions in one turn, searches Google, reads your documents and gives you routines and jobs that run on their own. And when it cannot do something, it says so, instead of opening a web search.

Not entirely, and that is on purpose. Siri is still the way in when the phone is locked: you can say "Hey Siri, ask Nia what I have tomorrow" and Siri answers with Nia's answer without opening the app. Nia also lives in the widget, in Control Centre and on the Action button. What Nia is for is what happens after the sentence, not the sentence.

No. The wake word "Hey Nia" is switched on by hand in Settings, with its battery warning, and it only works with the app open or with background audio mode on. With the app closed, Nia does not listen, and that is not a fault: iOS does not allow it to any app other than Siri. While it is listening, the orange microphone indicator is on, as it should be.

Dictation and the wake word are recognized on the device itself. What travels to the server is the text of what you said, so the model can understand it. Group radio is the exception: when you turn it on and hold to speak, the voice notice travels to the server to reach people in that group who turned their listening on. Reading a receipt, translating text, Nia Studio masks and your location also stay on the phone, with location rounded to a kilometre before it leaves.

Yes, and it was built in Spanish first. It also speaks English, and in automatic mode two recognisers run at the same time on the device: the one that understands with more confidence wins, so you can change language halfway through a conversation.

A voice notice is only sent when you turn radio on and hold to speak. There are no public channels and nobody can turn listening on for you. A notice lives in memory for about thirty seconds so it can reach people who chose to listen. If someone reports it, it is kept for thirty days so it can be reviewed. There is no end to end encryption and Nia does not identify anyone by their voice.

Yes, in seven places: the Home Screen widget with your next event, the Control Centre control and the Action button, Siri and Shortcuts, the Live Activities in the Dynamic Island, Spotlight search, the share sheet in Photos and the notifications for a finished job.