Overview
- Apple’s developer beta and official documentation confirm that the Side Button can be reassigned from Siri to a voice-based conversational app.
- Availability is restricted to Japan at launch, and Apple has not announced plans for other regions despite reporting that EU options are under consideration.
- Participating apps must obtain special entitlements from Apple and start an audio session immediately when opened via the button.
- Potential candidates include apps such as Google Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, though no specific integrations have been announced.
- As part of the same compliance effort in Japan, Apple is preparing support for third‑party app stores and a Safari default search engine choice.