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After years of hype, inner setbacks, and shifting timelines, Apple is now focusing on spring 2026 for the long-awaited rollout of its revamped Siri, powered by synthetic intelligence. The improve, as soon as promised as a centerpiece of iPhone 16’s advertising and marketing marketing campaign, is now deliberate to debut as a part of the iOS 26.Four replace, in keeping with a report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
If the schedule holds, this may mark practically two years between Siri’s next-gen unveiling and its precise supply to customers.
Apple’s “.4” iOS updates usually land in March; iOS 18.Four and iOS 17.Four adopted this sample. But for iOS 26.4, insiders advised Bloomberg that no actual date has been finalized, solely that it stays penciled in for a spring launch.
Apple declined to substantiate any particular timing. Instead, the corporate advised Bloomberg it “hasn’t announced exact timing for the new Siri features,” and easily reiterated that the upgrades are coming “in the coming year.”
Why is there a delay in releasing Siri’s upgrades?
At WWDC 2025, Craig Federighi, Apple’s head of software program engineering, briefly addressed the delay, saying, “This work needed more time to reach our high quality bar, and we look forward to sharing more about it in the coming year.”
In an interview following Federighi’s WWDC 2025 keynote speech, he mentioned the delay in additional element. “We found that the limitations of the V1 architecture weren’t getting us to the quality level that we knew our customers needed and expected.” Once this grew to become clear, Apple switched to a “deeper end-to-end architecture” referred to as V2, which Federighi described as important for Siri’s full capabilities.
According to Bloomberg, the earlier model of Siri was successfully break up in two, with older programs dealing with primary duties and a more moderen platform meant for superior options. Merging them precipitated bugs, forcing engineers to rebuild Siri from scratch.
Leadership shakeups and inner finger-pointing
The delays additionally triggered inner tensions. Bloomberg reviews that Apple’s AI and advertising and marketing groups blamed one another, with engineering accusing advertising and marketing of overpromising, whereas advertising and marketing mentioned they had been simply following the timelines given.
Amid the fallout, Apple’s high AI govt, John Giannandre, was faraway from overseeing Siri and different consumer-facing tasks; his position is now extra centered on underlying AI analysis. The present leads for Siri improvement are Federighi and Vision Pro headset creator Mike Rockwell.
While different corporations like Google and OpenAI have pushed ahead with AI breakthroughs, Apple has taken a slower strategy. This newest Siri improve is supposed to be a part of Apple Intelligence, the corporate’s broader push to modernize its ecosystem with smarter options.
But to this point, customers have solely seen restricted AI capabilities, corresponding to Genmoji.
Can Apple catch up within the AI race?
Apple is below strain. While rivals like Google and Microsoft push out new AI instruments, Apple continues to be enjoying catch-up. Part of the controversy inside Apple is whether or not the corporate ought to construct all of its AI instruments in-house or proceed partnering with companies like OpenAI. There have even been inner talks about buying smaller AI startups to speed up progress.
Although the Siri replace is now reportedly scheduled for iOS 26.4, the timeline just isn’t set in stone. According to Bloomberg, if improvement proceeds easily…
