After the presentation of Siri 2 at WWDC 2024, when many people agreed that Apple had announced a completely non-existent product, the company became more cautious with concrete promises. First it was officially said that the time would come in 2025, then the targeted period moved to the current year. Theoretically, there would be time until December 2026 to adhere to the self-imposed framework. However, concrete information is likely to be available at the WWDC in June at the latest – or as we are currently realizing, at the earliest. Apparently planned for spring 2026
Mark Gurman had reported that Apple was actually targeting iOS 26.4 and macOS 26.4 internally. If the market expert makes this determination, he usually has concrete information in the past. As is well known, those system versions did not have any Siri-relevant innovations. Gurman once again confirmed his statement, but added that Apple was still facing technical problems and was still not satisfied with the implementation of the version now based on Gemini. The updated schedule is to only show some things before iOS 27 – i.e. with iOS 26.5.
But even with Google technology, it’s a complex undertaking
A few days ago, The Information reported that Apple and Google’s cooperation was more far-reaching than expected – but the integration of Gemini was proving difficult. Apple’s goals are not necessarily what Gemini was designed for, the report said. The recently published betas seem to support the statement, as there is still no trace of Siri 2. Although it would be conceivable to only be able to access the new generation of the voice assistant from the second beta or with a special profile, it looks increasingly likely that Apple’s statement “this year” should be understood as “by the end of the year”.
iOS 27 is likely to have Siri as the most important topic
The release of iOS 26.5 is expected to take place in May given the usual processes. There are only a few weeks left until WWDC – and 26.5 is probably not the system version for which Apple is planning a major change. Instead, many are now of the opinion that Apple is saving the entire Siri theme for iOS 27 and making it the most important theme of the next major release. That would make sense both from a marketing perspective and would also minimize the risk of a quick fix, because Apple certainly doesn’t want to risk a lot of bad press again for an unconvincing Siri implementation. We discussed what else the company is planning for Siri in this article.
