Updated 06/12/25: A new report from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg claims his sources (“People with Knowledge of the Case”) say Apple is targeting iOS 26.4 update to bring these SIRI features to users. X.4 updates are typically released in March.
At WWDC last summer, Apple showed some advanced SIRI features as part of Apple Intelligence to come in an update for iOS 18 this spring. Apple even ran TV ads promoting iPhone 16 showing these features. Then, in the spring, Apple delayed the release of these features and said they would be delivered “in the coming year.”
Now we have confirmation that this does not Average later in 2025. The new Siri features are not part of iOS 26 or a 26.1 or 26.2 update. As a reminder, there are three major Siri features that should be here now, but missed the iOS 18 deadline:
Screen awareness: Siri can read what’s on your screen and take proper contextual action. When you look at a screen with an address on it, asking Siri to “add this to my contacts” know what you’re talking about, for example.
Personal context: Siri will use your mail, messages, web history, etc. to build a contextual profile of you. (No data leaves your iPhone, it’s private.) So when you ask for it for info, it can give you answers that are specific to you and your life.
I-app actions: A massive expansion of “Appinents” will allow developers to build apps so Siri can perform actions in them. “Make this photo black and white and send it to my wife” must be able to perform the necessary actions on photos and messages without your intervention. Hundreds of app implements would let Siri do all sorts of things within both Apple’s apps and third-party apps.
In a WWDC interview with Mark Spoonauer from Tom’s Guide and Lance Ulanoff from Tech Radar, Apple’s software engineering manager Craig Federighi and marketing manager Greg “Joz” Joswiak explained what happened and what we can expect. As Federighi explains it, these advertised features were built on the “V1” Siri architecture and worked, but not good enough. And to meet the quality line, these features must be built on the newer SIRI “V2” architecture.
Apple has these features and more functioning, internally with the help of the new V2 architecture, but will not announce a date for when we can expect them until it has reached the quality level, as it believes its customers expect.
When it was pressed by spoonauer who asked, “Instead of an actual release date, is it okay to say 2026, or is it too broad?” Joz replied, “Yes, that’s what we said.” FEDERIGHI then continued to explain how the “V2” architecture used in a homogeneous way across Siri gives Apple “much higher quality and much better capacity.”
Of course, 2026 is still half a year away and we don’t know when By 2026 we can expect some of this. Apple could release the BIG V2 SIRI update as an update to version 26 doses this spring, maybe with iOS/macOS/iPados 26.4 or similar. But it could also come in iOS 27 in the fall of 2026, or even as an update to it. A new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple is currently targeting iOS 26.4 update around March for these features. The timing can be changed.
No matter how you look at it, if you want a new and improved Siri, you will wait a while. And you probably shouldn’t expect Apple to advertise a date or give a demo until it’s ready to launch.