Apple's Upcoming Siri Revamp Could Slip Beyond iOS 26.4

Recently, Apple entered into a multi-year contract with Google to let Gemini power Siri's AI capabilities. However, the brand has not revealed exactly when this renewed Siri avatar will actually ship. Early speculations hinted at the first trace of AI-powered Siri in iOS 26.4, with a full-fledged rollout at WWDC 2026. Now, it looks like that timeline might have hit a snag.

Gemini-powered Siri may not be part of Apple's next iOS update after all

In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman revealed that Apple is struggling internally to meet the iOS 26.4 deadline for its Gemini-powered Siri refresh. The iPhone maker was initially planning to bring traces of the refreshed Siri on iOS 26.4 update. However, it's now tipped to roll out the feature across future versions.

This comes around the same time as Apple rolls out iOS 26.3 for iPhones with its next iOS 26.4 update expected to be a significant one. The report states that some Apple Intelligence features of Siri will likely ship with iOS 26.5, while the rest will come by fall 2026. This still means that Apple will make Gemini-powered Siri official at this year's WWDC event in June 2026. It could officially arrive with the iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 updates in September 2026.

This falls in line with an early report that outed Siri's AI chatbot avatar. Also, a major thing to note about Gurman's report is the missing Siri features that will allegedly not ship with the initial releases. Siri's upcoming expanded ability to search personal data and  “voice-based control of in-app actions” are reportedly running behind.

It is concerning since one of the key areas where Gemini-powered Siri will come into play is in becoming more context-aware and critical in its responses. This is one of those features that will truly allow Siri to unlock its agentic AI capabilities and become a true AI assistant.

However, with the very core feature of Siri being delayed, it is unclear what exactly is in store for iOS 26.5. That said, Gurman claims that the plans and deadlines around the new Siri are still "fluid". Since there is no exact timeline promised, Apple can take its sweet time to make sure that Gemini-powered Siri hits Apple devices by 2026. Only time will tell as to exactly when will that happen.