The upgraded, AI-powered version of Apple’s Siri voice assistant will roll out next year; reports Bloomberg, with the tech titan internally setting a spring 2026 release target. This timeline follows a series of delays for the long-anticipated advancements to Siri, which are designed to enable the assistant to leverage personal data and on-screen activities for more precise query fulfillment. If things go well, the upgraded Siri can ensure that users save time on common tasks and complex workflows, freeing them to focus on more creative or demanding activities.
According to reports, which cite sources with knowledge of the matter, the Siri development team is aiming to integrate this revamped assistant into an iOS 26.4 software update. Historically, Apple has released its â.4â software iterations, known internally as âEâ on the development calendar, around March. While this historical pattern suggests a potential March 2026 release, an exact date for the softwareâs debut has not yet been finalized internally, with only a general spring timeframe currently guiding the efforts.
The overall upgrade to Siri has been in the works for years, and unfolded over an extended period since its initial preview at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June of the previous year. The objective behind these planned upgrades is to modernize the voice assistant, which debuted in 2011, and bring its capabilities more in line with the evolution of contemporary chatbots and other AI tools (and it remains to be seen whether Siri evolves into a true AI companion that is capable of anticipating user needs and can seamlessly integrate into the facets of a user’s digital life). This long development period means that close to two years will have passed between the initial announcement of the new Siri functionalities and their eventual delivery to consumers.
Internally, the extended development timeline has reportedly led to disagreements between Appleâs AI engineering and marketing divisions. Some within engineering have attributed the issues to marketing’s premature promotion of features, while marketing personnel have maintained that they operated based on timelines provided by the AI development teams.
Initially, Appleâs internal goal was to have the advanced Siri features ready by the fall of 2024, aligning with a new iPhone launch. This target subsequently shifted to spring 2025, then to May with iOS 18.5, before an indefinite postponement in March, with a new general timeframe of “sometime in the coming year” provided. These repeated postponements have stemmed from engineering difficulties that, at one point, led to the tech failing to perform as expected a third of the time.
The upgraded Siri is expected to come with an expanded capacity to control apps and execute in-app actions across Apple devices, facilitated by a system called App Intents (for example, stead of launching an app and then navigating within it, users could simply speak a command and Siri would handle the entire process across different apps). Company demonstrations have showcased Siri’s proposed advanced abilities, such as autonomously referencing emails for flight details or embedding photos into documents. This means that if you’re looking at a message about a flight, you might be able to simply ask, “When does it land?” and Siri would cross-reference the flight number with real-time tracking data from your calendar or emails.
