Tim Cook Promises: New Siri Launch Set for 2026!

During the latest announcement of its quarterly results, Apple confirmed that the new version of Siri is scheduled for release next year, which is a delay of one year from the original timeline. “We are making good progress,” mentioned Apple’s CEO, without providing further details. The last update on Siri was shared in June by Greg Joswiak, who had then stated a launch “in the coming year,” but declined to specify a date, adding, “we will announce a date when we are ready to integrate it into our systems.”

According to recent speculations, Apple plans to launch the update in spring 2026 with iOS 26.4, but development has been lagging. To meet the timeline without jeopardizing the project, Apple might restrict the new Siri from accessing certain sensitive applications such as banking or health apps. Apple is also reportedly opting for a hybrid approach to speed up the development of some features: future enhancements of Apple Intelligence might rely on Google Gemini instead of Apple’s own AI model.

The delayed features of Siri include three significant enhancements. The personal context feature allows Siri to pull information from photos, calendar events, or Messages to respond to user queries based on their data. The semantic index feature accesses data from emails, visited websites, and used applications. Lastly, the application control feature enables Siri to initiate functions within apps and to comprehend what is displayed on the screen.

Apple is rumored to be planning a unique feature for Apple Intelligence in iOS 26.4: an “answer engine,” according to Mark Gurman. It would be a direct competitor to ChatGPT for web searches, featuring an interface that displays photos, videos, and local points of interest, along with a text summarization feature for presenting results.