Apple targets spring 2026 for long-delayed Siri AI upgrade, aiming for iOS 26.4 release

In June 2024, Apple promised that, “coming with the first set of Apple Intelligence features,” Siri would become more natural, contextually relevant, and personal. All that ever arrived was a glowing light that wraps around the edge of the screen when active, prompting at least one class action lawsuit. Now, the company is targeting spring 2026 for the long-delayed release.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
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Apple is working to ready the features (the ability to tap into personal data, reference on-screen content, and have precise control over apps and actions) in time for iOS 26.4. That update is scheduled for sometime in the spring (March or April). At the moment, there’s confidence internally that the company can make this happen.
The move involves a shift to a new architecture dubbed Siri LLM that will be used for all of the assistant’s functionality. Last year, Apple tried to use two different systems (one for legacy queries and one for the new features), but combining the two caused problems. That led to the Siri enhancements not working up to a third of the time. And the perception from testers — including software chief Craig Federighi himself — was that the performance was even worse than that, I’m told.
It’s also alarming how close Apple was to releasing this flawed product. Earlier this year, the company was still racing to get the new Siri out by April. When Apple then pushed back the goal until May, it thought a month would be enough time to address the problems. Obviously, the company vastly underestimated the scope of the challenge.

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MacDailyNews Take: Sigh. Siri is a textbook case of knowing you need to do something – in this case rebuild Siri from the ground up – and knowing it for years (Apple has been urged to rearchitect Siri for years, even from Siri’s co-creator), but putting it off because it’s a lot of work, will cost a lot, or both, and then being forced to do it anyway, late, after it royally fails. It’s simply bad, myopic management.

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