Apple’s long-awaited, oft-delayed overhaul of its beleaguered Siri virtual assistant has encountered significant issues during recent testing, which could delay the rollout of several key new features that many users have been eagerly anticipating.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
After planning to include the new capabilities in iOS 26.4 — an operating system update slated for March — Apple is now working to spread them out over future versions, according to people familiar with the matter. That would mean possibly postponing at least some features until at least iOS 26.5, due in May, and iOS 27, which comes out in September.
The latest hitches are part of a long and trying saga for Apple, which first announced plans for the revamped Siri in June 2024.
In the spring of last year, Apple delayed the rollout, saying the new Siri would instead arrive in 2026. It never announced more specific timing. Internally, though, Apple settled on the March 2026 target — tying it to iOS 26.4 — a goal that remained in place as recently as last month.
But testing uncovered fresh problems with the software, prompting the latest postponements, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. Siri doesn’t always properly process queries or can take too long to handle requests, they said…
[I]t’s been a complex undertaking. The revamped Siri is built on an entirely new architecture dubbed Linwood. Its software will rely on the company’s large language model platform — known as Apple Foundations Models — which is now incorporating technology from Alphabet Inc.’s Google Gemini team.
Beyond those upgrades, Apple is also developing a major new AI initiative for iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27: a fully overhauled Siri that operates more like a chatbot. It will be powered by Google servers and a more advanced custom Gemini model.
MacDailyNews Take: At this point, it’s better to get it right than to force out an “Apple Maps.” Even when it’s shippable, Apple should tag everything with “beta,” to sooth the inevitable teething pains.
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