Siri 2.0: The Ghost of iOS Past Returns to Haunt iOS 26.4
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While Apple’s big AI deal with Google gave us high hopes for the more powerful Siri to arrive on schedule this spring, it looks like it’s going to need some more time in the oven.
In what feels like history repeating itself for the second year in a row, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman just broke the sad news that Apple’s Siri upgrade has “run into some snags” that could push it off until iOS 27 arrives this fall:
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.
Mark Gurman
If you think this seems like deja vu, you’re not wrong. Gurman offered a similar pronouncement almost exactly a year ago, giving us the first hints that the more personalized Siri that was anticipated for iOS 18.4 wasn’t going to make it. Back then, Gurman reported that Apple had actually delayed the release of the iOS 18.4 beta in hopes that it would have something ready in time, but eventually had to throw in the towel and admit defeat, making a rare formal admission that it wasn’t going to arrive until much later.
In the weeks that followed, insider reports revealed how much of a train wreck the Siri project actually was, leading Apple to clean house and reassign it to another division to get it back on track.
Since then, things seem to have been going well, and Apple’s willingness to admit that it needed to call in some outside help — and the subsequent formal announcement of a Google partnership to power the new Siri really made it seem like a launch was just around the corner. Until today.
Gurman’s report is a massive splash of ice water, and while he suggests that Apple executives were also optimistic — a March 2026 target for iOS 26.4 “remained in place as recently as last month,” he said — the reality of things seems to have gotten in the way.
…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.
Mark Gurman
The problems sound eerily similar to what we heard last year, when the new Siri had a 20–33% failure rate, which meant it gave wrong answers to up to a third of the questions it was asked. The latest problems may not be as serious, but Gurman says that “testers have also reported accuracy issues,” so that’s still on the table. The new Siri is also reportedly cutting users off if they speak too quickly, facing challenges dealing with complex queries that need longer processing times, and falling back on ChatGPT even for requests it should be handling on its own.
As recently as late 2025, internal versions of the new Siri were so sluggish that people involved in development believed the company would need to delay the introduction by months.
Mark Gurman
Executives have reportedly been lighting a fire under staff to get the new Siri ready, as it’s becoming embarrassing that something announced in June 2024 still hasn’t seen the light of day almost two years later. However, they’re also not about to release it if it doesn’t work.
Over the past few days, Apple has reportedly instructed engineers to use early versions of iOS 26.5 to test the new Siri features, suggesting that they’ve been pushed out of iOS 26.4. While that sounds promising, we also heard similar reports regarding iOS 18.5 last year, and yet here we are.
At this stage, Apple may also choose a more staggered approach to the new Siri, releasing features as they’re ready. Internal builds of iOS 26.5 already include a “preview” toggle that implies the whole thing may have a big opt-in “Beta” label slapped onto it, much like Apple Intelligence in its original iOS 18.1 rollout, but some features may still not be ready, including app intents for tying Siri voice commands into third-party apps, and the personal context feature that would allow Siri to tap into user data to help answer requests.
Gurman also mentions two features that Apple hasn’t announced that could still arrive sooner: a new web search tool and custom image generation by voice which ties into Image Playground. These have reportedly also been tested in iOS 26.4, and don’t appear to be specifically tied to the smarter and more contextually aware Siri.
While it’s hard to imagine how a company as large and successful as Apple could be having such struggles with AI, the real issue may come down to the challenges of building a large language model that keeps user data absolutely private. Apple has long focused on on-device machine learning models. It’s brought that philosophy to bear in its design for Apple Intelligence, but it may simply turn out to be too tall of an order. We’ve already heard reports that Apple may have to concede to using Google’s AI servers, although it’s still clearly trying to build foundation models that will avoid that where personal data is concerned.
This leaves Apple effectively walking a razor-thin tightrope of trying to deliver the Gemini-level intelligence that users demand without surrendering its privacy-first identity. Whether it will find that balance — or if such funambulism is even possible with today’s technology — remains to be seen.
