Apple’s new Siri hits more delays, key features may slip to iOS 27
Apple’s long-promised Siri overhaul has reportedly run into new problems during internal testing, potentially pushing some of its most anticipated features beyond the originally targeted March 2026 release window.
The company had planned to ship the upgraded assistant with iOS 26.4, but engineers are now testing the new capabilities under iOS 26.5 instead. That suggests at least part of the rollout could slip to May, with some features possibly landing only in iOS 27 later in the year.
The revamped Siri was first shown off in June 2024, with Apple promising a far more capable assistant that can tap into personal data, understand on-screen context and perform complex, multi-step commands across apps. For example, Siri would be able to search through old messages to find a podcast shared by a friend and immediately play it, or edit and send a photo in a single voice request.
However, internal testing reportedly revealed reliability issues. Siri doesn’t always process requests correctly, can be slow when handling complex requests and sometimes will even cuts users off if they speak too quickly. In some cases, it even falls back to its integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT instead of using Apple’s own AI models.
The new assistant is built on an entirely redesigned architecture known internally as Linwood, powered by Apple’s large language model platform called Apple Foundations Models. The system is also said to incorporate technology from Google’s Gemini team. Test versions of iOS 26.5 reportedly include a new web search feature and custom image generation, though both remain unstable.
Part of the delay may stem from Apple’s privacy-first approach. Software chief Craig Federighi has emphasised that personalised AI features must keep user data private, with as much processing as possible done on-device or via privacy-protected servers. That extra layer of caution could be slowing development compared to rivals.
For now, it looks like Apple may stagger the Siri upgrade across multiple software updates rather than delivering everything at once. Whether the company can avoid further delays remains to be seen.
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