Apple has “run into snags” while testing its more personalized, smarter version of Siri that has been planned for release alongside iOS 26.4, reports Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Because of the testing issues, the upcoming features won’t all come in the spring iOS 26.4 release, but will instead be spread out among several iOS updates. Some may not make it into use until iOS 27 is released in September.
Apple promised a more personalized Siri that would use Apple intelligence since the unveiling of iOS 18 back in June 2024. At the time, it was believed that all of the new features would make it into iOS 18 by spring 2025. However, once spring arrived, Apple admitted that the new version of Siri was taking more time, and we wouldn’t see full functionality until a year later.
Since then, the stated target for the release of new and improved Siri has been iOS 26.4. Now, it looks like we may have to wait a bit longer for all of that new Siri goodness.
Gurman says Apple has run into unforeseen problems in testing Siri, with the assistant often improperly processing queries and taking to long to respond to requests.
According to Gurman’s sources, Apple has told engineers to perform additional testing with iOS 26.5, indicating a delay until at least when that software is released to the public.
Internally, iOS 26.5 includes notices describing the Siri features, as well as a “preview” toggle for turning on the Siri personalization feature.
While employees involved in testing says iOS 26.5 has all of the features Apple had promised, not all of the features are working properly.
Siri is also said to occasionally use ChatGPT for information in place of the Gemini-powered technology the company recently made a deal with Google to use, even when the new version of Siri is capable of handling a user’s request.
Gurman says the situation is “fluid,”meaning Apple’s plans could change, although executives are reluctant to further delay the new Siri functionality beyond spring 2026.