Despite high expectations for the spring update, Apple has had to revise its roadmap, postponing the most anticipated features of its artificial intelligence.
According to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, the substantial updates to Siri, initially expected for the release of iOS 26.4 in March, will not arrive as planned.
Tests conducted in recent weeks have highlighted new software issues, forcing Cupertino’s engineers to slow down the immediate integration.
The new Siri is still more delayed, Apple on a bumpy road
This is not the first time the company has had to recalibrate its deadlines. A year ago, the features designed to allow Siri to understand the user’s personal context and to perform actions based on what is displayed on the screen had already been delayed.
The management’s intention was to catch up on the ground lost with the March update, but recent checks have revealed instability that cannot be ignored in a product destined for millions of devices.
Consequently, the internal directive has changed: the new testing ground will be iOS 26.5, whose debut is tentatively scheduled for the month of May.
This marks a significant slowdown for a project that, since the announcement of Apple Intelligence in 2024, has struggled to fully come to fruition in the hands of consumers, leaving Apple’s voice assistant still a step behind its more aggressive competitors.
Between advanced search and image generation
Despite delays on the main voice assistant front, Apple’s laboratories continue to work on multiple fronts. With the May update, the company is experimenting with tools that could change how users interact with the web and multimedia content.
There is persistent talk of a new search tool very similar to Perplexity, capable of providing direct and elaborate answers rather than simple lists of web links.
Meanwhile, work continues on personalized image generation. Although traces of these novelties were already identified in the beta versions of iOS 26.4, their full maturation and implementation now seem destined for the next release cycle.
This extra time will allow developers to refine the user experience, aiming to avoid those critical bugs that sank the March launch.
The wait for iOS 27 and the Gemini factor
The most radical transformation, which should make Siri a fluid and discursive interlocutor similar to the chatbots that dominate the tech space today, is expected for this coming fall.
The rumors point to iOS 27, which will accompany the new versions of iPadOS and macOS. The plan calls for an official unveiling during the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, followed by the public launch in September.
In this phase, Siri is expected to evolve into a true chatbot a true chatbot based on large language models (LLMs), powered by the technology of Google Gemini.
The idea behind it is not to force the user to open third-party apps like ChatGPT or Claude, but to integrate that same depth of conversation directly into the native iPhone and Mac interface.
It remains to be seen whether this time the deadlines will be met or if the complexity of the integration will require further patience from users.
