Siri AI still planned for iOS 26, but you'll have to wait

There's something of an elephant in the room at Apple Park. A little over a year ago, at WWDC 2024, the brand announced a new all-singing, all-dancing, AI-powered Siri.

It sounded fantastic, but there's just one problem – one year, four seasons and another WWDC later, we still don't have anything to show for it. The project has hit a snag or two over the last year, meaning the whole thing has been delayed.

Fortunately, there is news about it – and it's good news. While the feature isn't expected to arrive directly in iOS 26, a new report from Mark Gurman suggests it will come in iOS 26.4, which typically arrives around March.

We might not even have to wait that long for a glimpse. The report suggests that – if the next few weeks of development prove promising – we could be given a sneak preview of the development alongside the launch of the iPhone 17 range. That event is expected in September, which is really rather close indeed.

The new Siri is said to make use of contextual information from apps across your device, to help inform its operation. That means, for example, it should be able to pull from things like your messages and your calendar, to personalised information which is actually useful to you.

When iOS 18 was first in development, that made use of two halves of Siri. Common and simple tasks were handled by and older generation, while newer and more complex tasks were taken on by a revamped Siri engine.

The combination of the two caused a series of bugs, which resulted in the entire thing being rebuilt from the ground up. While that has caused significant delays, the prospect of an entirely new Siri engine, designed from top to bottom to power this update, is really enticing.

While the rumoured Spring 2026 launch window might feel like a lifetime for some fans of the brand, it's tantalisingly close for those who are keen to get started with Siri 2.0.