Apple Likely Targeting iOS 19 for Delayed Siri Features

[Rumoresque]

Apple today shared a somewhat vague statement announcing that some of its planned Apple Intelligence Siri features will take longer than expected to develop, and it's sounding like those Siri capabilities aren't going to be implemented until iOS 19.

Apple's statement, for context:"In the coming year" isn't exactly concrete, and could be interpreted as in the next 12 months, or as 2026. If it's taken as in the next 12 months, that leaves room for a launch that's still part of iOS 18, but 2026 is firmly iOS 19. Direct Apple acknowledgements of product delays are uncommon, and if Apple was on track to introduce the Siri features in iOS 18, would the company bother to make a delay announcement at all? It seems unlikely. For that reason alone, there's a good chance Apple has pushed the feature set to iOS 19.

Daring Fireball's John Gruber has come to a similar conclusion, suggesting Apple's "years" refer to product years that start at WWDC. It is his opinion that Apple is subtly suggesting an iOS 19 launch timeline.

Further, both Reuters and CNBC interpreted Apple's statement as a delay of the Siri features until 2026, and wrote headlines stating as much. If Apple was only counting on a delay of a couple of months, it's likely the company would correct the 2026 assumption, but Apple has offered no further clarification nor has it asked for those sites to change their wording.

We'll get the first iOS 19 update in September 2025 alongside new iPhones, so if 2026 ends up being accurate, the Siri features might not even come in the iOS 19 release. They'll instead be slated for a future iOS 19 update, perhaps iOS 19.2 or iOS 19.3.

The vague wording of Apple's statement gives it some runway to tweak launch timing. The company has up to 12 months to provide the promised Siri functionality after admitting to a delay, so there's a good chance Apple is aiming for the September iOS 19 release, but tempering expectations in case it takes longer.

Apple announced the personalized Apple Intelligence Siri features at WWDC 2024, and initially said the functionality would come in iOS 18. Rumors suggested Apple was aiming for an iOS 18.4 release, but couldn't meet that timeline. Until now, there was still hope for a launch in iOS 18.5 or iOS 18.6, but there are strong implications that the feature set is going to be bundled into iOS 19 or an update to iOS 19.

The Siri features that we're waiting on include personal context to allow Siri to keep track of emails, messages, files, photos, and more, and deeper app integration that lets Siri do more in and across apps.

Apple is also working on an LLM version of Siri similar to ChatGPT and Google Gemini, and while that was initially planned for the iOS 19 update, it now seems Apple is going to hold it until iOS 20.

Update: Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that the Siri features "won't be released until next year at the earliest." Some people in Apple's AI division think the features could even be "scrapped altogether and rebuilt from scratch.

There are some concerns that fixing Siri could require more powerful hardware, which would mean Apple needs to reduce its feature set or make the models run more slowly on current devices.

Article Link: Apple Likely Targeting iOS 19 for Delayed Siri Features

I know people is Cupertino and the word is that the project is a disaster. Siri is going to require a complete rewrite from the ground up and it’s likely we won’t see it for 2 years - late 2027 at the earliest.

 

[xiJulian_]

I said it before and got downvoted but I’ll say it again, Apple needs a new leadership. This is the result of one full of old people, which just doesn’t work in today’s tech world.

 

[sw1tcher]

Apple today shared a somewhat vague statement announcing that some of its planned Apple Intelligence Siri features will take longer than expected to develop, and it's sounding like those Siri capabilities aren't going to be implemented until iOS 19.

Called it

 

[cicalinarrot]

Apple completely missing the AI revolution is a huge fumble, and now it's taking them years to catch up.
iPhones have had neural engines for how many years now?

I agree AI is a revolution.
But I hate how Apple rushed AI stuff just to say they have AI.
I'd rather wait for something good and reliable, like we've always done with Apple.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

The fact AI is still labeled as a beta in the system settings is more telling than anything. Should have never been released then the quick fix of ChatGPT integration wasn’t enough with Apple’s privacy settings counteracting most of it, which is fine.

I think we need a change in Apple software leadership across the board. iOS and iPadOS not getting the same capabilities and macOS needs to pick a side, either go full UI change to align with mobile devices or not.

 

[sw1tcher]

Apple is light years behind their competition in the AI space.

It is shocking how far behind Apple really is on AI, and wonder how easy it will be to catchup.

Apple is not behind on AI... or so I've been told. Furthermore, Apple's staggered and delayed AI roll-out is "smart" 😂

 

[Johnny907]

I rely on Siri for very little, like replying to text messages when my hands are occupied by driving, working out etc, settings timers and starting workouts on my Apple Watch.
Even then, she fails half the time, and don’t even get me started on the voice to text. Alexa, Grok, Gemini and ChatGPT are all 95-99% accurate whereas Siri is closer to 60. She’s the oldest voice assistant on the market yet continues to be the dumbest and most inept.

 

[scrapesleon]

they couldn't fix Siri in 2014 they sure ain't going to now

 

[arc of the universe]

apple has been criticised for being late on employing artificial intelligence.

but what it looks like now, in the face of apple making this stunning reversal, is that the senior most level of managers at apple were in fact correct: ChatGPT and artificial intelligence more broadly, were just not ready for wide scale deployment if accuracy and reliability are most important. senior-most apple management were not caught off guard. they correctly surmized that Chat GPT et alia were not ready in a variety of scenarios.

but, with all the sudden and global attention that OpenAi LP was able to make for Chat GPT, apple convinced itself it needed to get on board earlier than it was planning.

BBC's pulling its support for apple's summary of its headlines was a wake up call i think.

apple has said that its implementation of AI will focus on on-board iPhone integration to iOS. this is how apple will provide value to its users.

just how and what apple segments what is done on-board, and what gets off lifted to the net remains the critical point to apple's success with its version of Apple Intelligence.

a delay and an apple-centric ground up build is wonderful news.

 

[Rradcircless]

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that the Siri features "won't be released until next year at the earliest." Some people in Apple's AI division think the features could even be "scrapped altogether and rebuilt from scratch.

There are some concerns that fixing Siri could require more powerful hardware, which would mean Apple needs to reduce its feature set or make the models run more slowly on current devices.

😑😑😑

 

[Rradcircless]

they couldn't fix Siri in 2014 they sure ain't going to now

Worst part is, my gullible self thought maybe they could. Now I see you can’t teach an old apple new tricks.

 

[CarAnalogy]

They lost me in the first sentence: "Siri helps our users find what they need and get things done quickly"

Exactly, good example of what I've been talking about with why people are frustrated with Apple about Siri.

I know it's not Apple's style, but this is one of those times where just a touch of humility would go a long way.

I think a lot more people would cut Apple a lot more of a break if anyone got a sense that they were being genuine about the state of Siri.

The simple acknowledgement of a delay is as close as they've gotten lately and even still they can't be anywhere close to frank. They still have to use maximum corporate synergy speech.

 

[jjd]

It’s wild how bad Apple is at services. And has been for 20+years. All the smarts, all the people and all the money and for some reason they cannot replicate their hardware and software brilliance in services. It was one of Steve Jobs’ great frustrations.

 

[JackGrealish]

This is beyond embarrassing now, what a massive fumble by Apple.

Holding out hope their foldable is great and iOS has been actually improved by that point, otherwise I’ll slowly phase myself out of the ecosystem.

Figure it out Tim, your team is failing.

 

[Rafagon]

Apple is light years behind their competition in the AI space. Siri has languished mostly unchanged and deficient for over a decade, yet somehow Apple thought they could catch up and build everything they needed in-house in less than 18 months.

A lot of things are broken at Apple and there is a major need to clean house.

Starting at the very top.

 

[sw1tcher]

NVDA is down 13% the last month for a trillion in market cap. I'd put the brakes on the hype machine about the "AI revolution".

The reason for NVidia's stock decline isn't because AI is hype.

Just look at their earnings report from February. If AI is all hype, NVidia wouldn't have grown their datacenter sales by 93 percent year-over-year to $35.6 billion with $11 billion of that coming from sales their new Blackwell chips.

NVidia isn't the only one seeing strong demand due to AI. In Broadcom's earnings report yesterday, they said their AI revenue grew 77 percent year-over-year to $4.1 billion.

"Broadcom's record first quarter revenue and adjusted EBITDA were driven by both AI semiconductor solutions and infrastructure software. Q1 AI revenue grew 77% year-over-year to $4.1 billion and infrastructure software revenue grew 47% year-over-year to $6.7 billion," said Hock Tan, President and CEO of Broadcom Inc. "We expect continued strength in AI semiconductor revenue of $4.4 billion in Q2, as hyperscale partners continue to invest in AI XPUs and connectivity solutions for AI data centers."


If AI is hype, why are the big tech companies (i.e. Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft) going to spend up to a combined $320 billion this year to build out their AI datacenters? That's a 39.13% increase from the $230 billion they spent in 2024.


2025 AI Datacenter Capital Expenditures

• Amazon: over $100 billion vs $83 billion in 2024
• Alphabet: $75 billion
• Meta: between $60 billion and $65 billion
• Microsoft: $80 billion

 

[facedmurkroots]

Personal context Siri seems so cool. I really want to experience it. After having to use Windows and experience the integration with copilot (even right in development apps like visual studio with some amazing practical feedback built right in), I’d love Apple to take that good idea and make it better.

Though no ‘AI’ features so far, even todays ‘new Siri’ impress me with the iPhone 16 and my Mac. The smart photo erase is worse than what my Affinity Photo app could do in 2018 without heating my device up so badly.

When Microsoft announced that ‘recall’ and the internet freaked out… I felt slightly envious because in reality that seems to useful and fun. Apple promised a lot and didn’t deliver :-(

 

[klasma]

Excerpts from the Bloomberg article:

The work has been unsuccessful, according to people involved in the efforts, and they now believe the features won’t be released until next year at the earliest.

In the lead-up to the latest delay, software chief Craig Federighi and other executives voiced strong concerns internally that the features didn’t work properly — or as advertised — in their personal testing, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters.

Some within Apple’s AI division believe that work on the features could be scrapped altogether, and that Apple may have to rebuild the functions from scratch.

There are also concerns internally that fixing Siri will require having more powerful AI models run on Apple’s devices. That could strain the hardware, meaning Apple either has to reduce its set of features or make the models run more slowly on current or older devices. It would also require upping the hardware capabilities of future products to make the features run at full strength.

Personally I wouldn't expect anything on the level of what the marketing implied for the next 2-3 years, especially on-device.

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

iOS 19.7 probably. More like iOS 20 if Apple is truthful.

I think you're on the right track but should we even think that Apple can do it at all? This is hard stuff to do and they've shown absolutely no ability to meaningfully upgrade Siri over the last ten years despite literal yearly puff-pieces about how amazing it is and the level of improvement despite it not being better at all.

 

[klasma]

Honestly, if I was Tim Apple I would withdraw the AI features that have already been rolled-out and just combine them with the ‘full suite’ in iOS 19.

It doesn't look like there will be a "full suite" in iOS 19 either way.

 

[holmesf]

NVDA is down 13% the last month for a trillion in market cap. I'd put the brakes on the hype machine about the "AI revolution".

A very silly statement to make.

You’re talking about a company that has more than doubled its sales in a single year and whose sales are up 15% in a single quarter. The pullback is not because AI sales are struggling … because they continue to grow explosively.

The pullback is more to do with the fact that as solid as growth has been investor’s expectations were even higher. Investors bid up the price 1600% in 5 years and so that maybe now they’ve set themselves up for disappointment even if the company continues to improve its fundamentals.

Think about the late 90s / 2000s dotcom bubble for example. No one who believed in the Internet revolution was wrong that it’d happen. It was investor’s judgements that were wrong when it came to how fast it could happen and how sound various business models actually were. As a result even investors who bought into fundamentally great businesses like Amazon didn’t make any money for almost a decade. But the vision happened. It’ll happen here as well.

 

[klasma]

I still don’t think this is true. No other company has achieved anything close to what Apple is proposing with Siri. Amazon has announced something similar, but it’s not out yet and details are fuzzy. Gemini isn’t fully integrated with Assistant and can’t do things like, eg, control device functions.

I agree, and this is why I think we won't be seeing anything close to what Apple is proposing anytime soon.

 

[klasma]

And to think they could have spent many years and $10b on working on AI instead of Project Titan.

To be fair, Project Titan was supposed have AI as an integral part (self-driving). Just not LLMs.

 

[TheColtr]

One year to get this done was incredibly ambitious. While disappointed I’m not surprised. No other company has talked about the personal context/semantic index, so I doubt any company has the ability to do it currently or Google/Samsung would have already. I’m fine if it takes time. Seems 2026, with folding iPhones, cellular MacBook pros, and new AI stuff, will be an exciting year.

 

[andiwm2003]

Siri is mostly useless and I guess apple doesn't want to release another mostly useless version of Siri. So they are trying to do it right even if it takes much longer. I'm fine with that because what I see in my uses of the various AI tools at work I have to say I'm mostly underwhelmed. It's a long way from letting it do things on it's own and being able to rely on it. Small tasks under direct supervision work ok. But anything sophisticated ends up being flawed.