According to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple plans to unveil the first real results of its Google Gemini partnership as soon as next month, with a public-facing demo expected alongside the iOS 26.4 beta.
If this timeline holds, it would mark the most meaningful Siri update Apple has delivered in years and arguably the moment Apple Intelligence actually starts to feel real.
Apple and Google’s uneasy but necessary partnership
Apple and Google confirming an AI partnership earlier this month raised eyebrows, but it also answered a lingering question. Apple has struggled to keep pace with the rapid evolution of large language models, while Google has been shipping Gemini updates at an aggressive pace.
Rather than continue falling behind, Apple chose a more pragmatic route. Gemini models will now power key Apple Intelligence features, running through Apple’s Private Cloud Compute infrastructure. In other words, Google provides the brains, Apple controls the environment, privacy, and user experience.
This is not Apple giving up on AI. It is Apple admitting that catching up alone was no longer realistic.
New Siri features are finally close
We have heard “new Siri is coming soon” for years, but Gurman says Apple is now less than a month away from demonstrating the upgraded assistant. Internally, Apple has been planning to show off these features in the second half of February, either through a formal event or a smaller media briefing.
The upcoming Siri in iOS 26.4 is expected to deliver three long-promised upgrades:
- Awareness of what is currently on your screen
- Deeper understanding of personal context and preferences
- The ability to take actions across apps on your behalf
Related: Google Gemini-Powered Siri: 7 New Features Coming to iPhone in iOS 26.4
This is the Siri Apple previewed back at WWDC 2024, the one that felt more like an assistant and less like a voice-controlled search bar. The difference now is that Apple’s own models are no longer doing the heavy lifting.
Inside Apple’s Foundation Models v10
Internally, the Gemini-powered system running these features is known as Apple Foundation Models v10. It reportedly uses a 1.2 trillion parameter model hosted on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute servers.
That number alone signals a massive leap over Apple’s previous on-device efforts. It also explains why Apple had to rethink its approach. Scaling models of this size while maintaining Apple’s privacy standards is not trivial, and Gemini gives Apple a shortcut to competitiveness without abandoning its core values.
Still, this is only the first phase.
iOS 27 points toward a chatbot future
Looking further ahead, Gurman reports that Apple is already planning a more advanced AI experience in iOS 27 and macOS 27. These future features will reportedly introduce chatbot-style interactions across the system, powered by Apple Foundation Models v11.
Those models are said to be approaching the quality of Gemini 3, which would put Apple far closer to the cutting edge than anything it has shipped so far. Some of these features may rely more directly on Google’s infrastructure due to their complexity, and discussions around that are still ongoing.
Interestingly, this marks a subtle philosophical shift for Apple. Executives have previously downplayed chatbots, arguing that AI should be integrated invisibly into the system rather than presented as a standalone interface. The iOS 27 plans suggest Apple is warming up to the idea that sometimes, a conversational UI is exactly what users want.
Macworld has already reported how Apple employees are using an internal app called Enchanté. The app is “best described as a ChatGPT style assistant built specifically for Apple’s internal workflows. It has reportedly been in use since November 2025 and is already spread across engineering, design, marketing, and leadership teams.”
A make-or-break moment for Siri
If Apple delivers on this demo next month, it could be the most important Siri update since its original launch. After years of overpromising and underdelivering, Apple now has Google’s AI muscle behind it and far less room for excuses.
The real test will not be how impressive the demo looks, but how naturally these features fit into everyday use. Apple can afford to be late. It cannot afford to be irrelevant.
February may finally be the month where Siri stops being a punchline and starts acting like the assistant Apple always claimed it would become.
