Well… that escalated quickly.
After a report from Mark Gurman suggested Apple’s upgraded Siri features were slipping beyond iOS 26.4, Apple stock took a noticeable hit. Investors clearly did not love hearing that the long-promised AI revamp might be drifting further into the year.
Now, according to Steve Kovach at CNBC, Apple has pushed back… sort of.
Apple’s response
Apple confirmed it is still on track to launch the new Siri features in 2026.
That is technically the same public timeline it has repeated since first announcing the more advanced Siri during WWDC 2024. So this is not a new promise. It is more of a “we’re sticking to the plan” message.
Important detail: Apple did not directly deny the internal delay claims. It simply reaffirmed the broader 2026 window.
What’s actually delayed?
The Bloomberg report said Apple originally targeted iOS 26.4 for the rollout, with some features potentially slipping to iOS 26.5 or later updates.
The features in question are the big ones:
- Personal context awareness
- Rich in-app actions
- Onscreen awareness so Siri can understand what you are looking at
- Smarter, more contextual responses
These are the upgrades that are supposed to make Siri feel modern again instead of… well, stuck in 2018.
Gemini-powered Siri is still the endgame
When these features do arrive, they will be powered behind the scenes by Google’s Google Gemini models, thanks to Apple’s recently announced partnership. That deal was only finalized earlier this year, which may partly explain the shifting timelines.
Looking further ahead, iOS 27 is expected to introduce an even more ambitious Siri experience, reportedly moving closer to a chatbot-style assistant built on foundation models. If the current upgrades are running late, you can’t help but wonder whether that bigger leap could face pressure too..
The bigger picture
In the AI race, timing matters… a lot. Apple publicly says everything is still on track for 2026. Investors, however, were clearly hoping for something closer to “coming this spring.”
The difference between technically on time and strategically late is starting to matter.
