Apple Delays Major Siri AI Upgrade After Internal Testing Issues
Apple is reportedly pushing back parts of its long-planned Siri overhaul after internal testing revealed new performance problems. The company had aimed to ship significant AI upgrades with iOS 26.4 in March, but several features are now said to be slipping to later releases this spring—or even to iOS 27 this fall.
What’s Causing the Delay
According to Bloomberg, engineers uncovered issues during testing that are affecting reliability and responsiveness. Testers report that the redesigned assistant:
- Sometimes misinterprets queries
- Can take too long to respond
- May cut users off if they speak quickly
Because of these problems, Apple is reportedly shifting some features to iOS 26.5, expected in May, with others potentially landing in iOS 27 in September. The roadmap remains fluid and could change again.
A New Architecture Under Pressure
The upgraded Siri runs on a new internal architecture called Linwood, built on Apple Foundation Models that now incorporate Google technology following a recently confirmed partnership.
Despite this backend support, internal builds are said to be unstable at times. In some cases, Siri reportedly falls back to its ChatGPT integration—powered by OpenAI—even when the request should be handled natively. That inconsistency has raised concerns about readiness for a broad release.
Personal Context Features Are Slipping
One of the most anticipated improvements—expanded personal context awareness—is also affected. This feature would let Siri search on-device data to answer more nuanced requests, such as:
- Finding a podcast episode shared weeks ago in Messages
- Immediately playing it without manual searching
Testing for this capability has reportedly been moved to iOS 26.5 builds. Some internal versions include a notice describing Siri enhancements, along with a “preview” toggle, suggesting Apple may roll out certain features in a beta-like state to set expectations around reliability.
Third-Party App Control Still a Work in Progress
Advanced App Intents, designed to enable more precise, multi-step voice control of third-party apps, are also behind schedule. While early support exists in iOS 26.5, employees testing the software say these features don’t work consistently across all scenarios.
Unannounced Tools Spotted Internally
Testing has also revealed features Apple hasn’t formally announced yet, including:
- A web search tool that synthesizes answers in a style similar to Perplexity
- A custom image generation feature powered by the same engine behind Image Playground
Both have appeared in internal builds of iOS 26.4 and 26.5, indicating that some AI enhancements could still arrive sooner than others.
Bigger Changes Still Planned for iOS 27
These delays come as Apple works on a much broader Siri transformation for iOS 27, internally codenamed Campo. That update aims to turn Siri into a more conversational, chatbot-like assistant and is expected to rely more heavily on Google servers and a more advanced Gemini model.
The current setbacks highlight the strain on Apple’s AI division, which has recently seen the departure of several senior researchers and executives.
Privacy Remains a Core Constraint
Despite the challenges, Apple leadership continues to emphasize privacy as non-negotiable. In a recent employee meeting, Craig Federighi reiterated that personalized AI features must avoid exposing user data to logging or training systems.
That means Siri requests must be processed either on-device or through privacy-protecting servers—an approach that differentiates Apple from competitors, but also adds significant engineering complexity.
The Bottom Line
Apple’s Siri overhaul isn’t canceled—but it’s clearly taking longer than planned. Rather than rushing out unreliable features, the company appears willing to stagger releases and label some capabilities as previews while it works through performance and stability issues.
For users, it means smarter Siri features are still coming—just not all at once.
