Earlier today, Apple announced that it is delaying the launch of the “more personalized” version of Siri, which was first announced at WWDC last year. In a statement, the company said it anticipates rolling the features out “in the coming year.”
In a new report this afternoon, Bloomberg details the internal turmoil that led to this delay, with Apple’s software chief Craig Federighi reportedly voicing “strong concerns that the features didn’t work properly” in his testing.
Apple’s AI turmoil
Apple initially hoped to include the revamped version of Siri with features like personal context and in-app actions as part of iOS 18.4. As development slipped, the launch was postponed to iOS 18.5 in May. Since that decision was made, Apple engineers “have been racing to fix a rash of bugs in the project,” and that work has been unsuccessful.
Bloomberg says that “people involved in the efforts” now believe these features won’t be released until “next year at the earliest.” Meanwhile, some people within Apple’s AI team reportedly believe the features could be thrown out altogether. From the report:
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. The capabilities would then be delayed until a next-generation Siri that Apple hopes to begin rolling out in 2026.
Apple’s delay for these iOS 18 features follows a separate report from earlier this week, which detailed delays impacting Apple’s plans for a more conversational version of Siri in iOS 19.
According to today’s report, Apple employees are “questioning” whether Apple CEO Tim Cook or the company’s board should “take action to change the leadership of the AI group.” John Giannandrea serves as Apple’s Senior Vice President of Machine Learning and AI Strategy, reporting directly to Cook. Giannandrea joined Apple from Google in 2018 and was promoted to the senior vice president level that same year.
Today’s statement from Apple didn’t offer a specific timeline for when the new Siri features will launch. Here’s the full statement Apple spokeswoman Jacqueline Roy gave to Daring Fireball:
Siri helps our users find what they need and get things done quickly, and in just the past six months, we’ve made Siri more conversational, introduced new features like type to Siri and product knowledge, and added an integration with ChatGPT. We’ve also been working on a more personalized Siri, giving it more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps. It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.
What exactly “in the coming year means” remains to be seen. Bloomberg’s reporting suggests that the timeline extends into 2026 rather than the end of 2025.
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