Apple to Unveil Gemini-Backed Siri Next Month
Apple is reportedly preparing to reveal a major update to its voice assistant, Siri, powered by Google’s advanced Gemini AI models. According to the latest insights from Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, the company plans to announce this revamped Siri as soon as February 2026. This new iteration promises to bring enhanced intelligence and responsiveness, marking a significant step forward for Apple’s AI capabilities.
Key Features and Technical Details
The upcoming Siri will be integrated with iOS 26.4 and is expected to introduce features such as in-app actions, personal context awareness, and on-screen content recognition. These enhancements aim to enable Siri to perform a wide range of tasks by leveraging personal data and the current screen context, making interactions more intuitive and useful. Underpinning these capabilities is a colossal 1.2-trillion-parameter custom Gemini AI model hosted on Apple’s private cloud servers. This model forms part of Apple’s Private Apple Intelligence system, which balances on-device AI processing for simpler tasks with cloud-based inference for more complex operations, all while maintaining user privacy through encrypted and stateless data handling.
Looking further ahead, Apple is also developing a dedicated Siri chatbot for iOS 27, expected to debut in beta during summer 2026. This chatbot will run on Google’s TPUs and cloud infrastructure, potentially leased by Apple, and will be deeply integrated into Apple’s software ecosystem rather than existing as a standalone app. It will offer advanced functionalities such as web searching, content generation including images, coding assistance, summarisation, and file uploads. The chatbot will also have improved access to personal data and device settings, allowing it to interact more effectively with users’ environments.
Context and Background on Apple’s AI Strategy
Apple’s collaboration with Google to utilise Gemini models marks a strategic shift towards leveraging powerful cloud-based AI while continuing to develop proprietary on-device models. The current Foundation Models powering Siri, referred to internally as version 10, are already hosted on Apple’s private cloud, but the forthcoming chatbot will use an even more advanced iteration, Foundation Models version 11, which is expected to rival Gemini 3 in capability.
Despite these advances, Apple has reportedly scaled back some of its more ambitious AI projects. Initiatives such as World Knowledge Answers, designed to compete with AI services like ChatGPT by providing quick and accurate responses to general queries, and a comprehensive AI-driven overhaul of the Safari browser have been downsized. The planned Safari enhancements included features to assess the trustworthiness of documents and cross-reference information from multiple sources. Similarly, a significant revamp of Apple Health involving AI has also been put on hold.
What to Expect Next
With the imminent launch of the Gemini-backed Siri, Apple is clearly prioritising practical AI improvements that enhance user experience while maintaining privacy. The February announcement may take place during a dedicated event or a smaller media briefing, possibly coinciding with Apple’s Creator Studio briefing. Following this, the iOS 26.4 update is expected to enter beta testing in February and roll out publicly by March or early April 2026. Meanwhile, the more advanced Siri chatbot in iOS 27 will be a key feature to watch for later in the year.
Apple is also investing in higher-performance, in-house servers to support these cloud AI efforts, signalling a long-term commitment to integrating powerful AI technologies into its products.
Overall, the next few months will be crucial in observing how Apple balances innovation with user privacy and how its partnership with Google shapes the future of Siri and AI on iOS devices.