How far away is Apple’s AI phone? A new “Gemini-powered” Siri is expected to debut in February.

Apple plans to unveil a new version of Siri powered by Google’s Gemini in the second half of February, marking the first major public outcome of the companies’ AI partnership. A far more substantial upgrade is expected to be announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the update will finally deliver on Apple’s June 2024 promise: enabling Siri to access personal data and on-screen content to complete tasks. This represents a fundamental shift in Apple’s AI strategy.

After slow progress with internal models and repeated delays to the new Siri, Apple opted to partner with Google rather than rely solely on in-house development. The decision was led by software chief Craig Federighi and followed the departure of AI head John Giannandrea in December.

February: First Gemini-powered Siri

The February release will ship with iOS 26.4, entering testing next month and launching publicly in March or early April. Internally labeled “Apple Foundation Models v10,” it runs on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute infrastructure but is built on Gemini technology.

This version enables Siri to understand personal context—reading screen content and using user data—representing Apple’s first concrete implementation of its AI collaboration with Google.

June: A conversational Siri overhaul

A more ambitious upgrade, codenamed Campos, will debut at WWDC alongside iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27. Designed for the chatbot era, the new Siri will support ongoing conversations and contextual awareness, competing directly with ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Powered by a more advanced Gemini model—internally called “Apple Foundation Models v11”—Apple is considering running this version directly on Google’s cloud and TPU infrastructure to improve performance.

Strategic shift and reorganization

Apple’s pivot followed internal upheaval after Apple Intelligence underwhelmed in mid-2025. Talks with Anthropic and OpenAI stalled, making Google the most viable partner. Gemini’s rapid improvement and acceptable commercial terms sealed the deal.

Giannandrea’s exit accelerated internal restructuring, with several AI initiatives scaled back. Apple is now prioritizing deep Siri integration over standalone chatbots.

While Apple continues to develop lightweight on-device models, it is increasingly relying on partners for large-scale cloud models—the future foundation of Siri. Whether Apple will return to building its own large models remains an open question.