Apple’s Long-Planned Siri Rewrite Is Facing More Delays

The most critical AI update may be slipping to a further date as Apple Siri gets caught in a "perfectionist's trap.

Several recent reports spread over tech news outlets confirm what Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman flagged: Apple’s major overhaul of Siri. However, the AI-powered voice assistant, long promised to be a transformative launch, has hit internal testing problems and is likely to ship later than initially expected.

In today’s blog, we’ll understand the “Siri 2.0” paradox and what’s causing the setbacks.

Siri 2.0 is the internal and industry name for Apple’s massive AI overhaul aimed at transforming Siri into a proactive "smart agent" rather than a simple voice-command tool. 

While the "New Siri" design (the glowing screen edge) and basic natural language improvements are already available, Siri 2.0 refers specifically to the following next-gen capabilities: 

• Smart Agent Capabilities: A large 1.2 trillion parameter model powers these capabilities. This model is Apple Foundation Model v10. It was developed in a multi-year partnership with Google Gemini.

• Personal Context Awareness: Siri can search emails, messages, and photos. It answers complex personal questions, such as "When is my mom's flight?" or "Find the document Alice sent last week".

• On-Screen Awareness: Siri "sees" what the user is looking at. For example, if a friend texts an address, the user can say, "Add this to their contact card," and Siri will execute it.

• Multi-App Actions: Siri can perform multi-step tasks across different apps. For example, "Find the recipe in Safari and add the ingredients to my grocery list".

When Apple first announced its next-gen Siri in 2024, the goal was a much more capable assistant that could:

• Understand personal context

• Take actions across apps for you

• Engage in richer natural language conversations

Those were major upgrades compared with the Siri experience in earlier iOS versions. But because of the current setbacks:

• Not all planned features will be ready for the iOS 26.4 release.

• Some may arrive later in the year spread across updates.

• A more robust, chatbot-style Siri experience may not appear until iOS 27.

The Siri 2.0 rollout has currently faced several setbacks. Its full public release was expected in late March or April 2026. This is part of iOS 26.4. However, internal testing reportedly showed a 33% error rate. There was also high "trust latency" (delays of up to 3 seconds). These issues were due to Apple's strict privacy-scrubbing before sending data to the cloud.

These technical “snags” mean Apple probably won’t include all of the new AI-driven improvements in the iOS 26.4 update slated for March.

Instead of one big launch, some Siri features may roll out over multiple future software updates — likely pushed into iOS 26.5 (around May) and iOS 27 (around September).

Some of the most advanced "conversational chatbot" features have already been moved to a future Siri 3.0. Siri 3.0 is codenamed "Campo", and will likely arrive with iOS 27 in late 2026 or 2027.

Reports of delays have spilled into financial markets.

Apple’s stock briefly dropped on news of the setbacks and broader investor concerns about AI competition. Analysts say this reflects how much expectations have grown around Siri’s new intelligence capabilities.

This "slow-drip" release is frustrating investors (leading to a recent 5% stock dip) but signals that Apple would rather be late than launch a "hallucinating" assistant.

Apple itself hasn’t provided specific dates for Siri’s launch beyond the broad promise of “2026.” After the latest reports emerged, the company reiterated plans to release its more capable Siri this year, even if the timing and feature sets shift.

Coverage across outlets like The Verge, MacObserver, and TechRadar echoes the common themes: internal testing issues, staggered rollout expectations, and how this fits with Apple’s more cautious AI strategy.

Forums like Hacker News frame it in the context of Apple’s track record with AI — some see repeated Siri delays as evidence Apple is struggling to match rivals; others say deeper integration and privacy considerations justify a slower, careful approach.

Some analysts saw short-term stock pressure, but others pointed out Apple’s strong fundamentals and long runway for AI integration mean this is a temporary issue rather than a strategic collapse.

Delays like this aren’t unusual in big OS projects, but the impact could be more serious than expected.

Upcoming products like the HomePod smart hub and AR Glasses are effectively "frozen" in development because they rely entirely on this new Siri "brain" to function.

Additionally, this delay highlights the immense difficulty of on-device processing. Doing AI "the Apple way" (without sending your private data to the cloud) is proving much harder than the industry anticipated.

Finally, by the time the full rewrite arrives, rivals may be on their 4th or 5th generation of AI assistants, potentially making Apple’s "next-gen" update look dated on arrival.

Siri hasn’t been a front-runner in voice AI compared with competitors like Google Assistant or Alexa. Nonetheless, many users, especially tech enthusiasts and developers, are eager for an improved Siri that can handle complex, context-rich queries and control more of the iPhone by voice. Delays leave expectations out of sync with delivery for now.

The Siri delay is the first major test of the "Apple Intelligence" era. It reveals that the jump from "Narrow AI" (setting timers) to "General Agentic AI" (handling your life) is the hardest technical hurdle the company has faced in a decade.