Gurman: New Siri Might Be Delayed Again

Mark Gurman, reporting for Bloomberg:

After planning to include the new capabilities in iOS 26.4 — an
operating system update slated for March — Apple is now working
to spread them out over future versions, according to people
familiar with the matter. That would mean possibly postponing some
features until at least iOS 26.5, due in May, and iOS 27, which
comes out in September. […]

In recent days, Apple instructed engineers to use the upcoming iOS
26.5 in order to test new Siri features, implying that the
functionality may have been moved back by at least one release.
Internal versions of that update now include a notice describing
the addition of some Siri enhancements. One feature is especially
likely to slip: the expanded ability for Siri to tap into personal
data. That technology would let users ask the assistant to, say,
search old text messages to locate a podcast shared by a friend
and immediately play it.

Internal iterations of iOS 26.5 also include a settings toggle
allowing employees to enable a “preview” of that functionality.
That suggests Apple is weighing the idea of warning users that the
initial launch is incomplete or may not work reliably — similar
to what it does with beta tests of new operating systems.

When Gurman began reporting about personalized Siri delays a year ago, his reporting turned out to be exactly right. If these features are going to drop in iOS 26.4, they should be in pretty good shape right now internally. If they’re in bad shape right now in internal builds, it’s really hard to see how they could drop in iOS 26.4. And once you start talking about iOS 26.5 (let alone 26.6), we’d be getting really close to WWDC, where Apple’s messaging will turn to the version 27 OSes.

Something still seems rotten.

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