Long-awaited context-sensitive Siri: Allegedly “concerns” in internal tests

Apple users are still waiting for the company’s Siri voice assistant system to be improved. After technical problems, Apple had postponed a new, context-sensitive variant, which is supposed to be able to read the screen and interact with apps, among other things, by at least a year. But will the wait have been worth it? According to a report by the Business news agency Bloomberg from Sunday there are frowns, at least internally. People who have tested pre-release versions of iOS 26.4 with the new Siri would have had “concerns” about whether the voice assistant shows the necessary performance.

V1, V2 – and drop?

According to current plans, the new Siri is scheduled to be released in spring 2026, probably in March or April, when iOS 26.4 is planned. Apple is said to have developed two different variants of the new Siri as early as 2024: V1 and V2. It then became apparent, according to software chief Craig Federighi in an interview last June, that the expected quality level was not achieved with V1, although the company had been working on it for a long time. Now they want to switch to V2. But the work on it does not seem to be going perfectly either, as Bloomberg now suggests. However, there are no details yet.

What is clear, however, is that Apple’s AI team is still in turmoil. Most recently, another well-known manager stepped down from the department – and went to Meta. This was, of all people, the head of the Apple Intelligence search team. According to the report, possible problems with Siri could continue to have a negative impact on the team – and lead to further departures. The biggest question remains how long John Giannandrea, Apple’s AI boss, who had already been partially demoted, will remain in his position.

LLM-Siri is still completely pending

In July, Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts that they were making “good progress” with a “more personalized Siri” for the coming year. It remains unclear whether Apple may postpone the technology again – in any case, it would be extremely embarrassing.

By the way, the new Siri does not mean that it will be a “real” voice assistant. The so-called LLM Siri, which acts like the voice mode of ChatGPT & Co., is not to be launched until later – when remains unclear. The functions now planned only make Siri more intelligent to a limited extent, ensure that it understands the user context better and, as mentioned, can control apps.