Revamped Siri – Apple’s long-awaited Siri overhaul, first unveiled at WWDC 2024, is now expected to land in iOS 27—but as a “beta” release, with an internal switch that can disable it and fall back to the current Siri. The delay, combined with ongoing AI-team churn and earlie
The next Siri upgrade has been chasing a moving target since it was shown at WWDC 2024. and the wait is already stretching past its original timetable.. Apple introduced a revamped assistant with contextual awareness and other major improvements. but the update never made it in iOS 18 and didn’t even arrive in iOS 26. leaving the “new Siri” to be expected in iOS 27 instead.
Even with that extra runway, the version landing in iOS 27 may still be far from a finished product.. Mark Gurman, in Sunday’s “Power On” newsletter for Bloomberg, writes that it will arrive as a “beta” release.. In other words. the smarter Siri—built to be more AI-infused than the current version—would initially reach users without Apple treating it like a final. fully baked feature.
Inside Apple’s development process. a test build of iOS 27 is reportedly being trialled internally before WWDC. complete with a toggle that can turn off the new Siri experience.. Disabling that option would revert users back to the current Siri.. While that switch is expected to be used in developer builds after WWDC. it apparently won’t be restricted to them.. When the public release of the “27-generation operating systems” arrives in the fall. it is believed Apple will retain the button at first—meaning the public rollout could begin with a beta experience that users can opt out of.
That setup creates a tension Apple can’t easily smooth over: working on an overhaul for years. then presenting the result as beta.. The storyline is already familiar to anyone who has watched the process from the outside.. Apple’s development of New Siri has been slow and painfully public for a company known for keeping its internal software plans guarded.
The pace also shifted in early 2025.. After what the report calls a horrific period. Apple software chief Craig Federighi took control of the AI teams in January.. That same month. Apple confirmed a multi-year deal with Google intended to help speed up the development of Apple Foundation Models.. Yet the churn hasn’t gone away; the report notes that Apple has been dealing with the typical movement of engineers within its AI teams. including people shifting to “new and more lucrative opportunities.”
In February, it was also reported that Apple was still struggling with internal testing of Siri. Even with that continued friction, there remains a general belief that Apple will eventually produce a usable version of New Siri sometime in 2026.
The timeline looks like a chain of near-misses and resets that keep Siri’s debut in motion: it was shown at WWDC 2024, failed to appear in iOS 18 and iOS 26, is now pointed toward iOS 27, and—by Gurman’s description—would arrive as beta with a kill switch that restores the current Siri.
For iPhone and iPad users. that means the next Siri experience may start life in a “try it. but you can turn it off” state when the fall public release hits.. And given how much of the process has already been delayed and exposed. the choice to ship as beta is likely to land less like a celebration and more like another pause in a story that has kept dragging on.
Apple Siri iOS 27 WWDC 2024 beta release Mark Gurman Bloomberg Power On Craig Federighi Google deal Apple Foundation Models AI teams internal testing