After two years of over-promising and under-delivering, Apple unveiled an overhauled Siri AI voice assistant with new capabilities, a dedicated app and a foundation built on Google’s Gemini AI.

In January 2026, Apple struck a landmark deal with Google, licencing a custom-built Gemini model purpose-built for Siri and Apple Intelligence and larger than Apple’s previous cloud-based AI models.

At the event, Apple revealed that for the first time the assistant has its own dedicated app with a chatbot-style interface, as the iPhone-maker looks to close the AI gap against Samsung and Google devices.

Siri AI can see what is on a user’s screen, search the web in real time, remember past conversations and surface information such as a friend’s address buried in an old message thread.

“We believe truly helpful AI must be centred around you and your needs,” Apple SVP of software Craig Federighi stated, while laying out a philosophy built around privacy, personal context and deep integration with apps users rely on daily.

Siri AI is now a more conversational assistant capable of understanding context, handling multi-step tasks and interacting more naturally across apps and services. It is also compatible with Visual Intelligence in addition to working across existing apps.

A Search or Ask interface opens when users swipe down from the top centre of the screen, allowing users to search the web using Apple’s AI-powered search and launch apps, send messages, create calendar events, search notes, and perform other tasks.

Apple also plans to introduce an AI agent integration with the App Store, allowing users to delegate tasks such as booking reservations, managing everyday tasks, editing documents, or controlling smart home devices.

On the camera side, a Visual Intelligence section within the Camera app introduces a dedicated Siri mode which sits alongside Photo, Video, Portrait, and Panorama, with the feature using Google Image Search to accurately identify objects the user captures.

Siri AI is embedded directly into Dynamic Island, accessible by swiping down from it, pressing the side button, or saying “Hey Siri”. When a user activates Siri with a wake word or the side button, a Siri animation appears in the Dynamic Island.

The feature will launch in English first, with other languages to follow, and it requires iOS 27. The iOS 27 developer beta dropped June 8, immediately after the keynote.

A public beta is expected in July for those who want to test it early, with the full stable release arriving in September alongside the iPhone 18 lineup

Federighi said Siri AI will not be available initially in the European Union on iOS and iPadOS.

“In China, Siri AI and the other new Apple Intelligence features will not be available while we work through regulatory requirements,” he added

Analyst take
Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, noted many of the Apple Intelligence capabilities will be familiar to people who have been using an Android smartphone for some time and in some instances are already available to Apple users who have installed third-party AI apps such as ChatGPT.

“Although it is late to the party, the company has a strong record of taking existing technology and implementing it in a more intuitive way, allowing users to easily discover capabilities in daily use,” he said. “I think the most obvious example of this is the integration of Siri into the Dynamic Island at the top of an iPhone.”

Child safety
New parental controls will, by default, allow children to access only the apps which parents have approved to flip the model from opt-in restriction to opt-out permission. A “ask to browse” feature requires children to seek permission before visiting every new website and not just flagged ones.

On the content side, Apple is expanding its existing nudity-detection tools by adding automatic blurring of gore in messaging apps, with parents alerted when such images are encountered, which builds on earlier features that already blurred nudity by default.

Wood noted Apple’s child-safety push is a welcome and timely move as concerns about smartphones and online harm grow among parents and regulators.

He explained the parental controls, tools and developer APIs are positive steps, but they do not go far enough on their own.

“I believe that stronger cross-industry safeguards need to be built into operating systems at a deeper platform level that deliver protection not only in native apps but for every interaction a child has with a device,“ he said. “Apple is well-positioned to be a driving force in this area.”

Cook’s swan song
Outgoing CEO Tim Cook (pictured) opened and closed the conference’s presentation, in what many expect will be his last appearance before his planned transition to executive chairman on 1 September, when SVP of hardware engineering John Ternus will take over as CEO.

“Tim Cook’s last WWDC keynote as Apple CEO may be the most important one and it was a clear reflection of his leadership: disciplined, ecosystem-first, privacy-led, and focused on making technology useful at scale,” stated Francisco Jeronimo, VP of client devices at IDC.

Cook closed the keynote by stating creating the best products in the world to deliver experiences that enrich people’s lives has always been Apple’s North Star.

“It’s been the honour of a lifetime to help advance that mission with teams whose creativity, care, and conviction continue to make a lasting difference in people’s lives,” he said.

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