It’s no secret that Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant on iOS and macOS, has been unable to keep pace with its rivals, be it Google Assistant or ChatGPT, and while Apple offered a glimmer of hope at its WWDC event in June, unveiling a wide-ranging overhaul of Siri, it remained fairly tight-lipped about when exactly this update would appear.
Now, Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman has revealed when we should expect the new version of Siri to hit our devices, and it doesn't look like it'll be any time soon. According to Gurman's latest Power On newsletter, we might have to wait until early next year to get the new features.
Gurman had previously reported that several of Siri's new capabilities wouldn't arrive in time for the likely September launch of iOS 18, and would instead roll out sometime in 2025. But there's been no word on when exactly we might see the changes go into effect.
And now he may have revealed Apple's timeline, writing: “Siri features are likely to enter developer beta testing in January and then debut publicly around spring, as part of an iOS 18.4 update that's already in the works.” That means we might not see anything until March or April, and possibly even May.
Better late than never?
The timeline outlined in Gurman’s report references some of Siri’s new capabilities, such as allowing you to control features within apps for the first time (so you can edit an image and then email it to a friend, for example). Another feature is Siri’s contextual understanding, which will let it know what you’re doing or seeing on your screen and take actions based on that content.
We won't have to wait until next year to see all the new features, though, as the Siri redesign and ChatGPT integration in iOS, among other things, are coming “later this year,” Gurman says. The journalist had previously claimed that the redesign will launch alongside iOS 18, while ChatGPT integration might have to wait until later in 2024.
However, it seems that major features related to Siri's core capabilities (rather than its visual appearance or the tools provided by a different chatbot) won't be available for at least six months, if not longer. It's a frustratingly long delay, but one that shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. After all, Apple prefers to wait until it feels it's nailed down a new feature, rather than rushing it out before it's ready.
Considering how urgently Siri needs a major revamp, this approach is probably the right one – after all, we don’t want to wait years for Siri to catch up, only to find out that it’s rushed and unfinished after all the hype around Apple’s WWDC. Let’s hope the wait is worth it.
