Apple plans to unveil a substantially redesigned Siri powered by Google's Gemini AI models in the second half of February 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, marking the first major deliverable from the companies' multi-year AI partnership announced in January. The upgraded voice assistant will be part of iOS 26.4, with beta testing starting in February and public release expected in March or early April, bringing Siri to iPhone 15 Pro and newer devices with capabilities Apple first previewed at WWDC 2024 but subsequently delayed throughout 2025.
The February event timing and format remain uncertain, with Apple potentially holding either full media demonstrations or smaller private briefings rather than a traditional keynote presentation. The reveal will showcase Siri's enhanced ability to tap into personal data and on-screen content to fulfill tasks, representing a fundamental upgrade from the current assistant's limited capabilities that have frustrated users for years.
Under the partnership formalized in January 2026, Apple will base its next generation Apple Foundation Models on Google's Gemini models and cloud technology. Apple explained it determined after careful evaluation that Google's technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models, expressing excitement about innovative new experiences it will unlock for users. The deal addresses Apple's prolonged struggles to deliver competitive AI features despite running advertisements for capabilities not yet delivered.
The architecture splits responsibilities between the companies while attempting to preserve Apple's privacy positioning. Apple internally calls the system "Glenwood" and built it around a proprietary World Knowledge Answers engine shifting Siri from basic voice helper to genuine answer engine comparable to ChatGPT and Perplexity. The implementation uses three components including a planner, search layer, and summarizer, with Google handling summaries while Apple retains personal data processing on its Foundation Models never touching Google's servers.
Apple is paying Google to develop a custom Gemini version optimized for Apple's Private Cloud Compute servers, enabling Siri to process more complex tasks securely. Earlier reports suggested Apple would pay approximately $1 billion annually to utilize Google AI, though neither company confirmed financial terms in official announcements. The partnership extends Apple and Google's existing lucrative relationship where Google pays billions annually to remain the default Safari search engine.
The February release represents the initial phase of a multi-stage rollout. Apple plans to announce even more advanced Siri features at WWDC in June 2026, with those capabilities targeting greater conversational fluency similar to ChatGPT's interaction style. The complete overhaul is expected to culminate in iOS 27 later in 2026, progressively transforming Siri into a true conversational AI assistant with back-and-forth dialogue capabilities, better long-term context understanding, proactive suggestions, and deeper integration across iPhone, iPad, and Mac software.
The partnership emerged after Apple's AI division reportedly fell short of internal expectations throughout 2025, prompting renewed collaboration with Google and the departure of Apple's long-time AI chief John Giannandrea. Apple had delayed the promised Siri upgrade from 2025 to 2026, acknowledging in statements that delivering the features would take longer than anticipated despite running advertisements promoting them.
The iOS 26.4 update will likely include smarter contextual responses, more natural language understanding, deeper integration with apps like Mail and Calendar, and longer more informative answers than previous Siri versions. However, the initial release represents only the first step in Siri's complete transformation, with advanced features reserved for later iOS updates and WWDC announcements.
The deal carries significant strategic implications beyond voice assistants. If Apple, among tech's most vertically integrated companies, relies on Google for core AI capabilities, it signals the field moves too fast for any single company to own every layer. Industry observers expect more focused partnerships and fewer attempts at total self-sufficiency as AI development costs and complexity escalate.
The partnership maintains Apple's existing ChatGPT integration, which handles complicated queries requiring world knowledge beyond Siri's capabilities. Apple told CNBC it isn't making changes to the OpenAI agreement, though the Google partnership's long-term impact on ChatGPT integration remains unclear as Gemini takes on expanded roles.
