TL; DR
- Apple’s revamped Siri features are reportedly struggling in internal testing, with problems like lag, slow responses, and accuracy issues.
- Some upgrades originally planned for iOS 26.4 (March 2026) are now expected to shift to iOS 26.5 (May 2026), with a few potentially landing in iOS 27 (September 2026).
- Apple’s full chatbot-style Siri overhaul, codenamed “Campos,” is still expected in iOS 27 as the company aims to avoid shipping an unstable experience.
Apple’s long-promised Siri upgrade is reportedly running into more trouble behind the scenes, and it sounds like the rollout is about to get even slower. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has hit “fresh problems” while testing the upgraded Siri experience internally.
Personal Siri Delayed Internally
Engineers have reportedly been told to move key testing from iOS 26.4 to iOS 26.5, which suggests the March update may not deliver the bigger Siri changes Apple originally hoped to ship.
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The issues seem to be centered on performance and reliability. Internal testing reportedly revealed that Siri is struggling with processing queries quickly, handling personal data access smoothly, and executing multi-step actions without falling apart.
Gurman says the experience can feel laggy, inaccurate, and slow, which is exactly the kind of thing Apple cannot afford when it is trying to sell Siri as part of Apple Intelligence.
These delayed features are tied to the more “personal” Siri Apple has been building, where the assistant can pull useful context from your device. That includes things like retrieving information from messages, emails, calendars, and photos, then using it to answer more specific questions.
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Siri is also supposed to handle more complex tasks across multiple apps, which is one of the main promises Apple made when it first introduced Apple Intelligence.
Apple revealed Apple Intelligence in June 2024 with major Siri upgrades on the roadmap, then pushed the timeline from 2025 to 2026. More recently, iOS 26.4 had been treated as the milestone update for these Siri upgrades. Now, internal versions of iOS 26.5 reportedly include notices about Siri enhancements, plus a “preview” toggle for personalization features, which makes this feel very real.
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Chatbot Siri Coming This Fall
The bigger Siri transformation, though, is still expected later. Gurman says Apple’s full chatbot-style Siri, internally codenamed “Campos,” remains planned for iOS 27 in fall 2026. This is the version that is expected to replace Siri’s current interface entirely and turn it into a conversational AI assistant that can do things people already associate with ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. That includes generating content, analyzing files, summarizing information, helping with coding, and more, all built directly into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
Gurman also reports that some of Siri’s upcoming capabilities are powered by a custom model based on Google’s Gemini, which would be a major shift for Apple’s AI strategy, even if the final branding stays fully Apple.
At this point, iOS 26.4 in March will likely deliver smaller Siri improvements, while the more meaningful changes roll out gradually across iOS 26.5 and beyond. Apple’s approach suggests it is prioritizing stability, especially since Siri has spent years being criticized for feeling behind the curve.
WWDC in June should bring a clearer picture of what Apple is confident enough to show publicly, and what is still stuck in the “not ready yet” phase.
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