The new Siri is Apple's biggest leap in intelligence in iOS 27 – and also the one that was most eagerly awaited. Now, the person responsible for the assistant provides the explanation. It reveals a deliberate U-turn that cost Apple months.
At the WWDC keynote, Apple unveiled a completely redesigned assistant that has little in common with the previous Siri. Following the keynote, the company invited select members of the press to a tech talk about Siri and Apple Intelligence. Mike Rockwell, who had only taken over Siri development the previous year as part of an internal restructuring that reorganized AI responsibilities at Apple, was also present. Rockwell explained for the first time why the new Siri arrived later than many had hoped.
A finished first version – which Apple then rejected
According to Rockwell, the team had already built and run an initial version of the new Siri. This version gradually built upon the original Siri, adding features such as Tool Calling, the ability to specifically access functions and services. Technically, this approach worked, he explained – it just wasn't what Apple wanted to deliver.
A second design existed in parallel, requiring significantly more extensive modifications. The team was thus faced with a choice between the completed but limited add-on and a more elaborate new build. Apple opted against the obvious, faster solution and chose the more comprehensive approach.
Completely torn down and rebuilt
Instead of further expanding the existing Siri, Apple, according to Rockwell's account, completely rebuilt it from the ground up. The new foundation consists of modern language models based on Google's Gemini, without being Gemini themselves. It was precisely this radical change that extended the timeline – and, according to Rockwell, that ultimately made a significantly more powerful assistant possible.
The incremental approach would have brought Siri some AI improvements, but not the complete overhaul that iOS 27 now delivers. Apple consciously accepted the longer development time to avoid getting stuck at an intermediate step.
What made the new beginning possible
Only through the complete overhaul does Siri gain a range of features that would have been unattainable with the old architecture. These include a standalone app, something Apple had long avoided. In addition, there is a fundamentally multimodal design – meaning the assistant processes various input methods – as well as a data privacy concept that was considered from the outset.
Equally important to Apple was consistent availability across its entire device lineup. The new Siri runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro, as well as in AirPods and on Apple TV in the car via CarPlay. Across all these platforms, it's the same assistant with a unified experience – a requirement that necessitates this consistent, new foundation.
Available on iPhone and iPad in the EU with a delay
What Apple advertises as cross-platform compatibility initially applies with limitations in the European Union: The new Siri will not be launched on iPhones and iPads here for the time being, because the Digital Markets Act restricts its functionality. The assistant is available on other platforms in the EU. Those in Germany who are waiting for the new Siri on their iPhones will therefore have to wait for a later date.
What started as a makeshift solution became a new beginning
Rockwell's explanation puts the long wait in a different light: Apple already had a functioning, but limited, Siri and set it aside in favor of a completely new design. The company thus opted against a faster result and for a bigger gamble – with all the risks of a project that was under intense scrutiny from the outset. The viability of this decision is now evident with the release of iOS 27. (Image: Apple)
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