The companies have confirmed that the more personalised version of Siri will be available later this year.
Siri is currently powered by Apple's in-house models, along with OpenAI's ChatGPT
Google and Apple announced a multi-year collaboration on Monday. This move will see the Mountain View-based tech giant's Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) models and cloud technology power the next generation of Apple Foundation Models. The two tech behemoths will collaborate to power upcoming features part of the Apple Intelligence suite, including a more advanced and personalised version of Siri, which has been on the cards for some time now but is yet to be rolled out.
According to the joint statement, Apple chose Google's AI technology after a careful evaluation, determining that Gemini provided “the most capable foundation” for its next-generation models. The Gemini-based foundation models are expected to underpin a range of upcoming AI features across iPhone, iPad and Mac, potentially offering more contextual, personalised and capable assistance through Siri than Apple's prior implementations.
The statement also confirms that the more personalised version of Siri will be rolled out this year. Apple Intelligence, meanwhile, will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute, the giants further added.
Apple has long been rumoured to be working with Google to improve Siri for some time. In November, a report mentioned that the new Siri will "lean on Google's Gemini model" and introduce features like AI-powered web search. The iPhone maker is reportedly paying Google to develop a custom version of its Gemini AI model that will run on Apple's private cloud infrastructure and enhance Siri's capabilities.
Apple reportedly chose Google, likely because of their pre-existing business ties, including the search deal.
During WWDC 2024, Apple previewed the iOS 18 firmware and a major highlight of the update was shown to be the new AI suite. While many of the showcased features have made their way to the iPhone since then, the highly anticipated Apple Intelligence-powered Siri with contextual awareness and natural language support is yet to be seen.
According to previous reports, Apple aims to turn around its fortunes in AI progress, and an advanced version of Siri for the iPhone will play a significant role. It is slated to have an internal release timeline of Spring 2026 withe Apple reportedly targeting a release with the iOS 26.4 update.
The release timeline, however, is still said to be dependent upon any potential snags that Apple may run into during its development.
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