Apple Intelligence Upgrades for Siri Likely Pushed Back to iOS 18.5
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last month reported that Apple was considering delaying at least some of its promised Apple Intelligence enhancements for Siri until iOS 18.5, and that plan appears increasingly likely based on his latest information.
Gurman said Apple was initially planning to launch the Apple Intelligence enhancements for Siri in iOS 18.4, but it seems that the features have been pushed back until iOS 18.5 due to a lack of readiness and software bugs. Accordingly, none of the promised features are available in the first beta of iOS 18.4 released last month.
In his Power On newsletter today, he said the features will be available in iOS 18.5:
The follow-up release, iOS 18.5, is where the good stuff is supposed to wind up. It has the AI-infused Siri that the company showed off last June, as well as support for Apple Intelligence in China.
Apple's software engineers have been internally testing iOS 18.5 since at least the start of February, according to the MacRumors visitor logs.
Gurman expects iOS 18.5 to be released in May, but beta testing should begin sooner:
The next version of Siri will be a test of whether Apple can mount a comeback. The software is likely be released in May, a full 11 months after it was introduced.
It is still possible that some of the Siri upgrades could arrive in a later iOS 18.4 beta, but Gurman seems to be leaning into iOS 18.5 timing for now.
The upgrades coming to Siri will include on-screen awareness, understanding of a user's personal context, and deeper per-app controls. For example, during its WWDC 2024 keynote, Apple showed an iPhone user asking Siri about their mother's flight and lunch reservation plans based on info from the Mail and Messages apps.
Apple Intelligence requires an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or any iPhone 16 model.
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