Apple Delays Gemini-Powered Siri Features Beyond iOS 26.4 Due to Technical Issues

Apple is facing new technical hurdles in its effort to launch the upgraded version of its voice assistant Siri, powered by Google's Gemini technology. According to a Bloomberg report published on Tuesday, February 11, 2026, the company is rescheduling several key features that were planned for the iOS 26.4 update due in March, distributing them across later releases.

Key Highlights

• Apple delays major Siri features from iOS 26.4 to later releases
• Accuracy and reliability issues discovered during internal testing
• Siri sometimes reverts to using ChatGPT instead of Gemini without justification
• Image generation and web search features may remain in iOS 26.4

What Has Been Delayed?

The report revealed that Apple's internal testing exposed several technical problems with the new version of Siri. The delayed features include:

Personalization and Personal Data: The ability to search through old messages and emails—such as asking Siri to find a podcast link shared by a friend and play it directly. This feature is "most likely to be delayed" according to the report.

Screen Awareness: Siri's ability to understand what is displayed on the user's screen and interact with it intelligently.

Advanced Cross-App Control: Executing complex tasks that require navigating between multiple apps simultaneously.

Conversational Functions: Advanced chat features designed to compete directly with ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, which may be postponed until iOS 27 in September.

Technical Issues

The new Siri suffers from several problems identified by Apple's internal testers:

• Slow Response Times: Noticeable delays in processing user requests
• Accuracy Problems: Unreliability of certain features during testing
• Routing Glitches: Siri sometimes resorts to using ChatGPT to answer queries instead of the integrated Gemini technology, even when it is capable of handling the request itself

Revised Timeline

A History of Delays

This is not the first time Apple has delayed Siri development. The company originally announced AI-powered Siri in June 2024 as part of iOS 18, then postponed it to 2025. After signing a partnership with Google to use Gemini in January 2026—having considered other options including Anthropic—the new Siri was supposed to debut in iOS 26.4.

Impact on Competition

This delay comes at a time when competition in the smart assistant market is intensifying. OpenAI recently launched GPT-5.3 Codex with advanced agentic capabilities, while Anthropic continued developing Claude, and Google itself enhanced Gemini across its products from Search to Gmail to Chrome.

Every day of delay gives competitors an opportunity to strengthen their positions in the conversational AI market, which could affect Apple's competitive standing in this critical space.

What to Expect

Despite the delays, the report noted that the situation "remains fluid" and that Apple executives refuse to push everything beyond spring 2026 entirely. iOS 26.4 is likely to include at least:

• Image generation via Image Playground
• Web search summarization

These features are less technically complex and have passed testing phases more successfully than the personalization and context-awareness features.

Source: Bloomberg