Not long ago, Siri couldn’t seem to catch a break. After Apple officially delayed the assistant’s big AI upgrades, several internal leaks highlighted just how bad things were behind the scenes. But now, the tides have seemingly turned, and Siri’s good news season is in full swing ahead of iOS 19’s big reveal.
Big internal changes preparing Siri for new success
Following the array of troubling Siri reports in early March, there have been numerous encouraging signs emerging from within Apple.
Mike Rockwell, Siri’s effective new boss, may have seemed an odd choice at first. But that sentiment quickly changed.
Per numerous reports, Rockwell has wanted to fix Siri for years, and now he finally gets the opportunity. And unlike previous leadership’s poor track record for shipping major upgrades, Rockwell proved with visionOS and Vision Pro that he can manage huge projects and deliver.
Rockwell, and his boss Craig Federighi, have already made big changes to right the ship with Siri. Per various reports:
- Apple engineers can now use third-party LLMs to build Siri features
- and the Siri teams have been shaken up with new leadership consisting of top company talent
These internal changes are positioned to make a major impact on Siri. And we’re already getting reports on what that will look like.
iOS 19 will upgrade Siri with new powers from Apple and third parties
In April, The New York Times shared some exciting news for users.
Per three sources, Siri’s big AI upgrades are expected to launch this fall in iOS 19.
That’s a lot sooner than many had come to expect, especially since Apple’s original delay announcement seemed to indicate a 2026 release was likely.
But now, it appears those new Apple Intelligence powers will be ready before too long.
That’s not the only good iOS 19 news Siri’s received, though.
Just yesterday, via Google CEO Sundar Pichai of all people, we learned that Apple will likely add multiple new third-party AI integrations to iOS 19.
Google Gemini will almost certainly be one of them, but it sounds like other AI models are coming too.
This is great news for Siri, because the more new models are integrated with Apple Intelligence, the better Siri will become.
Right now in iOS 18, ChatGPT is the only supported third-party extension. But it has come with significant benefits for users. Now, when Siri can’t answer a question, it pulls in ChatGPT to help.
The end result for users is that Siri performs better than before—even though the new intelligence is technically sourced from OpenAI.
With the addition of Gemini and other third-party extensions in iOS 19, Siri will offer users even more value than ever.
Siri in iOS 19 and beyond: wrap-up
Siri’s reputation has no doubt suffered this year, but it already wasn’t very strong in the first place. With the changes Apple has made internally, and the prospect of big upgrades in iOS 19, Siri could truly be entering a new era.
WWDC is only a month away, so we won’t have to wait long to see what Apple has in store. The biggest question now is: will the company announce everything that’s coming? Or will it play things safer this year, and under promise so it can hopefully over deliver?
How do you feel about Siri’s potential in iOS 19 and beyond? Let us know in the comments.
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