Apple is reportedly preparing a major overhaul of Siri that would tie the company to one of its fiercest rivals: Google. According to multiple industry reports and leaks, the next-generation “Siri 2.0” will lean on Google’s Gemini large language model — a move that promises much smarter assistant capabilities but also raises fresh questions about privacy, strategy and corporate leadership.
What’s changing (the short version)
- Apple is said to be negotiating a multi‑hundred‑million to $1 billion‑per‑year deal to use Google’s Gemini models as the backbone for Siri.
- The initial rollout of Siri 2.0 is expected with iOS 26.4 or 26.5 in early 2026, with further feature expansions arriving alongside iOS 27 later in the year.
- Reported features include deeper personalization and context awareness (drawing on your emails, messages and files), on‑screen understanding, multi‑app tasking, and an expanded health/workflow role for the assistant.
- Personal context: Siri will be able to analyze a user’s own data (messages, calendar, files) to provide tailored suggestions and draft content.
- On‑screen awareness: Siri will interpret what’s visible on screen and act on it — for example, suggesting calendar entries or actions based on an email or message thread.
- Deeper app integration and autonomous planning: Siri would coordinate across apps (Mail, Calendar, Notes, Health, third‑party apps) to carry out complex requests such as booking travel or assembling a presentation.
- Availability: Early 2026 (iOS 26.4/26.5) for the first wave of Siri 2.0 features; broader enhancements later in 2026 with iOS 27.
- Cost: Reports circulating in the industry put Apple’s tab for access to Gemini at roughly $1 billion per year for high‑end model access, though Apple would not charge users directly for Siri beyond the usual device and service pricing.
- Capability: Outsourcing to an advanced external model can produce immediate, large gains in comprehension, summarization and planning.
- Privacy: Apple’s brand has long been built on tighter data controls than many competitors; relying on an external model forces hard engineering and legal work to preserve that promise.
- Identity and independence: Paying a direct competitor for a strategic capability can be practical — but it also prompts questions about whether Apple is conceding the AI platform race.
- Official confirmation from Apple on timing and whether Gemini will be the model provider.
- Details on how Apple plans to protect user data and what will be processed on‑device versus in the cloud.
- Any announcements around iOS 26.4/26.5 at Apple’s public events or in developer releases.
- Corporate moves: succession planning at Apple and how the company frames this change publicly.
Taken together, the changes aim to move Siri from a largely reactive voice helper to a more agentic, proactive assistant that can plan, summarize and complete multi‑step tasks on behalf of users.
The capabilities Apple is said to be adding
Reports and leaks compiling the alleged roadmap highlight three broad improvements:
Later updates are said to include a visual redesign, an AI‑powered search tool, and stronger Health app integrations.
Why Google’s Gemini? The technical and competitive context
Google’s Gemini family is one of the leading large language models in the market; reports peg some Gemini configurations in the trillions of parameters. For Apple, the appeal is clear: Gemini’s advanced planning and summarization capabilities could accelerate Siri’s long‑promised transformation into an “agent” rather than a simple voice command interface.
Apple has previously augmented parts of its AI stack with outside models — its Apple Intelligence features have tapped other LLMs for some tasks — but a reported long‑term commercial relationship with Google would be unprecedented between the two companies and signals how high Apple’s ambitions for Siri now are.
At the same time, the broader AI landscape is fluid: Microsoft continues to invest heavily in its own AI infrastructure and has changed how it partners with model providers; Google itself is racing to commercialize Gemini across products. The reported Apple‑Google arrangement can be seen as Apple choosing speed and capability over building everything in house immediately.
Price, availability and timing
Apple has not publicly confirmed the timeline or the financial terms.
Reactions: users, privacy advocates and investors
User sentiment is divided but vocal. Many Apple customers long fed up with Siri’s limits have welcomed any credible effort to make the assistant reliably useful. As one frequent commenter put it in online forums: “Anything is better than what Siri currently is.”
Conversely, privacy advocates and some users see risk in outsourcing core intelligence to Google, a company whose business depends heavily on data. Skeptics note Apple’s longstanding privacy positioning — on‑device processing and minimization of data collection — and worry a third‑party model could erode that distinction. Sample objections reported in social discussions include: “I’d much rather have a useless Siri than Google’s AI on my iPhone.”
Investor voices have added another dimension. Ross Gerber, a prominent investor, publicly urged Apple to change leadership and explicitly suggested replacing Siri with Google’s AI, writing bluntly on social media: “Apple needs new leadership… Kill Siri. Ask Gemini.” That comment reflects a strain of investor impatience over Apple’s perceived pace in the AI race.
Leadership and corporate implications
The Gemini news has emerged alongside continuing chatter about Apple’s executive succession. Some reports suggest CEO Tim Cook could step down as soon as 2026, with John Ternus (senior vice‑president of hardware engineering) cited as a possible successor. Apple has not confirmed any change in leadership or timing.
If true, a high‑profile partnership with Google would be one of the most consequential strategic pivots under any new leadership and would signal a pragmatic willingness to pay for best‑in‑class AI rather than trying to keep every component in house.
Trade‑offs: capability vs. privacy and identity
Any move to integrate an external LLM raises three core trade‑offs:
Many users and commentators argue there is a middle path: Apple could route model queries through privacy‑preserving systems, limit what data leaves devices, or run customized, privacy‑focused instances of external models under contract. Those technical solutions are plausible but complex and costly.
What this means for users and what to watch next
For everyday users, the most immediate benefits would be a more useful Siri that understands complex requests, summarizes content reliably and automates repetitive tasks.
What to watch in the coming months:
Bottom line
Siri 2.0 — as described in the leaks and reports — would be the most significant upgrade to Apple’s assistant in years. It promises genuinely new capabilities that could make Siri a central, agentic element of Apple’s ecosystem. But the plan also forces a rebalancing of Apple’s privacy posture and raises strategic questions about whether outsourcing cutting‑edge AI is a pragmatic stopgap or a longer‑term concession. Users eager for a smarter assistant will watch closely; privacy champions and some loyalists will demand clear engineering and policy guarantees before embracing the change.
Apple has not issued an official statement confirming the reported partnership, feature list, or timetable. Until then, the story remains a high‑stakes set of leaks and industry reporting that could reshape the competitive landscape for consumer AI assistants in 2026 and beyond.