Earlier this month, Apple and Google officially announced that they’d be partnering together. Apple has long struggled with its own model development, so now, Google Gemini models will power future Apple Intelligence features, using Apple’s private cloud compute servers.
Today, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that this partnership is on track to debut in iOS 26.4 beta as soon as next month, and Apple plans to demonstrate the features to the public in some capacity. He also reports some interesting new details on how this partnership came to be.
New Siri features coming soon
It feels like we’ve been saying new Siri is ‘coming soon’ forever now, but things should finally be coming to fruition very soon – now that Apple’s models are out of the picture.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports:
Today, Apple appears to be less than a month away from unveiling the results of this partnership. The company has been planning an announcement of the new Siri in the second half of February, when it will give demonstrations of the functionality.
Whether that takes the form of a major event or a smaller, tightly controlled briefing — perhaps at Apple’s New York media loft — remains unclear. Either way, Apple is just weeks away from finally delivering on the Siri promises made at its Worldwide Developers Conference back in June 2024.
These new Siri features in iOS 26.4 will make Siri more aware of what’s on your screen, it’ll know more about you, and it’ll be able to take actions in apps for you.
The Gemini models powering these features on Private Cloud Compute are internally known as Apple Foundation models v10, and it uses a 1.2 trillion parameter model. That’s just the beginning, though – and Siri will be getting even more advanced in iOS 27.
Last week, Gurman also reported that Apple will be implementing chatbot style features throughout iOS 27 and macOS 27. These features will be powered by whats known as Apple Foundation Models v11, and these models should be close in quality to Gemini 3. He describes it as “significantly more capable than one supporting the iOS 26.4 Siri.”
These features might rely on Google’s infrastructure however, due to their much more advanced nature. Talks for iOS 27 features are still ongoing, though.
Apple almost acquired another AI lab
Leading up to the announcement of the Google Gemini partnership earlier this month, Apple was also exploring a few other pathways.
Last June, when Bloomberg reported that Apple was exploring using a third party model provider over its own models, leadership pushed back internally. Siri executive Mike Rockwell allegedly called the reporting BS in an emergency meeting at the time.
Despite his words, Apple was also ‘already in discussions’ with both Anthropic and OpenAI to supply models for Apple Intelligence Siri. However, talks with Anthropic stalled around August, when the company wanted “several billion dollars annually over multiple years.” Making a deal with OpenAI also wasn’t favorable, as the company was actively poaching Apple devices and pursuing hardware with Jony Ive.
After a court ruled that Apple’s partnership with Google over Google Search being the default on the iPhone wasn’t illegal, a deal with Google for Gemini became much more favorable.
Wrap up
All in all, we should be seeing our first Apple Intelligence Siri features very soon. It’s hard to feel super excited right now, since its been nearly two years since we first heard about the features, but I feel that’ll probably change once I get to try things out for myself.
Are you looking forward to the debut of the first major Apple Intelligence Siri features? Let us know in the comments.
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- Anker MagSafe/Qi2 Ultra-Slim Battery Pack
- AirPods Pro 3 (2x ANC vs AirPods Pro 2!)
- Anker Nano 45W Fast Charger with Smart Display
- Anker 3-in-1 Prime 25W MagSafe Charging Stand
- Logitech MX Master 4 Mouse for Mac
- Satechi OntheGo 7-in-1 USB-C hub
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