Apple’s Gemini-powered Siri upgrade could still arrive this month

Apple has had a jam-packed March after just three weeks. The company announced eight new products, broke a Mac launch record, and highlighted 13 enhancements coming to iPhone. Next, one of the most overdue Apple releases in years could follow: Personal Intelligence for Siri and Apple Intelligence.

Apple’s long road to a ‘more personalized’ Siri

Apple first unveiled Apple Intelligence as part of iOS 18 at WWDC 2024 on June 10, 2024. Apple rolled out most of the Apple Intelligence suite of features in iOS 18.1, iOS 18.2, iOS 18.3, and iOS 18.4.

Personal Intelligence, however, never made the iOS 18 release cycle. Neither did the kind of in-app action and on-screen awareness features that Apple originally announced.

Apple officially delayed its “more personalized” version of Siri one year ago on March 7, 2025. This is what Apple said at the time:

“Siri helps our users find what they need and get things done quickly, and in just the past six months, we’ve made Siri more conversational, introduced new features like type to Siri and product knowledge, and added an integration with ChatGPT. We’ve also been working on a more personalized Siri, giving it more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps. It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.”

At the time, Apple skillfully deployed the phrase “in the coming year” to mean that last year’s announcement wouldn’t be ready until next year at the earliest.

Then on January 12, 2026, Apple and Google made a joint announcement that the two companies were collaborating on a Gemini-powered upgrade to Siri and Apple Intelligence:

“Apple and Google have entered into a multi-year collaboration under which the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology. These models will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year.

After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s Al technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and is excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for Apple users. Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute, while maintaining Apple’s industry-leading privacy standards.”

Apple reportedly targeted iOS 26.4 for the first Gemini-powered enhancements. While that release turned out to be feature-packed, the new Siri features aren’t present.

Prior to iOS 26.4’s first developer beta release, Mark Gurman reported for Bloomberg that Apple would instead target iOS 26.5 and iOS 27. Apple has also signaled that we’ll eventually see more Siri and Apple Intelligence features using the new system than the unreleased capabilities that it originally announced.

We don’t yet know which features will make what release. It would make sense for Apple to try to ship the features originally intended for an update to iOS 18 in the iOS 26.5 release. After all, iOS 26.5 will likely be Apple’s stable software release until iOS 27.0 is finished in September.

Anything not yet announced can reasonably be saved for iOS 27’s preview in June, and those features can bake through all of July and August before arriving in September.

There’s still time to believe in Siri with Personal Intelligence in March

The good news is that we should soon learn what Apple has planned around Gemini-powered Siri and Apple Intelligence features.

Here’s the optimistic path toward believing in a March arrival. It’s based on Apple’s timeline for releasing the first iOS 26.3 Release Candidate, the final version of iOS 26.3, and the first iOS 26.4 developer beta.

• Apple released iOS 26.3 RC on Wednesday, February 4th.
• Apple released iOS 26.3 on Wednesday, February 11th.
• Apple released iOS 26.4 beta 1 on Monday, February 16th.

That’s seven days between Release Candidate and official release, then five days between official release and the next developer beta. Wednesday to Wednesday, then Wednesday to Monday.

Want to apply this same release cadence to forecast the first iOS 26.5 beta? We already have one data point. Apple released the iOS 26.4 Release Candidate on Wednesday, March 18th.

Next, Apple could release iOS 26.4 publicly on Wednesday, March 25th. If that tracks, we can maintain hope that the first iOS 26.5 beta will follow on Monday, March 30th.

For it to play out, Apple just needs to include some Gemini-powered features in the first iOS 26.5 developer beta. Just is doing a lot of work in this timeline, but it’s not improbable.

If this happens, Apple would technically ship its long overdue Siri and Apple Intelligence features in the first quarter of 2026 — even if most customers receive the update in April or May.

The reality probably has more to do with what features are ready enough for a developer beta. Again, this is the optimistic timeline. It may be wiser to bet on more time with a mid-April beta. We’ll see!

Do you think Apple will show off the first Gemini-powered Apple Intelligence and Siri features in March? Share your take in the comments!