Abstract:
EU users may have to wait for several months for the new generation of AI version of Siri launched by Apple for iPhone and iPad. The latest news shows that even according to the most optimistic scenario, EU users may have to wait at least about 5 months to get this feature, and the actual waiting time may be even longer. Apple has not announced the specific launch time of Siri AI on iPhone and iPad in the EU.
Siri AI is one of the important upgrades of Apple iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. The new version of Siri is no longer just a voice assistant in the traditional sense, but has added more in-depth AI capabilities, which can understand more natural continuous conversations and perform more complex tasks based on the application and device environment the user is using.
Apple originally hoped to gradually open these features when iOS 27 was officially released, but EU users became an exception. Apple has previously made it clear that due to regulatory requirements under the EU's Digital Markets Act, the company will not be able to provide full Siri AI functionality to EU users when iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 are released.
At present, iOS 27 has been officially released, and Siri AI has also begun to gradually go online in other markets. However, in the EU, the full new generation of Siri is still not available on iPhone and iPad. At the same time, EU users can use some Siri AI functions on Mac and Apple Vision Pro, which means that restrictions are mainly concentrated on iPhones, iPads, and some devices that rely on iPhones.
Apple believes that the core of the problem is that the Digital Markets Act imposes higher requirements on digital assistant interoperability in operating systems. Apple has previously said that if Siri AI operates in the EU the way it does in other regions, the company may need to give third-party virtual assistants the ability to access users' private data and control other applications.
For an AI assistant capable of reading messages, accessing files, and performing actions on behalf of the user, this kind of permission could create new security risks. Therefore, Apple has proposed a corresponding system-level permission control scheme, hoping to protect user data and operational security through operating system-level mechanisms while allowing third-party AI assistants to obtain necessary system capabilities.
However, Apple and EU regulators have yet to reach a final consensus on this plan. As a result, Apple decided to suspend the launch of complete Siri AI on iPhones and iPads in the EU and continue to discuss solutions with the EU. Apple has not given a clear launch timetable before.
The European Union put forward different explanations for Apple’s statement. EU regulators believe that the failure of Siri AI to launch in the EU is mainly Apple's own technical and commercial decision, and require Apple to find an interoperability solution that complies with the Digital Markets Act rather than simply seek regulatory exemptions.
This makes the current dispute not just an ordinary product delay, but a regulatory game between Apple and the European Union over the permissions of the AI assistant and the openness of the platform.
The current "at least 5 months" is not an official timetable announced by Apple, but is based on Apple's past launch of Apple Intelligence in the EU. Apple Intelligence was initially launched in some markets in October 2024, and EU users received related features about five months later. Therefore, if Siri AI eventually proceeds at a similar pace, EU users may have to wait until early 2027.
However, five months can only be regarded as a relatively optimistic guess, and it does not mean that Apple will definitely be able to solve the problem at this point in time. If negotiations between Apple and EU regulators continue to be unsatisfactory, the actual delay may exceed the waiting period previously experienced by Apple Intelligence in Europe.
For Apple, the situation of Siri AI this time is different from the previous postponement of Apple Intelligence. The original Apple Intelligence mainly involved AI functions such as text generation, notification summarization, and image processing, while the new version of Siri is more deeply involved in the operating system and third-party applications.
Apple hopes that Siri can understand what users are doing and help users complete tasks based on context. For example, users can ask Siri to handle multiple sequential steps, rather than just one explicit command like traditional voice assistants. This means that Siri AI needs to gain wider system permissions, which just complicates its conflict with EU digital regulatory rules.
For EU iPhone users, this also means that even if they buy the latest iPhone and upgrade to iOS 27, they will not be able to get the full Siri AI experience advertised by Apple. New features that partially rely on Siri AI will also be affected.
What is particularly noteworthy is that Apple is further integrating AI agent capabilities into the system. In the future, if Siri can not only answer questions, but also read information, modify files, send messages and even perform other operations on behalf of the user across applications, then how much authority the operating system should give to the AI assistant will become a more sensitive issue than traditional voice assistants.
This is also the core of the current dispute between Apple and the EU: Apple wants to maintain a highly controlled AI system that emphasizes privacy and security, while the EU wants to ensure that on Apple-controlled platforms, other AI assistants can also obtain the system capabilities required for fair competition.
At present, the two parties have not announced the final solution, so the so-called "going online in five months" cannot be regarded as a definite time. For EU users, Siri AI may still have to wait until 2027 to be officially available, and if negotiations between Apple and EU regulators continue to reach an impasse, the waiting time may be further extended.
This also means that in the future, iPhone and iPad users in the EU and other regions may have a very special situation: purchasing the exact same hardware and running the same version of iOS 27 or iPadOS 27 may obtain significantly different AI capabilities just because the device is located in different regions. For Apple, how to find a balance between a globally unified product experience and increasingly complex AI regulatory requirements in different regions will become a problem that it must face in the next few years.
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