Apple Set to Launch Revamped Siri with Gemini Technology in February 2026, Reduces Focus on ‘World Knowledge Answers’ and Safari AI Redesign

Anticipation is building as Apple prepares to potentially unveil its revamped Siri, now powered by Google’s Gemini technology, next month. Insights from Mark Gurman’s latest Power On newsletter suggest that this significant update may arrive as early as February.

Mark Gurman: Potential Launch of Gemini-Powered Siri by Late February 2026

In a recent analysis, we highlighted Apple’s decision to integrate Google’s Gemini into its next-generation Foundation Models. This strategic partnership is expected to lead to the introduction of a major overhaul of Siri, particularly with the upcoming iOS 26.4 update. This new version of Siri aims to enhance its functionalities by incorporating personal context awareness, in-app actions, and on-screen awareness, enabling the voice assistant to perform a variety of tasks based on user data and displayed content.

To support this ambitious initiative, Apple plans to utilize an impressive 1.2-trillion-parameter custom Gemini AI model hosted on its cloud servers. This will allow for a distinction between simple AI tasks managed by on-device models and more complex tasks handled in Apple’s secure cloud environment, using encrypted and stateless data for processing.

According to Gurman, we may see the unveiling of the updated Siri next month:

“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.”

Gurman mentions that the reveal could occur during a major event or a more intimate media briefing, such as the upcoming Apple Creator Studio session.

Expected to debut alongside the iOS 26.4 update—which is anticipated to enter its beta phase in February and become available to the public by March or early April 2026—the revitalized Siri will run on the proprietary 1.2-trillion-parameter custom Gemini model, also referred to as the Foundation Models version 10. Notably, this suggests that the technological foundation is largely under Apple’s control.

Looking ahead, the iOS 27 update promises to include a dedicated Siri chatbot, which will operate on Google’s TPUs and cloud resources, likely rented by Apple. This new functionality is expected to integrate seamlessly into Apple’s software instead of launching as an independent application.

With the enhanced Siri chatbot, users will benefit from capabilities such as web searches, content generation—including images—coding assistance, and information summarization and analysis. Furthermore, this update will enable Siri to utilize personal data, significantly improve search functions, and facilitate task completion by interacting with on-screen content and adjusting device settings.

In his newsletter, Gurman revealed that iOS 27 will enter its beta phase this summer, introducing a more advanced version of Google’s Gemini model, internally labeled as Apple Foundation Models version 11. This model is expected to rival Gemini 3 while offering improvements over its predecessor used in iOS 26.4.

Nonetheless, in tandem with these developments, Apple has scaled back on certain ambitious AI projects. Noteworthy among these is the World Knowledge Answers initiative, which aimed to compete with AI models like ChatGPT by delivering quick and accurate answers to general queries. Additionally, plans for an AI-enhanced Safari browser, designed to assess data trustworthiness and cross-reference information, have been put on hold, alongside the anticipated updates for Apple Health.

In conclusion, Gurman observes that while Apple continues refining its own on-device AI models, there is a clear pivot towards leveraging the more sophisticated Gemini models on the cloud. As part of this shift, Apple intends to deploy enhanced in-house servers next year to bolster these initiatives.

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