In a development that is disappointing yet expected, Mark Gurman has reported for Bloomberg that the enhanced version of Siri may not be entirely ready in time for the upcoming iOS 18.4 release.
Apple introduced three significant upgrades for Siri during its Worldwide Developers Conference last June:
Understanding Personal Context
Equipped with an on-device semantic index driven by Apple Intelligence, Siri can comprehend emails, messages, photos, calendar appointments, files, and more. It can provide personalized answers to your queries. For instance, when you ask, “What movie did Jamie say I should check out?” Siri will retrieve the relevant message from last week. Additionally, while filling out a form, you could say, “Enter my passport number here,” and Siri can extract it from a stored image of your passport.
Onscreen Cognizance
Siri will have the capacity to recognize and act upon elements displayed on your screen. For example, if a friend texts you about a new coffee shop nearby, you can just ask, “How long will it take me to walk there from home?” and Siri will understand your request.
In-App Interactions
Siri will be capable of executing hundreds of new tasks on your behalf in both first- and third-party applications. For instance, while editing pictures, you’ll be able to simply say, “Warm up this photo,” and Siri will make the necessary adjustments via the Photos app. Siri can also perform tasks across different apps, so after editing a photo, you could say, “Add this to my ratatouille recipe note,” and Siri will smoothly transition to complete the task.
Nonetheless, Gurman notes that software issues might “delay or limit its rollout,” originally anticipated for April but now possibly pushed to May.
Some of these functionalities may not be available in iOS 18.4 and might instead be introduced with an iOS 18.5 update.
Internally, the company had planned to integrate the technology within iOS 18.4, slated for release in April.
However, Apple is now contemplating deferring or restricting at least some of the enhancements until iOS 18.5, which is expected to launch as early as May, according to sources. […]
Within Apple, numerous employees who are testing the new Siri have observed that these features don’t yet function consistently, and the timeline for the software to be ready is tightening. Although the public launch of iOS 18.4 is set for April, the beta version for developers may be available as soon as next week.
At least we have the new Siri animation to look forward to… You can read Gurman’s complete report here.
Apple has not disclosed when these Siri enhancements will be available, aside from indicating they will be part of iOS 18 in 2025. This technically allows Apple until August to introduce these features, but with iOS 19 entering beta in June, the timeline is tight.
