Siri with Google's Gemini: These features are planned

Apple decided: The company is bringing in outside technology for Siri. According to a report, there is initial information on what will come with Google's help.

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Apple's Siri

Apple's Siri: Improvements were announced the year before last.

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3 min. read

Following Apple's official confirmation that Google technology will soon be used in Siri, many users are wondering what that practically means. More than half a dozen new functions are apparently planned for the voice assistant, which has been considered severely outdated for years. Now, initial details have leaked about what exactly is planned. The information comes from an unnamed person who was involved in the project and spoke with The Information, a news service based in California.

As a reminder, Apple announced a new context-aware Siri with additional intelligent functions back in the summer of 2024, but then postponed it multiple times. The spring of 2026 is now considered the release date, presumably with iOS 26.4, iPadOS 26.4, and macOS 26.4, provided there are no further issues. Meanwhile, it was said that Apple had determined that the old technical foundation was not suitable and the company wanted to switch to a second, better one. However, this and the Apple Foundation Model used apparently caused more problems than expected. The solution is now Google's Gemini, which, as Apple emphasizes, is intended to run on its cloud servers (Private Cloud Compute, PCC). The internet giant is not supposed to divert data for itself; it is meant to be a service provider, as was stated.

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According to The Information, Siri will become significantly more intelligent thanks to Gemini. The Google foundation model will provide world knowledge for Siri and can answer questions in almost all areas and communicate with the user in a conversational tone, as is known from voice-mode AIs. Siri will also tell stories on request, allegedly provide emotional support if desired, and perform agentic tasks, such as booking flights. How the latter will be implemented is still unclear. Apple had previously also promised control of apps via Siri and the ability to read screen content.

A combination of Apple and Google technology is still intended to enable the context-aware Siri that Apple has promised: for example, controlling apps – creating a recipe directly in the Notes app is mentioned – or using existing conversations to respond to them. Finally, there will also be “proactive” features that are based on the calendar, for example, and warn if there is heavy traffic on the way to an appointment.

The person involved further confirmed to The Information that Siri with Gemini is intended to comply with Apple's privacy promises. In addition to PCC on Apple's own chips, a local model will apparently also be used – Google Gemini has various variants ready for this. Google has reportedly put in “significant effort” to make Gemini run on Apple technology. Siri responses based solely on web links are to be a thing of the past. However, the voice assistant should cite sources for its information.

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This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.