There’s no denying that Apple‘s Siri virtual chatbot did not precisely cling a spot of honor at this yr’s WWDC 2025 keynote. Apple discussed it, and reiterated that it used to be taking longer than it had expected to convey everybody the Siri it promised a yr in the past, announcing the total Apple Integration would arrive “in the coming year.”
Apple has since showed this implies 2026. That way we may not be seeing the type of deep integration that will have let Siri use what it knew about you and your iOS-running iPhone to develop into a greater virtual significant other in 2025. It may not, as a part of the just-announced iOS 26, use app intents to grasp what is going down at the display screen and take motion to your behalf according to that.
I’ve my theories about the cause of the lengthen, maximum of which revolve across the rigidity between turning in a wealthy AI enjoy and Apple’s core ideas relating to privateness. They regularly appear at move functions. This, despite the fact that, is guesswork. Only Apple can let us know precisely what is going on – and now they’ve.
I, together with Tom’s Guide Global Editor-in-Chief Mark Spoonauer, sat down in a while after the keynote with Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi and Apple Global VP of Marketing Greg Joswiak for a wide-ranging podcast dialogue about just about the whole thing Apple unveiled all through its 90-minute keynote.
We began by way of asking Federighi about what Apple delivered relating to Apple Intelligence, in addition to the standing of Siri, and what iPhone customers may be expecting this yr or subsequent. Federighi used to be unusually clear, providing a window into Apple’s strategic pondering on the subject of Apple Intelligence, Siri, and AI.
Far from not anything
Federighi began by way of strolling us via all that Apple has delivered with Apple Intelligence to this point, and, to be honest, it is a substantial quantity
“We were very focused on creating a broad platform for really integrated personal experiences into the OS.” recalled Federighi, relating to the unique Apple Intelligence announcement at WWDC 2024.
At the time, Apple demonstrated Writing Tools, summarizations, notifications, film recollections, semantic seek of the Photos library, and Clean Up for pictures. It delivered on all the ones options, however whilst Apple used to be construction the ones gear, it identified, Federighi instructed us, that “we could, on that foundation of large language models on device, private cloud compute as a foundation for even more intelligence, [and] semantic indexing on device to retrieve keep knowledge, build a better Siri.”
Over-confidence?
A yr in the past, Apple’s self belief in its talent to construct any such Siri led it to reveal a platform that might care for extra conversational context, mispeaking, Type to Siri, and a considerably redesigned UI. Again, all issues Apple delivered.
“We also talked about […] things like being able to invoke a broader range of actions across your device by app intents being orchestrated by Siri to let it do more things,” added Federighi. “We also talked about the ability to use personal knowledge from that semantic index so if you ask for things like, “What’s that podcast, that ‘Joz’ despatched me?’ that shall we in finding it, whether or not it used to be on your messages or on your e mail, and phone it out, after which possibly even act on it the usage of the ones app intents. That piece is the piece that we’ve got now not delivered, but.”
This is known history. Apple overpromised and underdelivered, failing to deliver a vaguely promised end-of-year Apple Intelligence Siri update in 2024 and admitting by spring 2025 that it would not be ready any time soon. As to why it happened, it’s been, up to now, a bit of a mystery. Apple is not in the habit of demonstrating technology or products that it does not know for certain that it will be able to deliver on schedule.
Federighi, however, explained in some detail where things went awry, and how Apple progresses from here.
“We discovered that once we have been growing this selection that we had, in point of fact, two stages, two variations of without equal structure that we have been going to create,” he explained. “Version one we had running right here on the time that we have been getting on the subject of the convention, and had, on the time, top self belief that shall we ship it. We concept by way of December, and if now not, we figured by way of spring, till we introduced it as a part of WWDC. Because we knew the arena sought after a in point of fact entire image of, ‘What’s Apple eager about the consequences of Apple intelligence and the place is it going?'”
A story of 2 architectures
As Apple was working on a V1 of the Siri architecture, it was also working on what Federighi called V2, “a deeper end-to-end structure that we knew used to be in the end what we needed to create, to get to a complete set of functions that we needed for Siri.”
What everyone saw during WWDC 2024 were videos of that V1 architecture, and that was the foundation for work that began in earnest after the WWDC 2024 reveal, in preparation for the full Apple Intelligence Siri launch.
“We set about for months, making it paintings higher and higher throughout extra app intents, higher and higher for doing seek,” Federighi added. “But essentially, we discovered that the constraints of the V1 structure were not getting us to the standard stage that we knew our shoppers wanted and anticipated. We learned that V1 structure, you recognize, shall we push and push and push and put in additional time, but when we attempted to push that out within the state it used to be going to be in, it might now not meet our buyer expectancies or Apple requirements, and that we needed to transfer to the V2 structure.
“As soon as we realized that, and that was during the spring, we let the world know that we weren’t going to be able to put that out, and we were going to keep working on really shifting to the new architecture and releasing something.”
We learned that […] If we attempted to push that out within the state it used to be going to be in, it might now not meet our buyer expectancies or Apple requirements, and that we needed to transfer to the V2 structure.
Craig Federighi, Apple
That transfer, despite the fact that, and what Apple realized alongside the way in which, intended that Apple would now not make the similar mistake once more, and promise a brand new Siri for a date that it would now not ensure to hit. Instead. Apple may not “precommunicate a date,” defined Federighi, “until we have in-house, the V2 architecture delivering not just in a form that we can demonstrate for you all…”
He then joked that, whilst, in truth, he “could” reveal a running V2 fashion, he used to be now not going to do it. Then he added, extra severely, “We have, you know, the V2 architecture, of course, working in-house, but we’re not yet to the point where it’s delivering at the quality level that I think makes it a great Apple feature, and so we’re not announcing the date for when that’s happening. We will announce the date when we’re ready to seed it, and you’re all ready to be able to experience it.”
I requested Federighi if, by way of V2 structure, he used to be speaking a few wholesale rebuilding of Siri, however Federighi disabused me of that perception.
“I should say the V2 architecture is not, it wasn’t a star-over. The V1 architecture was sort of half of the V2 architecture, and now we extend it across, sort of make it a pure architecture that extends across the entire Siri experience. So we’ve been very much building up upon what we have been building for V1, but now extending it more completely, and that more homogeneous end-to-end architecture gives us much higher quality and much better capability. And so that’s what we’re building now.”
A distinct AI technique
Some may view Apple’s failure to ship the total Siri on its authentic agenda as a strategic stumble. But Apple’s way to AI and product could also be completely other than that of OpenAI or Google Gemini. It does now not revolve round a unique product or an impressive chatbot. Siri isn’t essentially the center piece all of us imagined.
Federighi does not dispute that “AI is this transformational technology […] All that’s growing out of this architecture is going to have decades-long impact across the industry and the economy, and much like the internet, much like mobility, and it’s going to touch Apple’s products and it’s going to touch experiences that are well outside of Apple products.”
Apple obviously desires to be a part of this revolution, however on its phrases and in ways in which maximum receive advantages its customers whilst, in fact, protective their privateness. Siri, despite the fact that, used to be by no means the tip recreation, as Federighi defined.
AI is that this transformational generation […] and it will contact Apple’s merchandise and it will contact studies which can be smartly outdoor of Apple merchandise.”
Craig Federighi, Apple
“When we began with Apple Intelligence, we have been very transparent: this wasn’t about simply construction a chatbot. So, reputedly, when a few of these Siri functions I discussed did not display up, other folks have been like, ‘What came about, Apple? I assumed you have been going to present us your chatbot. That used to be by no means the purpose, and it stays now not our number one purpose.”
So what is the goal? I think it may be fairly obvious from the WWDC 2025 keynote. Apple is intent on integrating Apple Intelligence across all its platforms. Instead of heading over to a singular app like ChatGPT for your AI needs, Apple’s putting it, in a way, everywhere. It’s done, Federighi explains, “in some way that meets you the place you’re, now not that you are going off to a couple chat enjoy in an effort to get issues finished.”
Apple understands the allure of conversational bots. “I do know numerous other folks in finding it to be a in point of fact robust approach to collect their ideas, brainstorm […] So, positive, those are good things,” Federighi says. “Are they crucial factor for Apple to broaden? Well, time will inform the place we move there, however that isn’t the principle factor we got down to do right now.”
Check back soon for a link to the TechRadar and Tom’s Guide podcast featuring the full interview with Federighi and Joswiak.
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