You could get a much smarter Siri on your phone this year

Let’s face it: Siri has long been the “dumbest” smart assistant in the room. We all have that shared experience where we ask Siri a simple question, only to be met with “This is what I found on the internet,” or worse, a total misunderstanding. It’s been years of incremental, barely noticeable updates as competitors raced ahead. But if recent reports are true, Apple is finally ready to stop the bleeding and give Siri the brain transplant it so desperately needs — and they’re doing it with help from an unlikely source.

The “Frenemy” collaboration

In a move likely to raise eyebrows across Silicon Valley, Apple is reportedly teaming up with its biggest rival, Google. The company has confirmed a multi-year partnership to power the next generation of Apple Intelligence using Google’s Gemini AI models. It’s a rare moment of pragmatism from Apple. They seem to have realized that their silo approach, ‘we do everything in-house’, was not working fast enough in the generative AI arms race. By leveraging Gemini’s existing cloud infrastructure and cutting-edge models, Apple is effectively hitting the turbo button to overtake the rest of the industry.

Phase one: spring cleaning for Siri

We won’t have to wait long to see if this gamble pays off. The first wave of these changes is expected to arrive as early as this spring with iOS 26.4. Currently scheduled for beta testing in February, this update won’t turn Siri into a full-fledged chatbot just yet, but it will make it significantly less frustrating.

Think of this as the “context” update. The goal here is to fix Siri’s infamous inability to understand what’s really happening on your screen or in your life. Rather than just being a glorified timer-setter, the Gemini-powered Siri will reportedly have better “screen awareness” and deeper control within apps. It means Siri finally understands that when you ask for “that email,” you’re referring to the email currently on your screen. This hybrid approach will run on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute system, aiming to balance Google’s brainpower with Apple’s obsession with user privacy.

Phase two: the chatbot era

However, the real revolution is being saved for later this year. Apple is reportedly working on a second, much more ambitious phase that will likely debut around iOS 27 and possibly be shown off at WWDC later in 2026. This is where Siri is expected to transform into a true conversationalist, capable of the kind of back-and-forth dialogue we see today with ChatGPT or Gemini 3.

Imagine a Siri that doesn’t just answer a question, but remembers the context five minutes later, proactively suggests tasks based on your habits, and handles complex, multi-step requests without stumbling. This isn’t just any patch; it’s a reimagining of the assistant as a true digital companion rather than a voice-activated remote control.

For iPhone and Mac users, this revision is long overdue. The landscape of AI has changed dramatically, and simple command-and-control voice assistants feel archaic compared to modern generative models. By swallowing its pride and working with Google, Apple is signaling that it is finally serious about making Siri usable again. If they can pull this off, 2026 could be the year we finally stop screaming at our phones in frustration and actually start talking to them.