Apple’s revamped AI Siri in iOS 27 could require users to join a waitlist before accessing certain features when the update ships publicly in September, with Apple still labeling the assistant “beta” and “preview” internally, according to a WWDC preview published June 5 by Mark Gurman, senior technology reporter at Bloomberg. The new Siri is a full chatbot powered by Google’s Gemini, two years after Apple first demoed an AI-powered assistant and kicked off one of its messiest product delays in recent memory.
A month before this keynote, Apple agreed to pay $250 million to settle a class action lawsuit over Siri AI features it promoted in 2024 but never shipped. On Monday morning, at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the company will put those features on stage.
Gurman’s Beta Label and the September Queue
That “beta” and “preview” label Apple uses internally for the new Siri carries a practical consequence: Apple could introduce a waitlist at launch, gating access to certain features in waves when iOS 27 arrives in September, similar to how it phased Apple Intelligence, its suite of on-device AI tools, through iOS 18.1 and 18.2 in late 2024. Gurman characterized the waitlist as “possible” rather than confirmed, and which specific features would be gated remains unclear.
The timeline for iOS 27: the developer beta opens at the WWDC 2026 keynote on June 8; a public beta is expected around mid-July; the full public release follows in the fall. Apple hasn’t clarified publicly when a waitlist would begin, at the developer beta stage or only after the general public release.
The Apple Intelligence rollout in 2024 is the comparison everyone is pointing to. When iOS 18.1 shipped in October 2024, Apple Intelligence was U.S.-only in English, with features arriving in batches through subsequent point releases. The most capable Siri features, cross-app actions and personal context, never landed in any iOS 18 version at all, slipping entirely into the next development cycle. A waitlist in September 2026 would be a third layer of delay on top of that history.
The “preview” designation also mirrors how Apple handled that first Apple Intelligence launch: features arrived over months rather than as a single complete package, and some capabilities were pushed to subsequent OS cycles entirely. The Siri features announced on June 8 may not all land in iOS 27.0, a point Gurman flagged explicitly in his report.
Gurman also noted Siri chats in iOS 27 will sync across Apple devices via iCloud, with conversation history set to auto-delete on a schedule users control in Settings. Rival assistants have offered persistent, synced chat history for years.
The Class Action Apple Just Settled
In May 2026, Apple agreed to pay $250 million to settle a federal class action lawsuit accusing it of false advertising and unfair competition over its Siri AI features. The case centered on Apple’s behavior around the iPhone 16 launch: the company demonstrated a dramatically upgraded Siri at WWDC in June 2024, ran those features in iPhone 16 advertisements through the fall, then pulled the ads in March 2025 when it formally acknowledged the features weren’t coming on any timeline it had stated publicly.
The complaint, filed in the Northern District of California, captured its core argument in one line:
Apple promoted AI capabilities that did not exist at the time, do not exist now, and will not exist for two or more years.
That filing hit court before Apple had shipped a single feature from the 2024 Siri demo. Apple settled without admitting any wrongdoing; in a company statement on the settlement, Apple said it resolved the case to focus on its products and services.
Settlement terms for eligible iPhone owners:
- $25 base payment per device, rising to $95 if claim volume is low
- Eligible devices: iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and the full iPhone 16 range
- Purchase window: June 10, 2024 through March 29, 2025
- Email notices to eligible claimants within 45 days of preliminary approval
A separate securities lawsuit, led by South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS), a sovereign investment fund, argues Apple’s AI delays cost investors billions in stock market losses. Apple is seeking to have the case dismissed.
From Voice Command to Full Chatbot
The new Siri Apple plans to show on June 8 is a fundamental departure from today’s Siri, the assistant most iPhone users have spent years working around. Here is what changes:
| Feature | Current Siri | New Siri in iOS 27 |
|---|---|---|
| Entry point | Full-screen edge glow | Dynamic Island; swipe down for chatbot |
| Conversation memory | Forgets after each session | Persistent history, syncs via iCloud |
| Conversation style | Single-exchange voice prompts | Multi-turn chatbot with follow-up support |
| History control | None | Auto-delete: 30 days, 1 year, or never |
| Dedicated app | No | Yes; chat bubbles and pinned conversations |
| In-app shortcuts | Limited | “Ask Siri” in Mail, Notes, Messages, Safari |
The new Siri app, reportedly codenamed “Campos” internally, uses an iMessage-style interface: chat bubbles, searchable conversation history, and pinned chats at the top. Users can toggle between voice and text, upload photos or documents for analysis, and pick up any conversation across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. A “Write with Siri” shortcut above the keyboard surfaces Apple’s Writing Tools wherever a text field appears. Siri is also expected to replace the system-wide Spotlight search.
Apple software chief Craig Federighi reportedly resisted the chatbot direction as recently as last year, telling Tom’s Guide he didn’t want users sent “off into some chat experience in order to get things done.” That position, apparently, has been abandoned.
Google’s Engine Under Apple’s Hood
The new Siri runs primarily on a custom version of Google’s Gemini, confirmed jointly by both companies in January 2026. Apple reportedly pays Google approximately $1 billion annually in a multi-year agreement, a significant pivot after years of Apple trying to build competitive AI in-house. Google gains something the payment alone doesn’t capture: Gemini running as the default AI engine on roughly 2 billion Apple devices.
Queries run through Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, the company’s server-side AI processing framework, designed to prevent Google from accessing users’ personal data. The arrangement draws a clear line: Gemini processes the computation, but your contacts, messages, and calendar data never leave Apple’s infrastructure. Apple and Google confirmed the deal in a joint statement: “Google’s AI technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models.”
Despite Gemini as the backbone, users reportedly won’t be locked to a single model. iOS 27 is expected to let users choose between Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, or Anthropic’s Claude for features like Writing Tools and Image Playground. Anthropic’s Claude is the addition that draws less attention: including it alongside Gemini and ChatGPT would position Apple’s AI menu as a genuine marketplace rather than a bilateral arrangement, which may help Apple avoid the regulatory scrutiny that single-partner AI deals attract. That model-choice architecture also gives Apple negotiating leverage it lacked when ChatGPT was its only external AI partner. Bloomberg has since reported that partnership is “strained,” with OpenAI reportedly considering legal action.
Which Devices Get the Full Experience
iOS 27 drops support for the iPhone 11 and iPhone SE (2nd generation). iPhone 12 through iPhone 14 receive iOS 27 but with only partial AI features. The complete Siri overhaul, including the most demanding Apple Intelligence capabilities, requires an iPhone 15 Pro or newer.
- No iOS 27 support: iPhone 11 series, iPhone SE (2nd generation)
- iOS 27 with limited AI: iPhone 12, 12 Mini, 12 Pro, 12 Pro Max; iPhone 13 series; iPhone 14 series; iPhone SE (3rd generation)
- iOS 27 with full AI Siri: iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max; full iPhone 16 range; iPhone 17 series (releasing in September)
Some features won’t arrive in iOS 27.0 regardless of hardware. The same WWDC preview flagged photo editing via natural language prompts and new Health features for blood sugar tracking as likely iOS 27.1 additions. Apple’s pattern on complex AI has consistently involved announcing features in June, shipping them in pieces through fall and winter, and completing the rollout in point releases through the following spring. The rollout schedule matters for the waitlist question too: if certain AI Siri features are held for iOS 27.1, the waitlist becomes less relevant for those capabilities, because they won’t ship at all in the initial release.
Controlled Releases and the Beta Pattern
Apple has shipped a Siri as a beta before. When the original Siri launched with the iPhone 4S in October 2011, it carried a beta designation for two full years. The company has always moved more conservatively on AI than its rivals, a posture that looked principled until OpenAI’s ChatGPT arrived in late 2022 and made every other assistant look frozen.
The current AI Siri delay is a sharper version of that pattern. Apple announced the overhaul at its developer conference in June 2024. By March 2025, it formally acknowledged the features weren’t coming on any timeline it had advertised. Bloomberg reported that executives described the situation internally as “ugly” and “embarrassing.” Apple’s AI team also lost a string of senior engineers through 2025, including Ke Yang, who led the Answers, Knowledge, and Information group working on Siri’s search capabilities, as part of a broad exodus from Apple’s core AI team to Meta. The $250 million class action followed. Now the features are arriving, still behind a beta qualifier and a potential queue.
Serving a full-chatbot AI assistant to hundreds of millions of users simultaneously is expensive. Cloud-based queries scale hard on infrastructure, and Apple’s Private Cloud Compute setup adds engineering complexity. Phasing access controls server load and gives Apple room to catch failures that only surface at scale. Apple has also already charged users for hardware marketed on the strength of these Siri features, settled a class action over that marketing, and is asking those same users to wait.
When the keynote stream starts Monday at 10 AM Pacific, the new Siri gets its headline slot. Whether your name clears the queue before the next iPhone ships is a question Apple left unanswered heading into the weekend.
