According to Bloomberg News reporter Mark GurmanLatest reportsApple is expected to officially unveil it as early as next month (February).Results of the collaboration with Google GeminiThis means that the "truly intelligent version of Siri" that Apple fans have been eagerly awaiting may be available soon.iOS 26.4 BetaAppear together.
iOS 26.4 is key; Siri's intelligence leaps forward.
Do you remember Apple?Features were showcased at the 2024 WWDC developer conference.Huh? Like Siri being able to understand screen content, or knowing what time your mom gets off the plane? These features have been delayed for almost two years, and now they're finally going to be available.
It is rumored that iOS 26.4, which is expected to be released in beta in February and officially pushed to users in March or April, will be a key version that will revolutionize Siri. By integrating Google Gemini model technology, the new Siri will have the following core capabilities:
• On-screen awareness:It can understand what is displayed on the screen and react accordingly.
• Personal context understanding:It can deeply extract information from apps such as emails and messages, and answer questions that require cross-app integration, such as "What time am I having dinner with so-and-so?"
• In-app operations:It's no longer just about helping to open the app; it can now execute specific commands and actions.
A hybrid behemoth codenamed "AFM v10" with 1.2 trillion parameters.
Interestingly, although it fundamentally uses Google Gemini technology, Apple still maintains its consistent..."Closed" Naming AestheticsAccording to reports, this model, which runs on Apple's Private Cloud Compute architecture, is internally codenamed "Apple Foundation Models version 10" (AFM v10).
Rumors suggest that its parameters are as high as 1.2 trillion, indicating that Apple is willing to spend heavily to lease Google's top computing power in order to salvage Siri's reputation.
In iOS 27, which will be released later this year, Apple plans to launch an advanced version model codenamed "AFM v11". At that time, Siri will become a full-featured chatbot similar to ChatGPT, and its computing power is said to be close to Google's latest Gemini 3.
Why Google? Anthropic is too expensive, and OpenAI is poaching talent.
This landmark partnership wasn't without its challenges. Reports indicate that Apple approached both Anthropic and OpenAI before finalizing the deal. However, Anthropic reportedly demanded billions of dollars in licensing fees annually, causing the shrewd Apple CEO Tim Cook to back down. While OpenAI boasts strong technology, it has recently been aggressively poaching talent from Apple, even collaborating with former chief design officer Jony Ive.Building hardwareThis caused resentment among Apple's top management.
Ultimately, after the court ruled that Google's default search engine status was legal, Apple concluded that partnering with this "familiar stranger" was the safest and most profitable option.
Analysis of viewpoints
"If you can't beat them, join them"—this phrase couldn't be more fitting for Apple's current AI strategy.
Apple's lag in generative AI over the past two years has been evident. Although it has its own AI team, training a large-scale AI model from scratch that can compete with GPT-4 or Gemini is not only expensive but also time-consuming. For Apple, which places great importance on user experience (and stock price), simply rebranding Google's mature solutions is the fastest way to stem the bleeding and narrow the gap.
But this is a double-edged sword. In the long run, if the core brain of iOS is controlled by Google, will Apple's proud "hardware-software integration" and "privacy moat" be breached? And will the future Siri be Apple's Siri, or just a "reskinned" version of Google Assistant? These will be the biggest strategic challenges that Tim Cook must face in the next few years.
However, for consumers, as long as Siri can understand human speech and doesn't say "I found these for you online," they'll be thankful.
