It’s become clear that Apple’s ambitious plans for an AI-powered Siri in iOS 18 didn’t quite go as expected. Many of the headlining Apple Intelligence features announced with fanfare are still missing in action months later, with Apple itself confirming they’ve been pushed into “the coming year.” The messy rollout, plagued by bugs and delays, stemmed largely from a rushed development cycle.
Faced with the deadline for the iOS 18 unveiling, Apple apparently didn’t have sufficient time to properly integrate its new advanced AI capabilities with the existing Siri framework, resulting in an awkward system running with two separate brains – one for old commands and one for the newer, smarter queries. This split approach, unfortunately, proved far from seamless, leading to persistent bugs and features that even Apple’s own software chief, Craig Federighi, reportedly felt weren’t working as intended, leaving many users underwhelmed after the initial hype.
Despite the stumbles with iOS 18, reports suggest Apple has a clear strategy to get Siri and its broader AI ambitions back on track with the upcoming iOS 19 update. The core plan involves a fundamental overhaul of Siri’s architecture, moving away from the decade-old legacy system and the temporary two-brain setup of iOS 18. For iOS 19, Apple intends to rebuild Siri from the ground up, merging the legacy and advanced AI systems into a single, cohesive unit.
This significant undertaking aims to finally eliminate the bugs and deliver the smoother, more capable digital assistant envisioned previously. Reinforcing this push is a significant leadership shakeup within Apple’s AI division, with Vision Pro software head Mike Rockwell now steering the Siri team and reportedly restructuring key groups to improve execution and address internal concerns about past leadership.
This revamped Siri, powered by Apple Intelligence and expected to debut with iOS 19, promises several major feature upgrades that were originally teased for iOS 18. A key enhancement will be truly personalized assistance, leveraging an on-device semantic index to securely understand user data across apps like Mail, Messages, Photos, and Calendar.
This allows Siri to handle context-aware requests like “Play the podcast Jamie recommended,” finding it whether the suggestion came via text or email, or answering “When does Mom’s flight land?” by checking flight details and real-time tracking. This deeper understanding aims to make interactions far more natural and useful, all while maintaining Apple’s focus on user privacy by processing context on the device itself.
Beyond just understanding personal context, the new Siri in iOS 19 is set to become significantly more capable in performing actions. Thanks to enhancements in the App Intents framework, Siri will gain the ability to execute complex, multi-step tasks within and across various apps, even third-party ones, without needing the user to manually open them. Imagine asking Siri to “Add this morning’s photos to my Birding notes” or even finding a specific photo, editing it, and saving it directly into a Files app folder – all through a single voice command.
Furthermore, Siri will gain much improved ‘on-screen awareness,’ allowing it to understand the content currently displayed. If a friend sends a new address in Messages, you could simply say, “Add this address to their contact card,” and Siri would handle it, making interactions much more fluid, especially potentially on devices like the Vision Pro.
But iOS 19 isn’t just about fixing Siri; leaks suggest it could represent one of Apple’s most significant iPhone software overhauls in years, potentially bringing a noticeable redesign inspired by the look and feel of visionOS, the operating system powering the Vision Pro headset. The WWDC 2025 logo, featuring transparent numbering, has even fueled speculation about this visual shift. This potential redesign aims to modernize the iPhone interface and possibly bring greater visual consistency across Apple’s ecosystem, offering users a fresh experience alongside the under-the-hood improvements planned for Apple Intelligence and core system navigation.
Adding to the excitement are rumors of new productivity-focused tools arriving with iOS 19. One particularly interesting leak points to the ability to use recent iPhone models as a portable second screen for your Mac. By connecting via USB-C, the iPhone wouldn’t just mirror the Mac’s display but act as a true extended monitor, albeit a small one. While perhaps not as seamless as using an iPad with Sidecar or as advanced as Samsung DeX, this feature could offer a practical boost for multitasking on the go, allowing users to keep notes or a secondary app visible on their iPhone while working on their main Mac screen, making better use of the large displays found on iPhone Pro Max models.
As for when we’ll see all this, Apple is expected to unveil iOS 19 at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 9, 2025. A developer beta usually follows immediately, with the public release anticipated alongside the new iPhones in September 2025. However, following the pattern set by iOS 18’s Apple Intelligence rollout, it’s possible that the major iOS 19 features, particularly the revamped Siri architecture, might arrive in stages through subsequent updates like iOS 19.4, potentially stretching into spring 2026.
(via Bloomberg)
