Apple released iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27 on September 14. The update brings Siri AI, the rebuilt assistant Apple has been promising since 2024, to iPhone and iPad in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Apple confirmed in a newsroom statement that Siri AI will not be available initially on iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch in the European Union. Mac and Apple Vision Pro users in the EU get the new assistant without restriction.
Siri AI is the headline feature of iOS 27. It uses personal context from Messages, Mail, and Photos, reads what is on screen, and can carry out multi-step actions across apps.
None of that reaches an iPhone or iPad registered in the EU right now. Apple has not given a date for when it will.
Apple Points To The Digital Markets Act As The Reason
Apple laid out its position in June 2026, ahead of the WWDC26 unveiling. The company said the Digital Markets Act requires it to open device-level access to any third-party AI assistant, including the ability to act autonomously without the user seeing or approving each step.
Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, said this when the delay was first announced:
“We’re deeply disappointed that our EU users won’t have Siri AI on iPhone or iPad when we share our new software releases later this year. Our hope is to eventually bring Siri AI to the EU, and we will continue to engage with EU regulators on a path forward.”
Apple says it proposed a system called Trusted System Agent, meant to act as a technical go-between for rival assistants, along with an 18-month phased rollout. The European Commission did not accept the proposal, and Apple has not shared a revised timeline since.
UK Devices Get Siri AI Despite Early Predictions
Some pre-launch reports expected the UK to face the same restriction as the EU, since Apple has aligned other Digital Markets Act compliance measures across both markets. That prediction did not hold up.
iPhone and iPad owners in the UK received Siri AI alongside the US on launch day. Only EU-registered devices are excluded.
Mac And Apple Vision Pro Are The Exception In Europe
The block does not apply to all Apple products in the EU. Siri AI works on macOS 27 and visionOS 27 in the EU, since those platforms fall outside the scope of the restriction Apple is citing.
Here is how availability breaks down by platform:
| Platform | US and UK | European Union |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone (iOS 27) | Available | Not available |
| iPad (iPadOS 27) | Available | Not available |
| Apple Watch (watchOS 27) | Available | Not available |
| Mac (macOS 27) | Available | Available |
| Apple Vision Pro (visionOS 27) | Available | Available |
Because watchOS 27’s version of Siri AI needs a paired iPhone that already has Siri AI running, an Apple Watch Series 12 or Apple Watch Ultra 4 connected to an EU iPhone gets nothing new either, even though the hardware itself supports it everywhere else.
Several Named Features Disappear Along With Siri AI
The EU restriction is not limited to voice commands. A handful of features tied to the same Siri AI infrastructure are missing as well:
- The standalone Siri app for revisiting past conversations
- Expanded Visual Intelligence
- Integrated writing tools built on Siri AI
- Siri mode in the Camera app on iPhone
- Live Rewind and Siri Recap, both part of Audio Intelligence on Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4
Siri AI Still Has Limits Even Where It Works
Even outside the EU, Siri AI ships as a beta. It requires an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or iPhone 16 or later, and it works in English only at launch.
Apple is using a waiting list inside Siri settings to manage access rather than turning it on for every eligible device at once. Server-side requests also carry daily usage limits that Apple says will vary with demand.
Our Take
I don’t think this gets resolved quickly. Apple’s Trusted System Agent proposal was rejected outright, and nothing has moved since June. Tim Cook also met EU Tech Chief over Siri AI standoff in July, but nothing has changed since. Neither side has a reason to blink first, and this does not benefit the actual customer.
French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish support for Siri AI is scheduled for October 2026, all still limited to US and UK devices. Developers in the EU still cannot test or ship Siri AI features on iOS 27, iPadOS 27, or watchOS 27, and Apple has not set a date when that changes.
