No New Siri in iOS 26.5 beta and the Wait Just Got Longer Until iOS 27 Ships

Apple has released the iOS 26.5 beta, but it does not include any of the Apple Intelligence Siri features that the company previewed earlier, and this clearly shows that users will have to wait longer before they see a major upgrade to Siri in real use.

The latest beta focuses on stability and internal testing, but it does not bring the smarter Siri experience that Apple promised, which confirms that the company is still not ready to roll out those features to developers or the public.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman previously reported that Apple planned to introduce new Siri capabilities in iOS 26.4. Still, the company missed that target because engineers faced ongoing accuracy issues that affected how reliably Siri could respond in real-world use.

At one point, Apple tested the full Apple Intelligence Siri experience internally on iOS 26.5, and employees said the update included all the features shown at WWDC 2024, but the developer beta now shows no sign of those upgrades, which suggests Apple pulled them back for further work.

iOS 27 now looks like the real target

Recent reports indicate that Apple now plans to launch the redesigned Siri with iOS 27, and this version will go much further than the original demo by turning Siri into a chatbot-style assistant with a dedicated app and deeper AI capabilities.

Gurman also said that Apple wants Siri to compete directly with tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, and that means the company needs more time to refine how Siri understands context, handles complex requests, and maintains accuracy across different tasks.

Apple first introduced Apple Intelligence Siri in June 2024 and said it would arrive with an iOS 26 update in 2025, but the company later delayed the rollout and confirmed that the feature needed more time, and it now aims to deliver the full experience sometime in 2026.

As things stand, iOS 26.5 does not move Siri forward in a visible way, and all signs point to iOS 27 as the update where Apple will finally deliver the smarter assistant it has been working on for the past two years.