Apple Intelligence Upgrades for Siri Likely Pushed Back to iOS 18.5

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last month reported that Apple was considering delaying at least some of its promised Apple Intelligence enhancements for Siri until iOS 18.5, and that plan appears increasingly likely based on his latest information.

iOS 18 Siri Personal Context
Gurman said Apple was initially planning to launch the Apple Intelligence enhancements for Siri in iOS 18.4, but it seems that the features have been pushed back until iOS 18.5 due to a lack of readiness and software bugs. Accordingly, none of the promised features are available in the first beta of iOS 18.4 released last month.

In his Power On newsletter today, he said the features will be available in iOS 18.5:

The follow-up release, iOS 18.5, is where the good stuff is supposed to wind up. It has the AI-infused Siri that the company showed off last June, as well as support for Apple Intelligence in China.

Apple's software engineers have been internally testing iOS 18.5 since at least the start of February, according to the MacRumors visitor logs.

Gurman expects iOS 18.5 to be released in May, but beta testing should begin sooner:

The next version of Siri will be a test of whether Apple can mount a comeback. The software is likely be released in May, a full 11 months after it was introduced.

It is still possible that some of the Siri upgrades could arrive in a later iOS 18.4 beta, but Gurman seems to be leaning into iOS 18.5 timing for now.

The upgrades coming to Siri will include on-screen awareness, understanding of a user's personal context, and deeper per-app controls. For example, during its WWDC 2024 keynote, Apple showed an iPhone user asking Siri about their mother's flight and lunch reservation plans based on info from the Mail and Messages apps.

Apple Intelligence requires an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or any iPhone 16 model.

Related Roundups: iOS 18, iPadOS 18
Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Dark Blue and Orange

When Is iPhone 17 Coming Out?

Thursday July 24, 2025 9:11 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone 17 series is expected to debut in September 2025. This release follows Apple's recent trend of introducing new iPhone models annually in the fall. To unveil the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max, Apple is expected to hold its annual iPhone announcement event during the week of September 8, 2025, with September 9 or 10 emerging as the most likely...
iPhone 17 Pro on Desk Centered 1

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Two Months With These 16 New Features

Saturday July 26, 2025 5:50 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max should launch in late September, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models, as of July 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14...
iPhone 17 Pro on Desk Centered 1

Tipster: iPhone 17 Pro to Feature 8x Zoom, Pro Camera App, and More

Sunday July 27, 2025 7:35 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 Pro models will have several new camera-related features, according to an anonymous tipster who contacted MacRumors today. The tipster claimed to be familiar with an iPhone 17 Pro commercial that is allegedly being produced by a film company that has publicly listed Apple as one of its clients. MacRumors has not independently confirmed any of the information shared ...
Apple Watch Ultra 2 Complications

Apple Watch Ultra 3: What to Expect

Thursday July 24, 2025 7:08 am PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 is nearly over, and a handful of new features and changes have been rumored for the device. Below, we recap what to expect from the Apple Watch Ultra 3:Satellite connectivity for sending and receiving text messages when Wi-Fi and cellular coverage is unavailable 5G support, up from LTE on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Likely a wide-angle OLED display that ...
Apple Partridge Creek

Apple Store in Michigan Permanently Closing Next Month

Saturday July 26, 2025 1:51 pm PDT by
Earlier this month, MacRumors was first to report that Apple was planning to permanently close its Partridge Creek store, just outside of Detroit, Michigan, and now the company has announced a closure date for the location. Apple Partridge Creek Apple Partridge Creek's final day of business will be Saturday, August 16, with the store set to close for good at 8 p.m. local time that day. All of ...
iOS 18

Apple Shares iOS 18.6 Release Notes

Thursday July 24, 2025 6:33 am PDT by
While the focus is now on iOS 26, there is still an iOS 18.6 update incoming. As noted by Aaron Zollo, Apple on Wednesday re-labeled iOS 18.6 Beta 4 as simply iOS 18.6, meaning that it is the Release Candidate version. This change effectively confirms that the update will be released to the public next week. Alongside the new label, Apple shared release notes for iOS 18.6, which is a...
iPhone 17 Colors

All 15 New iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro Colors Leaked

Friday July 25, 2025 6:20 am PDT by
We may finally have a definitive list of all color options for the iPhone 17 series, ahead of the devices launching in September. MacRumors concept In a Macworld report this month, Filipe Espósito said he obtained an "internal document" that allegedly reveals all of the color options for the upcoming iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max models. The report...
iPhone 17 Pro on Desk Centered 1

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Two Months With These 16 New Features

Tuesday July 22, 2025 5:00 pm PDT by
Apple's iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are less than two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models, as of July 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14...

Top Rated Comments

abatabia Avatar
21 weeks ago
Apple Intelligence is an embarrassment. I’m sorry but what a botched rollout.
Score: 61 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarAnalogy Avatar
21 weeks ago
It would have been better for Apple to focus only on this and not even try any of the embarrassing things they have released like Image Playground. Nobody wanted that, nobody wanted Genmoji, or any of the other garbage they've been wasting their time on.

I know it's not one person working on this, but it feels like someone procrastinating by doing pointless easy things to avoid the real work.
Score: 46 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BigDO Avatar
21 weeks ago
How embarrassing.
Score: 41 Votes (Like | Disagree)
hagjohn Avatar
21 weeks ago
It is shocking that Apple, one of the richest companies on the planet, can't get it together. Seriously, whats is the issue?
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Cloudyskies22 Avatar
21 weeks ago
Absolutely hilarious how inept Apple is. Tim has been awful let’s be honest. He walked into a company that could not fail for a very long time no matter who was in charge.

He purchased Beats for billions of dollars which was to this day the worst purchase Apple has ever made by far. They could have made a streaming music service for less than 100 million. I personally would have bought Pandora because to this day it is still by far the best streaming music service because they actually understand radio algorithmic playlists. Their music selections are so vastly superior.

He then gave the okay for multiple products that were insanely niche and made no sense given Apple’s entire mantra ‘We only want to make a few products, and only what we could affect real positive change to’. They made HomePod which was the exact opposite of what people were buying Alexa Echo devices for. People wanted something insanely cheap with a voice assistant that wasn’t Siri garbage.

Then they made AirPods Max which are $550 headphones that virtually no one would buy because negligible audio enhancement is not worth that much. Then you have the fact that AirPods Max of course only work on extremely few devices. Like imagine not having dongles for AirPods Max so they could function well for video games for the PS5 and Xbox. Just embarrassing.

Then they made Vision Pro which they thought would be a good idea at $3,500. They actually thought that this device that is the exact same thing as an iPhone and a Mac display was going to be bought for $3,500. Try again at $1,000 and you might get a few purchasers but not many because an iPhone is still needed no matter what, and the vast majority won’t be buying a headset that does nothing different hahah.

They released the iPhone 16 devices with the camera capture button and I WOULD ABSOLUTELY PAY TO SEE THE ANALYTICAL DATA on that lmfao. You know how many people use that? It’s guaranteed sub 1% of iPhone 16 owners. It’s the biggest piece of garbage gimmick since peek and pop and Dynamic Island.

Now they went down the AI road making the most useless AI stuff imaginable. Genmoji LOL. And their writing tools don’t even work lmao. I tried a simple proofreading task and it just said ‘error completing task’ or something like that. It’s totally useless.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Nozuka Avatar
21 weeks ago
Siri is cursed. Time to ditch it!
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)