Apple Chooses Siri Delay Over Opening iOS to Rivals in EU

During Apple’s WWDC 2026 keynote, the company unveiled a refreshed Siri AI experience designed for iOS and iPadOS users worldwide. However, the new functionality will be excluded from iPhones and iPads in the European Union when iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 roll out later this year.

Apple’s official statement attributes the delay to the EU’s Digital Markets Act, noting that regulators rejected the company’s proposed solutions for delivering Siri AI within the bloc. As a result, no release timeline has been set for the feature in EU‑based iOS and iPadOS devices.

Because the watchOS 27 version of Siri relies on an iOS 27 device, EU customers will also miss out on the AI enhancements for Apple Watch. This limitation extends to developers across the EU, who will be unable to test or integrate the new Siri AI capabilities into their applications on any of the three platforms.

Apple clarified that enabling Siri AI in the EU would compel the company to grant other AI systems—such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini—wide access to private user data and control over installed applications. In effect, the EU demands that competing assistants be able to read and send messages, make purchases, access files, and perform actions across apps.

Apple has introduced a proposed intermediary layer, the Trusted System Agent, designed to let third‑party virtual assistants tap into Siri AI’s capabilities in a more secure manner. Despite this effort, the European Commission has rejected the proposal, leaving the reasons for the decision unclear. Apple has pledged to keep collaborating with EU regulators to eventually launch Siri AI in the region, but for now iPhone and iPad users across the EU must remain patient.

When major platform gatekeepers like Apple and Google lock deep operating‑system functionalities exclusively for their own AI assistants, competitors such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity find themselves at a significant disadvantage. Today’s AI assistants are far more than simple chatbots; they need to read on‑screen context, interact with installed applications, send messages, create calendar events, manage files, and execute user‑approved actions across the device.

Should only Siri on iOS or Gemini on Android enjoy these privileges, rival AI services will struggle to match the convenience and integration offered by the incumbents, even if their underlying models are superior. This scenario is precisely what the European Union’s Digital Markets Act aims to rectify.

Apple and Google should be permitted to safeguard user privacy and security, yet they must not use those concerns as a blanket excuse to deny rival AI assistants fair access to essential platform features. A secure, permission‑based framework could empower users to select their preferred AI assistant while ensuring no single company gains unrestricted access to personal data.