Khaberni - March was a busy month for Apple, as it announced eight new products, broke a record in Mac launches, and other things. This may be followed by one of the most anticipated Apple releases in years, the personal intelligence feature for Siri voice assistant and "Apple Intelligence".
Apple revealed "Apple Intelligence" for the first time as part of iOS 18 at its "WWDC 2024" conference in June 2024. Apple launched most of the "Apple Intelligence" features in versions iOS 18.1, iOS 18.2, iOS 18.3, and iOS 18.4.
However, the personal intelligence feature for Siri was not included in the iOS 18 release cycle. Also not included were the types of in-app interaction features and screen content awareness that Apple originally announced, according to a report by "9to5Mac," a site specializing in technology news.
Apple officially postponed the release of a more customized version of Siri the previous year, specifically on March 7, 2025.
At that time, Apple cleverly used the phrase "within the next year" to indicate that last year's announcement would not be ready before the next year at the earliest.
Then, on January 12, 2026, Apple and Google jointly announced that the two companies are collaborating to upgrade "Siri" and "Apple Intelligence" using Google's "Gemini" AI.
Reports indicated that Apple targeted iOS 26.4 to launch the first Gemini-supported enhancements. Although this release was feature-rich, the new Siri features were not present.
Before releasing the first developer's beta of iOS 26.4, Bloomberg reported that Apple would instead target iOS 26.5 and iOS 27.
Apple hinted that users would eventually see more features for Siri and "Apple Intelligence" using the new system compared to the unreleased capabilities originally announced.
It makes sense for Apple to try to ship features originally meant for the iOS 18 update within iOS 26.5. After all, iOS 26.5 is likely to be Apple's stable software release until iOS 27.0 is completed in September.
Any features not yet announced can be postponed to the iOS 27 preview in June, and these features may take July and August before launching in September.
Optimistic Schedule
There is still plenty of time to be optimistic about Siri with personal intelligence in March.
This optimistic path is based on the schedule set by Apple for the release of the first beta of iOS 26.3, the final version of iOS 26.3, and the first developer's beta of iOS 26.4.
Apple released the first beta of iOS 26.3 on Wednesday, February 4, released iOS 26.3 on Wednesday, February 11, and released the first developer's beta of iOS 26.4 on Monday, February 16.
This means seven days between the beta and the official release, then five days between the official release and the next developer's beta. From Wednesday to Wednesday, then from Wednesday to Monday.
If applying the same release pace to predict the release date of the first beta of iOS 26.5, there is already one piece of information: Apple released the beta of iOS 26.4 on Wednesday, March 18.
Afterwards, Apple may release iOS 26.4 to the public on Wednesday, March 25, and if things go as planned, the first beta of iOS 26.5 may be released on Monday, March 30.
Apple only needs to include some Gemini-supported features in the first developer's beta of iOS 26.5. The company's team is making significant efforts in this timeframe, but it's not impossible.
If this happens, Apple will technically release the long-awaited features for Siri and "Apple Intelligence" in the first quarter of 2026, even if most users receive the update in April or May.
This depends more on the readiness of the features for a developer's beta release.
