Get in Line: The New Siri Waitlist on iOS 27

Excited about the new Siri that Apple is set to introduce at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)? Well, hold your horses. The much-anticipated Siri may not be available to the public until the official release of iOS 27 in September. And even then, you might find yourself on a waitlist to access it.

A recent rumor roundup by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman sheds light on the new Siri, indicating that it will likely carry a “beta” or “preview” label even after the launch of iOS 27. Moreover, Apple could implement a waitlist system similar to what was seen with the initial Apple Intelligence releases in iOS 18.1 and iOS 18.2.

Internally, Apple has designated the new Siri as “beta” and “preview,” hinting that it won’t be positioned as fully polished software upon its release later this year. The original Siri carried a similar label for two years. There’s also talk of a potential waitlist for users eager to test the new features, mirroring the strategy employed during the debut of the Apple Intelligence platform in 2024.

Mark Gurman

At the WWDC 2024, Apple promised a slew of new features with the introduction of Apple Intelligence. While the delayed Siri enhancements have been a focal point of discussion, other showcased features like Writing Tools, Image Playground, Genmoji, ChatGPT integration, and more were rolled out more or less on schedule.

However, the actual delivery of these features did face delays. Apple had originally aimed to offer more features at launch but ended up splitting the AI features into a beta cycle with iOS 18.1. When iOS 18.1 eventually launched, it included Writing Tools, transcription, and AI summarization, which required users to join a waitlist post-update.

Subsequent releases like iOS 18.2 introduced graphical AI features such as Image Playground, Genmoji, and Image Wand, accompanied by another waitlist. The wait for accessing Image Playground was notably longer than the initial waitlist.

These early Apple Intelligence rollouts were restricted to users in the United States with devices set to US English, with later expansions to English in Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa in iOS 18.2.

It’s conceivable that Apple may adopt a similar approach for the Apple Intelligence features in iOS 27, including the new Siri chatbot. Developers may also face a waitlist to access the beta version, with potential limitations on geographic and language availability.

Speculated features like generative AI photo editing, enhanced visual intelligence in the Camera app, AI-powered grammar checker, and a bill-splitting tool in Apple Wallet could also see similar restrictions.

It’s worth noting that these features are still rumors until officially confirmed by Apple. There’s a possibility of delays for certain features, such as natural language prompts for photo editing and new Health features related to blood sugar tracking and workout monitoring.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]