Apple adds Gemini to Siri

Google said on April 22 that Gemini will help power a more personalized Siri coming later in 2026. (9to5mac.com) (macrumors.com) The comment came from Google Cloud chief Thomas Kurian at Cloud Next 2026 in Las Vegas. Kurian said Apple is Google Cloud’s “preferred cloud provider” for next-generation Apple Foundation Models based on Gemini technology. (9to5mac.com) (macrumors.com) Apple has not issued a matching press release about Gemini-powered Siri, but it has already said the smarter Siri features are due in 2026. Apple told CNBC in February that the revamped assistant remained on track for this year after delay reports. (macrumors.com) (cnbc.com) Apple first unveiled the new Siri direction on June 10, 2024, when it introduced Apple Intelligence. The company said Siri would use personal context, work across apps, and rely on Private Cloud Compute when requests needed larger server-based models. (apple.com) Private Cloud Compute is Apple’s system for sending harder AI jobs off the device to Apple-run servers built on Apple silicon. Apple said in 2024 that this was its answer to giving Siri more computing power without dropping its privacy pitch. (apple.com 1) (apple.com 2) Google’s April statement suggests Apple is now pairing that architecture with Gemini. The open question is whether Gemini-backed Siri requests run through Apple’s Private Cloud Compute layer, Google infrastructure, or a mix of both. (macrumors.com) (9to5mac.com) The timing matters because Apple had originally pitched the more capable Siri as part of the Apple Intelligence wave tied to iOS 18. By March 2025, Apple had pushed those Siri improvements into “the coming year,” and by February 2026 it was still defending the schedule. (apple.com) (cnbc.com) (macrumors.com) Apple’s public AI rollout since then has leaned heavily on on-device features. At WWDC 2025, Apple said developers would get access to its on-device foundation model, and it described those models as fast, private, and available offline. (apple.com) That makes the Gemini arrangement notable: Apple is still building around its own models, but its flagship assistant now appears set to lean on Google for at least some of the heavier lifting. WWDC 2026 begins on June 8, and that is the next obvious date for Apple to explain how Siri will route those requests. (apple.com) (9to5mac.com)