While the first beta of iOS 27 is still more than four months away, a report this week has revealed the update's biggest new feature yet.
iOS 27 will turn Siri into a ChatGPT-like chatbot that you can have back-and-forth conversations with, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Apple aims to unveil the Siri chatbot at WWDC 2026 in June and release it in September, the report said, meaning that the functionality should be available in the initial version of iOS 27 that is released to the general public.
As you do today, you will be able to invoke the assistant by saying "Siri" or by holding down the iPhone's side button, but you will be presented with a chatbot experience instead of the more basic version of Siri that exists today.
Like ChatGPT, you will be able to type or talk to the Siri chatbot.
"Apple's chatbot will allow users to search the web for information, create content, generate images, summarize information and analyze uploaded files," the report said. "It also will draw on personal data to complete tasks, being able to more easily locate specific files, songs, calendar events and text messages."
This would be a major reversal of course for Apple, which had publicly stated that it was not interested in offering users a "chat experience" of this kind. The unrelenting popularity of chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, Microsoft's Copilot, and Anthropic's Claude apparently led Apple to reconsider.
While the Siri chatbot would have an Apple-designed user interface, the report said it will rely heavily on a custom Google Gemini large language model, and Apple and Google are apparently discussing hosting the chatbot on Google's servers.
The chatbot would build upon the more personalized Siri that is expected to launch with iOS 26.4 in March or April. Siri's chatbot will be able to analyze on-screen content in order to take actions and suggest commands, the report said.
Altogether, Siri should become significantly more useful later this year.
- Related Reading: iOS 27 Will Add These 8 New Features to Your iPhone
