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Apple and Xiaomi are now running on the same AI engine: Google’s Gemini. Apple has confirmed a multi-year agreement to fold Gemini models into Siri, a move that promises to make the assistant far more conversational, proactive, and capable—starting this spring.
A brain transplant for Siri
After years of incremental improvements, Apple is effectively swapping out Siri’s old toolkit for a more powerful reasoning stack. Instead of relying only on local models, the revamped Siri will call on Google Gemini’s deep knowledge graph—wrapped inside Apple’s own privacy protections. That means more than faster answers: expect complex, multi-step help like planning travel, booking reservations, or synthesizing information from your Mail and Calendar in a single voice request.
One practical upgrade is a new Query Planner that keeps context across follow-up questions. No more repeating yourself or getting a one-off response that forgets the conversation. Siri will aim to act as a true assistant, capable of chaining tasks and remembering context while staying behind the scenes of Apple’s Private Cloud Compute.
What to expect in iOS 26.4
The Gemini rollout is bundled into a broader AI push arriving with iOS 26.4 in March or April 2026. Highlights reported so far include:
- Proactive, cross-app intelligence—Siri can read flight confirmations in Mail, check Calendar conflicts, and make reservations in a single command.
- New Health+ AI features offering factual answers and personalized workout guidance.
- Expanded Freeform capabilities, including folder support for power users.
- Richer conversation modes using Gemini’s "Deep Think" for complex reasoning and synthesized answers rather than links.
Apple says it will customize Gemini models and run them on its own infrastructure so Google won’t see users’ private data. That privacy-first framing is central to Apple’s pitch—trying to balance high-powered AI with its longstanding data protections.
It’s also worth noting this levels the playing field with Android-makers like Xiaomi, which already baked Gemini deeply into Xiaomi HyperOS. Many features landing on iPhone—AI summaries, image generation, and tighter cross-device interactions—have been available on some Xiaomi devices for months. Apple’s integration looks like a catch-up move, but one that could reshape how iPhones feel and act in daily life.
Curious what else is coming? Expect Apple to showcase deeper integrations at WWDC in June 2026, where developers will likely get tools to tap the new, Gemini-powered Siri. For users, the big change will be an assistant that behaves less like a set of commands and more like a helpful companion.
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