Frustrated Siri users claim the voice assistant is becoming unusable, as a relaxed Tim Cook says Apple is ‘making good progress’ on its 2026 reboot
- Apple claims it’s “making good progress” on its upcoming Siri features
- But many forums are overflowing with posts from frustrated Siri users
- Cook says Siri’s upgraded features will arrive at some point in 2026
It’s no secret that Apple’s Siri voice assistant is lagging behind its rivals, and that idea was reinforced by Apple’s inability to deliver on its Siri promises from summer 2024, with its most interesting new ideas still nowhere to be seen a year later. Yet that situation doesn’t seem to be bothering Apple CEO Tim Cook, who says the company is “making good progress on a more personalized Siri” (via MacRumors).
The announcement came during Apple’s recent earnings call, where Cook explained that he expects the new Siri features – infused with Apple Intelligence – to be available “next year.” That’s something Apple has said before, but it likely won’t placate users who are impatiently awaiting improvements to the virtual helper.
Indeed, you can see that playing out on forums and communities across the internet. The Siri subreddit, for example, is full of posts decrying the state of Apple’s artificial intelligence (AI) helper. Browse it today and you’ll find posts titled “Siri is a complete disappointment,” “Okay, Siri can’t even set timers anymore,” and “Siri isn’t Siri anymore.” It makes for pretty grim reading, and it seems to have only become worse in recent months.
While Siri wowed the world when it launched in 2011, it was swiftly overtaken by its rivals – even before AI assistants like ChatGPT came along. With the advent of AI, Siri’s weaknesses have been roundly exposed, prompting Apple to scramble to upgrade it. Unfortunately, we still haven’t seen the results of that work, and while Tim Cook might seem optimistic, users are clearly exasperated.
Slow progress
Right now, Siri can perform a few basic tasks for you, such as setting timers and telling you the weather forecast. For more advanced requests, it can hand over to ChatGPT, but that just goes to highlight its own limitations by way of comparison.
To put that right, Apple is working on a few new features that it unveiled at its WWDC 2024 back in June 2024. Back then, Apple said that Siri would soon come with better awareness of on-screen content, an understanding of your own personal context, and powerful tools for performing actions within apps.
But in March 2025, Apple told pundit John Gruber that “It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features,” with the firm adding that it would be rolling out “in the coming year.” While there was some hope that that would mean the features would arrive later in 2025, Apple confirmed at WWDC 2025 that it is aiming for a 2026 launch.
Considering how lackluster many of Siri’s features feel compared to its competitors, that could feel like a long wait. Tim Cook might be sanguine about Siri’s prospects, but if Reddit posts are anything to go by, it might take more to placate some increasingly exasperated Apple fans.
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