Siri AI EU Delay: Why iOS 27 Ships Without It in Europe

Apple spent the WWDC26 keynote selling us on Siri AI, then confirmed within days that a sizeable chunk of its customers will not be getting it. If you live in the EU, iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 will ship later this year without the new assistant, and Apple says there is no timeline for when that changes. The Siri AI EU delay is the result of a standoff with regulators over the Digital Markets Act, and Apple has now put its side of the argument firmly on the record.

I have already covered what Siri AI actually is and why it was the centrepiece of this year's conference. This post looks at what Apple announced on 8 June, which devices and features are affected, and what the dispute tells us about where Apple and the EU go from here.

What Apple confirmed about the Siri AI EU delay

In an update posted to Apple Newsroom, Apple confirmed that Siri AI will not launch in the European Union alongside iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 this autumn. According to the company, months of discussions with EU regulators failed to produce an arrangement that would let Siri AI ship while also supporting third-party virtual assistants in a way Apple considers safe.

Craig Federighi, Apple's software engineering chief, said the company is "deeply disappointed that our EU users won't have Siri AI" when the new releases arrive. More tellingly, he added that there is currently no timeline at all for availability on iPhone and iPad in the EU. This is not a short slip while paperwork gets sorted - Apple is openly saying it does not know when, or whether, this gets resolved.

The restriction covers all 27 EU member states. That detail matters more than it might seem, and I will come back to it further down.

What EU users will miss on iPhone and iPad

The features held back are essentially everything that made Siri AI the headline of WWDC26. That includes the new dedicated app for revisiting Siri conversations, the expanded Visual Intelligence experience, the integrated writing tools, and the new Siri mode inside the Camera app on iOS. If it was announced on stage as part of Siri AI, it is not coming to EU iPhones and iPads this year.

There is a knock-on effect for Apple Watch owners too. Siri AI on watchOS 27 requires a paired iPhone running Siri AI, so EU users lose the watch experience by extension. One regulatory decision about the iPhone ends up reaching three platforms.

It is worth keeping some perspective, though. The rest of iOS 27 ships in the EU as normal, and there are plenty of smaller iOS 27 changes that will land on every iPhone regardless of where you live.

The Mac and Vision Pro exception

Here is the part that makes the situation feel genuinely odd: EU users will get Siri AI on macOS 27 and visionOS 27. The same assistant, the same underlying Apple Intelligence models, available in the same countries - just not on the devices most people actually carry.

Apple does not spell out why in its announcement, but the most likely explanation sits in how the DMA works. The regulation applies obligations to designated "core platform services", and iOS and iPadOS are both designated under the Act. macOS and visionOS are not, so Apple can ship Siri AI there without triggering the same interoperability requirements.

If you are in the EU and want to try Siri AI this year, the Mac is your route in. Bear in mind that means an Apple silicon machine, since macOS 27 has dropped Intel Macs entirely.

Why the Digital Markets Act is the sticking point

Apple's account of the dispute is blunt. The company says that under the regulators' interpretation of the DMA, making Siri AI available in the EU would oblige Apple to give any virtual assistant comparably deep access to the device - the ability to read and send messages, make purchases, access files, and take actions across installed apps - without the safeguards Apple builds around its own assistant. Apple points to research showing AI systems can be hijacked into leaking personal data, and argues those risks are growing as assistants become more capable.

Apple says it did not simply walk away, either. It proposed a system called Trusted System Agent, an intermediary layer that would let third-party assistants access the same capabilities as Siri AI with protections in place, alongside a plan to launch Siri AI in the EU while phasing that system in over 18 months. According to Apple, the European Commission rejected this and every other proposal it put forward.

The obvious caveat is that we are hearing one side of the negotiation. The Commission's position, broadly, is that the DMA exists to stop gatekeepers from reserving the deepest platform access for their own services, and Apple has a long history of citing privacy and security when defending the boundaries of its ecosystem. Both things can be true at once, which is exactly why this standoff has no clean resolution.

We have also seen this film before. Apple initially withheld Apple Intelligence and iPhone Mirroring from the EU back in 2024, citing the DMA, and Apple Intelligence did eventually arrive the following year. That precedent cuts both ways - it suggests a path to resolution exists, but also that it can take a long time. And given the turbulence inside Apple's Siri team over the past year, a regulatory fight is the last thing this project needed.

What it means for developers

Buried in the announcement is a line that I think deserves more attention: developers located in the EU will not be able to test or use Siri AI features for their apps on iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and watchOS 27. That is a real competitive handicap. An EU-based developer building for a global audience cannot properly test how their app behaves with Siri AI on the platforms where most of their users will encounter it.

Apple has not said whether EU developers can test against Siri AI on macOS 27, where the feature does ship. Even if they can, Mac behaviour is not a substitute for testing on iPhone. Developers outside the EU face no such restriction, which creates an uneven playing field that has nothing to do with talent or effort.

Where this leaves you

If you are in the EU, the practical advice is straightforward: do not buy a new iPhone this autumn on the strength of Siri AI, because it will not be there and nobody can tell you when it will be. Everything else in iOS 27 arrives as normal, and the Mac gives you a legitimate way to use Siri AI in the meantime. Given the Apple Intelligence precedent, my expectation is that some form of resolution arrives eventually - but "no timeline" from Apple should be taken at face value.

If you are in the UK, as I am, this does not affect you. The restriction applies to the 27 EU member states, and post-Brexit Britain is not on that list, so Siri AI should land on UK iPhones with iOS 27 as planned. It is a strange position to be in - for once, being outside the EU means getting an Apple feature sooner rather than later.

Frequently asked questions

When will Siri AI launch in the EU on iPhone and iPad?

There is no date. Apple says it has no current timeline for Siri AI on iOS and iPadOS in the EU, and that it will continue talks with regulators. Based on how the Apple Intelligence delay played out in 2024 and 2025, a wait of several months to a year or more would not be surprising.

Can EU users access Siri AI at all?

Yes. Siri AI will be available to EU users on macOS 27 and visionOS 27 when those releases ship. It is only iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and, by extension, watchOS 27 that are affected.

Does the Siri AI delay affect the UK?

No. Apple's restriction covers the 27 EU member states, and the UK is not one of them. UK users should receive Siri AI on iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 on the normal release schedule.