Nexalytics Tech
At WWDC 2026, Apple showcased its most ambitious software update yet: a complete overhaul of Siri, now marketed as "Siri AI," arriving with iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 with deep, context-aware access across a device's apps, messages, and photos. On June 8, 2026, Apple confirmed in an unusually blunt newsroom post — titled "Due to DMA, Siri AI delayed in EU for iOS 27 and iPadOS 27" — that European users won't be getting it when those operating systems ship later in the year, and that it currently has no timeline for when they will.
The DMA dispute
Apple says the culprit is the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), the bloc's competition law aimed at stopping large platforms from locking out rivals. Under the DMA's interoperability rules, once Siri AI can read and send messages, access files and photos, and take actions across apps on a user's behalf, Apple says it would have to give rival AI systems — "groups like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic," as The Verge put it — comparable access to those same systems. Apple's marketing chief, Greg Joswiak, told reporters in a briefing that doing so "would be irresponsible," adding: "I cannot imagine, actually, anything more concerning for privacy and security than opening up an entire operating system to a third-party system." In Apple's own announcement, software engineering chief Craig Federighi said the company was "deeply disappointed" that EU users won't have Siri AI when it ships elsewhere, and blamed the impasse on the Commission's "refusal to engage constructively on solutions that preserve privacy and security." Apple's proposed fix is a "Trusted System Agent," an intermediary that would give rival AI assistants comparable access to Apple's systems, phased in gradually over an 18-month period. The European Commission rejected that proposal and, according to Apple, did not agree to any of its other proposed solutions either.
The European Commission, however, disputes Apple's framing entirely. Commission spokesperson Ricardo Cardoso told The Verge that "nothing in the DMA prohibits Apple from introducing new products and services in the EU," and that the Commission has been in "regular contact with Apple" but that "Apple did not develop proposals for DMA-compliant interoperability solutions." Apple's Joswiak disputed that characterization in turn, saying the Commission has not "meaningfully engaged with us in our proposals." Both sides agree on one thing: as of publication, there is no active plan that resolves the standoff.
What EU users are and aren't missing
The delay covers the standalone Siri AI experience, its expanded Visual Intelligence features, system-wide generative writing tools, and the new Siri camera mode — all confirmed by Apple to be withheld from EU users on iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 "later this year." One detail worth correcting from early assumptions: Siri AI will not reach watchOS 27 in the EU either, because Siri AI on the Apple Watch requires pairing with an iPhone that already has Siri AI — so the iPhone-level block cascades to the watch. Apple confirmed EU users will still get Siri AI on macOS 27 and visionOS 27, which fall outside the DMA's "core platform services" designation that applies to iOS and iPadOS. Developers based in the EU are also locked out of testing or building against the new Siri AI APIs on iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. Separately, and for unrelated regulatory reasons, Apple says Siri AI will also not launch in China at first.
This isn't the first time Apple has cited the DMA to withhold a feature from Europe — it previously delayed AirPods Live Translation and iPhone Mirroring there on similar grounds, according to The Verge. Outside experts are split on how much weight to give Apple's security argument: Tilburg University law professor Friso Bostoen told The Verge that Apple's privacy and security arguments "do not always hold up to scrutiny," pointing to recent UK and US court cases where judges were skeptical of similar Apple claims, and separately questioned why Apple needs as long as 18 months to build the Trusted System Agent given that the DMA's requirements were predictable well in advance. University College London's Michael Veale put it more bluntly, telling The Verge that Apple's privacy model is "built like a Jenga tower, based on extreme vertical control by the firm, and risks collapsing when interoperability is introduced."
Our take
Both Apple's security concerns and the Commission's antitrust concerns can be genuine at the same time, and neither side has published enough detail — Apple hasn't made the Trusted System Agent proposal public, and the Commission hasn't detailed what it would accept — for outside observers to judge who is actually being unreasonable. What is verifiable is the outcome: EU iPhone and iPad users get a materially worse product this cycle than users everywhere else, and Apple's public messaging (a dedicated WWDC segment, a pointed blog headline, and press briefings) shows it wants that gap to become political pressure on Brussels rather than a quiet internal delay.
What to watch next
Watch for whether Apple publishes technical detail on the Trusted System Agent, which would let outsiders judge whether its proposal was serious; whether the Commission issues a formal response beyond spokesperson comments; and whether Apple — as it eventually did with USB-C under EU pressure — ultimately adapts Siri AI for Europe rather than continuing an indefinite freeze.
💡 The Nexalytics Take
The EU's Digital Markets Act is the reason Apple gives for freezing Siri AI out of European iPhones and iPads — and, contrary to some early reports, the freeze also extends to the Apple Watch, since watchOS 27's Siri AI needs a paired iPhone that has it. But the European Commission flatly disputes that the law is what's stopping Apple, calling it Apple's choice. Until one side publishes real detail — Apple's proposed workaround, or the Commission's specific objections to it — EU users are the ones stuck without the year's biggest Siri update.
