Apple Confirms Siri AI Won't Launch in the EU with iOS 27, Citing DMA Rules

Apple's official statement frames the Siri AI block as a direct consequence of these interoperability obligations: "Unfortunately, due to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple will not be able to ship Siri AI in the European Union with the release of iOS 27 and iPadOS 27" . The company added that EU regulators "did not accept any of Apple’s proposed solutions to bring Siri AI to the EU while safely supporting other virtual assistants," and that the refusal to engage constructively means there is no current timeline for availability .

This is not an abstract regulatory disagreement. The European Commission has already issued multiple specification decisions requiring Apple to unlock specific iOS capabilities—including notifications and connected-device features—within defined timeframes . The Commission's own materials state that effective interoperability for these features "does not yet exist on iOS" .

A Direct Replay of Apple Intelligence's EU Block

The Siri AI delay follows a now-familiar playbook. In June 2024, Apple announced it would not launch Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring, or SharePlay Screen Sharing enhancements in the EU that year, citing the DMA's interoperability mandates . Apple's senior director of corporate communications told The Verge at the time: "We are concerned that the interoperability requirements of the DMA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security" .

EU officials pushed back sharply. Competition chief Margrethe Vestager labeled Apple's 2024 decision a "remarkable statement" about the company's anti-competitive behavior . A Commission spokesperson later stated that "nothing in the DMA requires companies to lower their privacy standards or their security standards" .

Apple did eventually bring Apple Intelligence to EU Mac users in 2025—a partial rollout possible because macOS is not designated as a DMA gatekeeper platform in the same way iOS and iPadOS are . No equivalent workaround exists for the Siri AI features, which are built for iPhones and iPads covered by the gatekeeper designations .

The Interoperability Process on the Ground

The practical mechanics of the dispute have become clearer through third-party analysis. A report from the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) found that, as of March 2026, not a single one of the 56 formal interoperability requests submitted to Apple under the DMA had resulted in a concrete, working solution .

That process itself remains a point of friction. Developers must purchase an Apple developer account (at least $99), submit detailed technical requests, pass an eligibility check within 20 working days, and then wait what can be up to two years for implementation—with Apple routinely rejecting requests on scope grounds that critics say contradict its own documentation . The European Commission has formally required Apple to provide developers with better access to information about reserved features, frameworks, and libraries relevant to those requests .

This slow-moving process creates a structural tension for a deeply integrated AI assistant that relies on access to on-screen context, personal data, notifications, and cross-app orchestration. Siri AI's very feature set—Dynamic Island presence, iCloud-synced conversation history, and back-and-forth awareness of what's on a user's screen —sits precisely at the intersection of what the DMA requires Apple to open to third parties.

What Actually Ships in iOS 27

For users outside the EU, the rebuilt Siri represents a generational upgrade. Reporting from WWDC confirms the feature set includes:

• A complete Siri rebuild powered by a custom Google Gemini model under a multi-year licensing deal reported to be worth roughly $1 billion annually .
• A standalone Siri app with iCloud-synced chat history, file uploads, and both voice and text input .
• Dynamic Island integration, making the assistant an always-available agent accessible via a swipe-down gesture .
• An "Extensions" framework that lets users route Siri queries to third-party AI chatbots—including Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, OpenAI ChatGPT, and others—through a standardized API .

Apple has not yet published a definitive list of launch countries, and the provided sources do not independently confirm exactly which non-EU markets will receive the feature at launch. The same sources do not verify separate exclusion decisions for China—claims about China-specific blocks due to generative-AI licensing, data localization rules, or Google's service restrictions there remain unverified in the available documentation.

What Comes Next

Apple did not give a timeline for when Siri AI might reach the EU. The legal and regulatory pathways remain open: the DMA includes a waiver mechanism Apple can invoke if it believes specific compliance measures violate its rights under particular circumstances , and the company has already filed a broader challenge against the DMA's enforcement at the European General Court .

For EU iPhone and iPad users, the immediate reality is clear: when iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 arrive later in 2026, the rebuilt Siri will not be among the features in their update. The assistant they have will remain the assistant they know—while the new one lives in the Dynamic Island for users elsewhere.