After years of competing for dominance, Apple and Google are joining forces.
At WWDC, Apple confirmed it will use Google’s Gemini 3 models as a key part of the next generation of Apple Intelligence, helping power a major overhaul of Siri that has been years in the making.
The move comes after Apple reportedly struggled to get its own AI systems performing at the level of competitors.
While Apple has spent years taking a cautious approach to generative AI, Gemini’s strengths in understanding text, images, audio and complex multi-step tasks appear to have won the company over.
The result is a Siri that feels far more capable than the version most users know today.
Apple says the upgraded assistant will be able to understand what’s on your screen, answer questions about photos and videos, and pull context from your messages, emails and calendar to help complete tasks.
Instead of acting like a simple voice assistant, Siri is being positioned as a genuine AI agent that can coordinate actions across multiple apps.
The company also claims conversations will feel more natural, with Siri able to follow context even if you pause, change direction or stumble over your words.
Of course, handing more of your personal information to an AI raises obvious privacy concerns.
Apple’s answer is a hybrid system. Simple requests will continue to be processed directly on your device, while more demanding AI tasks are sent to Apple’s new Private Cloud Compute infrastructure.
According to Apple, data sent to these servers is used only for the specific request being processed and isn’t stored afterward.
In practical terms, Google provides the AI brains, while Apple keeps the privacy controls firmly inside its own ecosystem.
It’s a significant shift for both companies. Apple gets access to some of the most advanced AI technology currently available, while Google secures a place at the heart of hundreds of millions of iPhones.
Developer testing is already underway, with the new Siri expected to begin rolling out to users later this year. If it delivers on the promises shown at WWDC, it could be the biggest upgrade Siri has received since it first launched back in 2011.
