In it WWDC 2026 celebrated today, Apple has presented Siri AIthe most ambitious version of his assistant to date. The assistant is now capable of maintaining fluid conversations, searching the user’s email or photos, act within third party applications and understand what is on the screen, something that represents a leap that many have been waiting for for years.
However, European users with iPhone or iPad they will be left without this great updateat least for now. The reason: the European Commission and Apple have been clashing for months and have still not managed to reach an agreement.
What is it that Europe is lost. Apple has turbocharged Siri with a good handful of AI capabilities. During the conference, the company has shown how the assistant can now track old messages, emails or photos to answer specific user questions, draft emails from scratch, understand the content that appears on the screen or search for updated information on the web. It also launches its own application where we can dive into the conversations we have had with the assistant, synchronized between all the user’s devices.
On the iPhone, among many other capabilities, it is also integrated directly into the camera. On the Mac and iPad, Visual Intelligence finally arrives, allowing you to ask Siri about anything that appears on the screen. None of this will be available in iOS 27 nor on iPadOS 27 in the European Union. Siri AI will arrive in macOS, watchOS and visionOS in the region, but not in the two most used systems.
The problem: DMA and an interpretation that Apple rejects. The Digital Markets Law (DMA) forces Apple to open its ecosystem to competition. The European Commission designated it as a gatekeeper in relation to iOS, the App Store and Safari in September 2023, and in relation to iPadOS in April 2024. And of course, opening its AI ecosystem is something that the company did not have in its plans.
Apple holds that the Brussels interpretation would require giving any third-party AI system virtually unlimited access to the user’s device, such as reading and sending messages, making purchases, accessing files or executing actions in any application, all autonomously and without the user being able to monitor it in real time.
The proposal that the Commission has rejected. To try to unblock the situation, Apple designed an intermediate solution that it called Trusted System Agent, an intermediary that would allow other virtual assistants to access the same functions as Siri AI, but with the security layers that the company considers essential. In addition, it proposed a gradual implementation plan of 18 months to give room to regulators and developers. The European Commission said no. According to Apple, none of its proposals were accepted.
What Apple says. Craig Federighi, senior vice president of Software Engineering at Apple, declared be “deeply disappointed” that European iPhone and iPad users will not have access to Siri AI when the new software versions arrive. In the official statement, the company states that it will continue working to find a way, although it recognizes that, given the regulatory blockade, there is no scheduled date for Siri AI to reach iOS and iPadOS in the EU.
It is worth keeping in mind that this story is Apple’s, since the European Commission has not made public its version of why it rejected this system. On the other hand, it is also clear that the company has an obvious interest in presenting this regulation as the obstacle.
Conflicts. It is not the first time that Apple and the EU have clashed over the DMA, although this takes on a totally different color. Apple It even positioned itself on the side of Google last May when the Commission proposed similar measures for Androidarguing, according to Reuters collectedthat opening access to third-party AI systems would pose serious risks to user privacy and security. The EU, for its part, also concluded that month that the DMA has had a positive impactleaving little room for maneuver for Apple’s complaints to prosper before the regulatory deadline of July 27, 2026 expires.
In the EU, with little news. European users with iPhone or iPad will start this fall with the usual Siri while the rest of the world debuts the new assistant. Apple has no date to resolve the blockage, and the Commission also shows no signs of giving up on its interpretation of the DMA. So everything indicates that we will have to wait to find out how this conflict ends up being resolved.
Cover image | Apple and Guillaume Perigois
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