iOS 27 launches Monday without Siri AI for EU iPhones

When iOS 27 arrives as a free update on Monday, September 14, it will bring Apple's ↘ 0.52% most ambitious Siri overhaul to date — everywhere except the European Union. The rebuilt assistant, branded Siri AI, will not activate on iPhones, iPads, or Apple Watches in the EU at launch, the result of a months-long standoff between Apple and the European Commission over the Digital Markets Act.apple+1

What EU Users Miss

Siri AI, powered by Google's Alphabet Inc. ↗ 0.78% Gemini models under a deal Bloomberg reported is worth roughly $1 billion a year, can read emails, manage calendars, execute actions across multiple apps, and sustain conversations across more than 20 turns. The feature launches in English-only beta worldwide, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish following in October.martincid+2

EU iPhone and iPad owners will instead keep the legacy Siri. Mac and Apple Vision Pro users in the bloc will receive Siri AI when set to a supported language, because macOS and visionOS fall outside the DMA's designation of iOS as a gatekeeper platform. Apple's own footnote reads: "Siri AI will not be available initially in the EU on iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS".macobserver+2

The DMA Dispute

The conflict centers on the DMA's interoperability requirements, which would compel Apple to grant rival AI assistants the same deep system-level access — messaging, purchases, file access, and cross-app actions — that Siri AI enjoys. Apple proposed a "Trusted System Agent" framework to serve as an intermediary, offering to phase in compliance over 18 months. The European Commission rejected the proposal outright.thenextweb+1

Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier pushed back on Apple's framing during a press briefing in June. "The decision to roll Siri AI [in the] EU is Apple and Apple only," he said, adding that the DMA does not prevent the company from launching new products in Europe.qz

Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, responded that the Commission's "unwillingness to constructively discuss solutions that protect privacy and security" left no timeline for Siri AI on EU iPhones.qz

A Pattern of Withholding

This marks the second time Apple has withheld an Apple Intelligence feature from the EU; the original Apple Intelligence suite was similarly delayed in 2024 over DMA concerns. Apple has given no date for when Siri AI might reach iOS devices in Europe, saying only that it is "working hard to find a path forward".macobserver+1