Apple Rebuilds Siri on Google Gemini at WWDC 2026 and Announces Tim Cook's Farewell

Apple Rebuilds Siri on Google Gemini at WWDC 2026 and Announces Tim Cook's Farewell

At its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2026, which opened on June 8, Apple officially unveiled a historic double-transition: a complete rebuild of its conversational AI stack and a changing of the guard at the very top of the company.

During the keynote, CEO Tim Cook delivered an emotional farewell address, announcing that he will formally step down on September 1, 2026. He will hand over the CEO reins to John Ternus, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, marking the end of a highly successful 15-year tenure that saw Apple become the world's most valuable company.

To address long-standing competitive pressures in generative AI, Apple also unveiled a rebuilt Siri, which will now operate as a standalone app in addition to working across core iOS system interfaces. Siri is powered under the hood by Google's Gemini family of models.¹ The new Siri promises conversational interactions, deep cross-app context awareness, and visual intelligence. Senior Vice President Craig Federighi heavily emphasized Apple's privacy-first architecture, assuring developers and consumers that data is only used to execute requests and that outside experts can verify these claims at any time.

Alongside Siri, Apple introduced iOS 27, which focuses on fundamental system improvements and design choices:

• Core Redesigns: Spotlight search, Photos, and Mail have been completely rebuilt to improve performance, boasting up to 70% faster photo loading and 80% faster AirDrop transfers.
• Design Rollbacks: Acknowledging user backlash over last year's "Liquid Glass" aesthetic, iOS 27 introduces opt-in rollbacks that allow users to dial back specific visual elements.
• Parental Controls: A revamped parental control suite introduces default restrictions for children under the age of 13.
• App Store Subscription Bundling: For the first time, independent developers can partner with each other to offer bundled subscription pricing for productivity, photography, and other utilities, mimicking streaming service bundles.
• Foldable iPhone Hints: Developers diving into the iOS 27 beta discovered references to terms such as foldState and angleDegrees, suggesting that Apple is actively developing native software support for a foldable iPhone, which may debut at its September hardware event under John Ternus.