Here’s everything new for the dedicated iPhone Siri app and why it’s better than ChatGPT and rivals

Two years after first promising a long-awaited overhaul for Siri, Apple is finally poised to deliver the upgrade next month at WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) 2026. The new Siri will feature a dedicated app — similar to rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT — and will, in some areas, actually excel more than any other AI app on the market.

In his newsletter Power On, Apple insider Mark Gurman has provided detailed explanations about how the new Siri app is going to function, how it lags behind, and how it leaves competitors in the dust.

Siri is changing for the better

The new Siri app will provide iPhone users with a lot of different ways to customize their interactions with Apple’s digital assistant. In addition to the standard method of activating Siri, you will be able to enter a “Search or Ask” mode by swiping down from the top center of your screen, similar to some Android phones.

You can also choose how the Siri app launches every time you access it. Siri can either open up a new instance each time, or it can display a grid of your past chats, allowing you to jump into and continue a prior conversation.

You will also have the freedom to configure the Siri app similar to the Messages app. Existing conversations with Siri can be set to self-delete in a month, a year, or never.

Speaking of self-deleting chats and prior conversations, Apple will continue to heavily lean into the privacy aspect of its AI offerings.

Privacy across Apple Intelligence

Apple boasted about protecting user data when it first showed off a revamped Siri back in 2024, and the company will continue to do so according to Gurman. The Siri app might also remain free of ads for the time being as Apple tries to catch up to rival services.

Gurman argues that Apple might try to play off its lack of progress in AI services as a result of it prioritizing the privacy of user data a lot more than rival companies like Meta and Google. It’s true, Apple refuses to train its AI models on troves of user interactions and data, opting instead for synthetic data instead.



Unfortunately, Siri had fallen behind a bit too much, forcing Apple to rely on Google’s flagship AI model Gemini for help. Outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook would not want his last ever launch to be a failure.

Apple might be handing off some more privacy protections to Google for the time being. If it is, the company is keeping quiet about that and will likely market the other privacy-focused features in play.

Gurman believes that this will make up the core of Apple’s marketing for the new Siri app at WWDC 2026.

User data protection first and foremost

According to Gurman, Apple’s approach to the new Siri app puts user privacy at the center of the stage. While competing apps might be introducing incognito modes and the option to opt out of sharing user interactions, Siri will have all of these options enabled by default. Or, at the very least, clearly present them to users.

This is how Apple will market the new Siri app, a much more private offering than ChatGPT, Meta AI, Claude, or any other rival services. Despite the two years of prep work, however, Gurman also revealed that there is a possibility that Siri will be in Beta when it is announced next month.

I appreciate the privacy

After finding out that the Meta Ray-Ban glasses leak your private moments to workers in other countries, I’ve become especially conscious of how AI is trained. If Apple can deliver on all of its grand promises of user privacy, then I’m all for it, even if it means that Siri takes longer to catch up to rivals.

Let’s be perfectly honest, despite billions of dollars spent on AI, most smartphone users still could not care less for AI services on their phones. Apple, take your time, I’m sure most people won’t miss anything.

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