Sneak peek at new Siri app reveals Apple's plans to take on ChatGPT and more
Sneak peek at new Siri app reveals Apple’s plans to take on ChatGPT and more Sarah Perez 7:45 AM PDT · May 28, 2026 Just ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, Bloomberg has published leaked renders of what Apple’s planned AI upgrade could look like on iPhone — including a brand-new Siri app meant to rival ChatGPT and other AI chatbots — as well as how Siri’s new capabilities will be woven throughout the operating system.
The images were produced by Bloomberg based on what it saw and learned from sources.
A new mode, however, will put Siri-powered search within easy reach, capitalizing on people’s muscle memory for swiping down on their screen to access Spotlight Search — a built-in way to find information from both your phone and the web in one place. The swipe-down gesture will still open search, but now those searches will draw on the AI-powered Siri, which includes a rebuilt AI model that uses Google’s Gemini AI technology under the hood for added intelligence.
From here, iPhone users can search, launch apps, start messages, ask about the weather, add calendar appointments, search their notes, and trigger app shortcuts, Bloomberg reports, with results displayed in formatted text in a card-style interface that also emerges from the Dynamic Island.
Apple’s approach to AI is strikingly similar to its earlier multibillion-dollar partnership with Google that made Google the default search engine on iPhone. Just as building a search engine from scratch was never in Apple’s playbook, AI presents a similar calculus — it’s too expensive and complex to go it alone, at least right now. So Apple is working with outside partners for AI technology that users want today, while simultaneously building out its own models, including local AI, that runs on local devices rather than the cloud — an approach that allows Apple to lean into its privacy brand without needing to catch up.
Bloomberg also notes there will be a new standalone Siri app — as previously reported — designed to compete directly with chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others. The app will surface your past chat history and allow you to upload documents and photos, in addition to text.
Scale, as ever, is Apple’s advantage. While ChatGPT now has 900 million weekly active users, Apple’s install base (all devices, not just iPhone) is 2.5 billion — meaning the company has an unmatched runway to introduce AI to people who haven’t yet adopted standalone AI tools.
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