WWDC Day 2 — Siri AI Is English Only at Launch. Europe Waits Longer.

Yesterday, Apple demonstrated a rebuilt Siri. Today, the developer sessions reveal what that demonstration did not fully disclose.

The Language Limitation — The Most Important Fine Print

Siri AI will initially be available in English. Apple said it will add support for more languages soon.

English only. At launch.
For European users — who speak French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Swedish and dozens of other languages — this is the most consequential detail of WWDC 2026.

The Siri AI demonstrated last night, running on Google's Gemini Foundation Models Cloud, is an English-language product at launch. European users who do not primarily interact with their devices in English will not receive the full Siri AI experience at iOS 27 launch.
"More languages soon" is the phrase that European users should calendar. Based on Apple's track record with Apple Intelligence language expansion — French and German arrived approximately four months after the English launch in 2025 — the earliest realistic timeline for full Siri AI in major European languages is January–February 2027.

The Device Compatibility — Who Gets What

Apple Intelligence and Siri AI in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27 are available on iPhone 16 and later with Apple Intelligence support.

To enjoy the full version of Siri AI — specifically features like expressive voices and more advanced dictation — you'll need to own an iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, or an iPhone Air.

Three tiers emerge from the device compatibility details:
Tier 1 — Full Siri AI: iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone Air. Expressive voices, advanced dictation, all cloud processing features.
Tier 2 — Core Siri AI: iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max. Basic Siri AI features, Dynamic Island integration, on-screen awareness.
Tier 3 — No Siri AI: iPhone 15 and earlier. Standard Siri only.
The majority of current iPhone users — on devices purchased before September 2024 — receive no Siri AI upgrade with iOS 27.

The Child Safety Detail — More Consequential Than It Appeared

Child accounts are mandatory for those under 13 and can remain in place until the age of 18. Apple says a child account enables safeguards across the system, tailored to the child's age. Parents can decide who their child can contact via Phone, FaceTime and Messages, and determine which apps and websites they can access.

Mandatory child accounts for under-13s across the Apple ecosystem is a regulatory pre-emption of extraordinary scope. The UK's Online Safety Act, the EU's Digital Services Act and proposed legislation in France, Germany and a dozen other European countries all include provisions requiring age verification and parental control systems for minors.

Apple has implemented a system that satisfies the requirements of most of this legislation simultaneously — in a single iOS update. The child accounts system is both genuine parental protection and the most sophisticated regulatory pre-emption in consumer technology history.

visionOS 27 — The Siri That Looks Back at You

Owners of the Vision Pro are getting some updates with visionOS 27 — largely revolving around the Siri AI update. This includes a new 3D visualisation of Siri that you can talk to just by looking at.

A 3D Siri that you can talk to by looking at it. On a device you wear on your face. The most personal AI interaction Apple has ever shipped — and the one that raises the most significant privacy questions under European law.

Vision Pro's gaze-tracking system — which allows the device to determine where you are looking — combined with a Siri that activates when you look at it creates an AI interaction paradigm that biometric data protection provisions in GDPR were explicitly written to govern. Apple has not yet detailed the data processing architecture for visionOS 27 Siri AI activation via gaze tracking in European markets.

The European Perspective