A subset of Apple's software engineers started internal development of iOS 19.4 last month, according to the MacRumors visitor logs.
iOS 19.4 is expected to be released in March or April next year, so the software update is still nearly a year away. However, Apple develops both "Fall" and "Spring" versions of iOS each year, with our website's analytics logs indicating that both iOS 19.0 and iOS 19.4 are in active development within the company.
The start of iOS 19.4 development comes after Apple delayed its personalized Siri features until some point "in the coming year."
Apple first previewed the personalized Siri features during its WWDC 2024 keynote last June. The enhancements were initially expected to launch with iOS 18.4 a month ago, but they are now expected to arrive at some point during the iOS 19 cycle. Many well-connected Apple reporters and observers believe the features will not be available until 2026, so it is quite possible that they will launch as part of iOS 19.4 next year.
On the other hand, The New York Times last month said that Apple plans to roll out the revamped Siri this fall, but this report is an outlier for now. In this case, the features could debut as part of iOS 19 in September, or in iOS 19.1 in October.
All in all, the personalized Siri features should be available by iOS 19.4 at the latest, and the company is now working on that version.
Whenever they launch, the Siri upgrades will include understanding of a user's personal context, on-screen awareness, and deeper per-app controls. For example, during its WWDC 2024 keynote, Apple showed an iPhone user asking Siri about their mother's flight and lunch reservation plans based on info from the Mail and Messages apps.
The promised Siri upgrades will be powered by Apple Intelligence, which has faced a rocky rollout. Apple was hit with class action lawsuits in the U.S. and Canada over its delayed personalized Siri features, and the company recently complied with the National Advertising Division's recommendation to remove "available now" wording from the Apple Intelligence web page. Apple also had to disable notification summaries for news apps after some of the summaries generated false information, and it has yet to re-enable the feature.
