The first beta of iOS 26.4 is coming in two weeks with the feature I bought my iPhone 16 Pro Max for

• First developer beta of iOS 26.4 would launch in 2-3 weeks
• This is where we should see the first parts of Siri’s Gemini redesign
• The first public beta will likely arrive in late February or early March, and the final version will likely launch in late March or early April.

It’s fair to say that Apple waited a very long time to overhaul Siri. Arguably it needed some sort of overhaul before AI was even an option, but we’ve now been waiting more than 18 months since Apple first announced Siri’s AI upgrade – an announcement that factored into the purchase of the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which launched that year. But finally, the wait seems almost over.

According to Apple watcher Mark Gurman, writing for Bloomberg (via 9to5Mac), Apple will release the first developer beta of iOS 26.4 the week of February 23, meaning it’s only 2-3 weeks away at the time of writing.

This is relevant because iOS 26.4 is expected to include “some components” of Apple’s long-promised Gemini-powered Siri redesign. Specifically, it’s meant to have personal context, on-screen awareness, and interactions both within the app and between apps.

Smarter and more aware than ever

In other words, Siri should be able to find information in your emails, notes, and texts, as well as perform actions on your screen and in apps. It should therefore be much more efficient than it currently is. Although further updates to Siri – including a new chatbot-like interface – apparently won’t arrive until iOS 27 later this year.

In any case, unless you’re actually a developer, you might not want to grab that early iOS 26.4 beta, but if you do, here’s how to download iOS developer betas.

The first public beta will probably launch in a few weeks, so probably late February or early March, and we also have a guide on how to download iOS public betas.

After that, we hope not to wait too long for the final version. For reference, the final version of iOS 18.4 arrived on March 31 last year, so it’s likely we’ll see a similar timeline for iOS 26.4 this year.

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James is a freelance phone, tablet and wearable editor and sub-editor at TechRadar. He loves all things “smart”, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work across the web, print and TV.