Apple's WWDC Keynote: Siri Goes Gemini-Powered and Claude Becomes an iPhone Option for the First Time

Apple closed the longest-running suspense story in consumer AI on Monday, using the opening keynote of WWDC 2026 to unveil a completely rebuilt Siri that runs on a custom 1.2-trillion-parameter version of Google's Gemini — and, more consequentially, an Extensions system that for the first time lets iPhone owners choose which AI model powers Apple Intelligence. It was also a personal milestone: the keynote was Tim Cook's last as chief executive, with hardware chief John Ternus set to take over on September 1.

The Gemini arrangement, first reported in January and confirmed on stage, has Apple paying Google roughly $1 billion per year to license a bespoke model rather than build a frontier system of its own. Crucially, Apple is not handing user data to Google's servers: the heavy Gemini reasoning runs on Apple's own Private Cloud Compute infrastructure, preserving the privacy architecture the company has spent years marketing. It is a pragmatic admission that sustained frontier-model development demands capital and talent Apple would rather pour into hardware, services, and buybacks.

The headline for the broader AI industry, though, is the new Extensions system. Apple will let users pick from Google Gemini (the default), OpenAI's ChatGPT, or Anthropic's Claude to handle generative requests across Siri, Writing Tools, Image Playground, and more. Each option ships with its own distinct voice so users can tell which model answered — and it marks the first time Claude becomes a first-class option on the iPhone. Apple called it the most significant AI platform policy decision it has made in a decade.

The assistant itself has been rethought from the ground up. The new Siri adopts a chatbot-style interface reminiscent of ChatGPT and Claude, gains a standalone app with a system-wide "Search or Ask" gesture, and integrates with the Dynamic Island on iPhone 16 and newer. It can draw on personal context — emails, photos, messages, calendar, and files — read what is on screen, and chain together deeper cross-app actions, the long-promised capabilities that triggered a $250 million settlement after Apple failed to deliver them on its original timeline.

Beyond Siri, all six of Apple's operating systems advanced to version 27 — iOS, macOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS — with iOS 27 Beta 1 landing the same afternoon for developers. Apple dropped the iPhone 11 from the support list while keeping the iPhone 12 and later, and confirmed that the new Apple Intelligence features require an iPhone 15 Pro or newer at launch. The company demoed generative Photos editing, an AI-assisted Calendar, and a rebuilt Health app wired into Siri. As analysts expected, no new hardware was shown.

Taken together, the keynote reframes Apple's AI story from "behind" to "broker." Rather than racing to match a frontier lab, Apple is positioning the iPhone as neutral ground where Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude compete for the user's default — a distribution chokepoint none of those companies can ignore. For Cook, handing the stage to Ternus with that strategy finally articulated is the legacy moment he needed.