TL;DR
Apple’s iOS 27 Siri app will automatically delete conversations after 30 days or a year. After a two-year delay, it can still be shipped as a beta.
Apple’s first standalone Siri app coming in iOS 27 will include an automatic deletion feature for chat histories taken from the Messages app. Users will be able to configure the app to keep chats for 30 days, a year, or indefinitely. This feature informs Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman In its Power On newsletter, Sunday is designed to structurally differentiate Apple’s approach to AI privacy from rivals that offer temporary or incognito chat modes, as optional settings users must manually enable.
The Siri app will act as a chatbot similar to ChatGPT or Claude, acting as a repository for past conversations that users can search for, resume, or delete. Call it either via standard Siri activation, side button or wake word, or with the new “Search or ask” mode is activated by swiping down from the top center of the screen. The app will support both voice and text input, file uploads, and web-sourced replies with images and bullet points. Users will be able to choose whether the app opens to a previous chat network or a new conversation each time.
The privacy architecture is Apple’s competitive differentiator, but also its excuse. Competitive chatbots rely heavily on chat histories and memory systems to personalize responses and improve over time. Apple places stricter limits on what data can persist and for how long, building the limits into the system itself rather than offering them as optional modes. Meta launched a temporary chat feature last week. Apple’s position is that such protections should not require users to opt-in.
The strategic context makes the privacy framework more interesting than it might seem. Apple has quietly replaced much of its AI infrastructure with Google’s Gemini, paying nearly $1 billion annually for a custom 1.2 trillion-parameter model that will power the next-generation Siri. The company’s existing partnership with OpenAI is being terminatedOpenAI lawyers are preparing possible legal actions related to the ChatGPT-Siri deal, which failed to deliver the expected OpenAI subscription revenue. iOS 27 will introduce a system called Extensions that will allow users to install competing AI chatbots and route Siri requests through a model of their choice, including Claude and Gemini, effectively relegating ChatGPT from a privileged partner to one of several options.
Gurman notes that Apple has been less specific about how the new Siri infrastructure will be deployed and managed at scale. The company said the updated Siri will use Private Cloud Computing, a cloud extension of the iPhone’s security model, but it has not confirmed that it will rely on the same Apple-made chips, data centers and security architecture as the current system. The result is that Google’s cloud infrastructure will handle some of the workload, something Apple is reluctant to emphasize given the tension over privacy messages.
The auto-delete feature is a smart deployment, whether the privacy argument is fully justified or not. In line with the limits of structured storage rather than permanent memory, Apple can argue that its AI assistant is designed to forget, as opposed to systems designed to remember everything to improve. Whether users appreciate the difference depends on whether they see the tradeoff: a Siri that forgets your preferences after 30 days is also a Siri that can’t learn from your history like ChatGPT or Claude.
Perhaps the most revealing detail in Gurman’s report is that the new Siri may still be available as a beta, even after a two-year delay. The updated assistant is initially planned for 2024. Test versions of iOS 27 within Apple currently use the beta label for the new Siri and include a switch that allows users to opt out. At the same time, Apple is developing smart glasses with artificial intelligence for 2027 It will use the same Gemini-powered Siri as the main interface, meaning the assistant should work reliably across multiple form factors by next year.
Gurman makes the risks clear: Tim Cook doesn’t want his latest job as CEO to be a misstep. Apple got ita little slack” with the original Apple Intelligence rollout in 2024, however the competitive and regulatory landscape has changed. Google’s Gemini increased its share of web traffic from 5.7% to 21.5%. The EU is set to force both Apple and Google to open up their AI assistants to rivals under the Digital Markets Act. Announced at Google I/O this week, Android 17 will ship with the Gemini Intelligence system and the new Googlebook laptop platform. Apple enters this environment with Siri, which is two years late, modeled after a competitor, and potentially labeled as unfinished.
The Genmoji update is the lightest part of the iOS 27 image, but it speaks of the same model. Apple’s AI-generated emoji feature was poorly received at launch: the images didn’t look like the ads, and the models used so much power that phones overheated and drained their batteries. iOS 27 will add “Featured Genmoji,” was automatically generated from user photos and frequently typed phrases to increase adoption of the feature, which should demonstrate Apple Intelligence’s consumer appeal.
Apple’s privacy argument comes at a time when the concept has never been more prominent in consumer hardware. Meta is facing lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny over how its Ray-Ban smart glasses handle user images. Google’s Android XR glasses will be equipped with cameras and Gemini AI. Snap launches consumer AR features with built-in AI. In this environment, an AI assistant that automatically deletes your conversations and doesn’t train on your data is a real differentiator, provided the assistant itself is good enough for people to want to use it. That’s the question Apple hasn’t been able to answer for 15 years. Gemini, it will be clear by September whether the beta label and privacy switch will change the answer.
