Apple Puts Siri AI Behind a Waitlist and Withholds It in the EU

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is rationing access to the flagship feature of iOS 27, requiring users to join a waitlist before Siri AI becomes available on a compatible iPhone.

Users who install iOS 27 and hold supported hardware must sign up through the Siri section of the Settings app rather than receiving the assistant automatically. Apple has not disclosed how long the queue runs.

The assistant launched in English only. Apple said support for French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish will follow in October, most likely alongside iOS 27.1.

Siri AI is not available to iPhone and iPad users in the European Union at launch. Apple has attributed the absence to an unresolved regulatory dispute with the European Commission, and has not published a timeline for EU availability on those devices. EU users can access Siri AI on the Mac.

Apple has also said Siri AI carries daily usage limits, without specifying the caps. The company has indicated that expanded allowances will come through select iCloud+ subscription tiers. Apple's own wording refers to most iCloud+ plans, which reporting has read as excluding the entry level 50GB tier.

The staged rollout tempers what analysts have treated as the strongest upgrade argument of the cycle. Apple has roughly 300 million iPhones in active use that have not been replaced in four years or more, and Siri AI is the feature most often cited as the reason those owners might upgrade.

Apple has said the assistant is not available to users under 13.