Apple Intelligence
Apple's on-device AI layer, Siri now rebuilt on Google's Gemini
Overview
Apple Intelligence is Apple's system-wide AI layer for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, pairing on-device models with Private Cloud Compute. Since WWDC 2026, a rebuilt Siri AI runs on a custom ~1.2-trillion-parameter Gemini model Apple licenses from Google under a reported $1 billion/year deal.
Pricing
Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 12 Jul 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.
What you can produce with Apple Intelligence
- System-wide writing tools (rewrite, summarize, proofread)
- Private Cloud Compute for privacy-preserving server-side processing
- Siri AI conversational app with cross-device iCloud history sync
- Custom ~1.2T-parameter Gemini model for cloud reasoning (Google partnership)
- Context-aware, multi-step agentic actions across apps
- Image generation / Genmoji
ASEAN Perspective
Apple Intelligence in Southeast Asia
ASEAN-region availability and pricing notes coming soon. Drop the editorial team a note via /contact/ if you can supply local context (Singapore/Malaysia/Indonesia/Thailand/Vietnam).
Apple's 2026 reset is the real story: after Siri's original AI overhaul repeatedly slipped and underdelivered from 2024 onward, Apple gave up building the large model itself and licensed a custom, oversized Gemini build from Google — reportedly around 1.2 trillion parameters, for roughly $1 billion a year. The new Siri AI, shown at WWDC 2026, adds a dedicated conversation app, cross-device history sync via iCloud, and genuinely agentic multi-step actions across apps.
The privacy architecture — on-device first, Private Cloud Compute for anything heavier — is still a real differentiator against fully cloud-based assistants, though it now runs partly on a rival's model, which raises fair questions about long-term independence. Rollout is staged: better context awareness landed in spring 2026, full conversational Siri isn't due until iOS 27 in September alongside new hardware, and it launches English-only, with the EU and China excluded at the start.
What people say
The headline number from the Apple-Google deal keeps showing up across coverage: roughly $1 billion a year for a custom-tuned Gemini model reported at around 1.2 trillion parameters, sitting behind the rebuilt Siri's cloud reasoning. That's a genuine strategy reversal — Apple spent two years insisting it could build Siri's brain in-house, then quietly outsourced the hardest part to its biggest search rival.
WWDC 2026 (June 8, framed by outlets as Tim Cook's farewell keynote) is where the new Siri AI branding launched. Coverage describes a dedicated conversation app with history synced privately across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro via iCloud, plus context-aware actions that read on-screen content to complete multi-step tasks — pulling details from an email into Calendar, that kind of chaining.
The rollout is explicitly staged, not a single switch-flip: Phase 1 (spring 2026, iOS 26.4) brought better contextual awareness using the Gemini backend; Phase 2, the full conversational Siri with agentic app control, is tied to iOS 27 and the iPhone 18 launch in September 2026. Older but still-supported devices get a lighter version gated by Neural Engine capability, and the flagship Siri AI experience starts as an English-only beta.
Geography matters here: the new Siri AI isn't available on iPhone or iPad in the EU at launch, and China is excluded pending regulatory approval — both markets where Apple has run into AI-specific regulatory friction before. For ASEAN specifically, availability tracks the general non-EU/non-China rollout, but language coverage for the conversational features beyond English should be checked per-market as Apple expands it through the rest of 2026.
Whether the agentic claims hold up under real use — reliably completing multi-step cross-app tasks rather than demo-only scripted flows — is the open question independent reviewers haven't been able to fully test, since the full Phase 2 rollout was still pending as of this writing.
Summary of public user & expert reviews, compiled by RECATOOLS.
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including Apple Intelligence's official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with Apple Intelligence unless explicitly stated.
Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
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