iOS 27 Is Here, but Siri AI Is Blocked in the EU
iOS 27 and the new Siri AI launched on September 14, running on iPhone 15 Pro and newer, but in the European Union Siri AI doesn't work on phones and tablets because of the Digital Markets Act.
Does your iPhone already read your messages, emails, and calendar like a real assistant, or is that still someone else’s phone doing the job? Starting Monday, the answer depends on where you live, because Apple has rolled out iOS 27 with the new Siri AI, but locked that very feature out of the European Union.
Apple released iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and visionOS 27 on Monday, September 14, at around 10 a.m. Pacific time, roughly 7 p.m. in Belgrade. The update is free, arriving through Settings, then General, then Software Update, and on launch day it can take a few minutes longer than usual, since Apple’s servers see their heaviest load of the year on that day.
iOS 27 runs on every phone that already received iOS 26, meaning the iPhone 11 and newer, as well as the second generation iPhone SE and newer. For Siri AI itself, the list is shorter.
Who Gets the New Siri, and Who Stays on the Old One
Siri AI, as Apple now calls its redesigned assistant, demands more powerful hardware than the update itself:
- iPhone, works on the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, along with every iPhone 16, 17, and 18 model
- Mac, requires an M1 chip or newer
- users under 13 have no access, regardless of which phone they own
Meeting those requirements doesn’t get you Siri AI the moment you update. Access runs through a waitlist: under Siri in Settings there’s an option called “Try Siri AI (beta),” the phone requests a wait time estimate, and according to Notebookcheck, in earlier beta rounds that wait sometimes stretched to a week.
The new Siri can pull personal context from messages, emails, and the calendar, see what’s currently on the screen, and carry out actions inside apps on its own, for instance scheduling a meeting straight from a text message. It also got its own dedicated app, with a conversation history that syncs through iCloud. Behind it all sits a new model that Apple says was developed in partnership with Google Gemini, a considerable shift for an assistant that spent decades presenting itself as an exclusively Apple product.
Why Siri AI Doesn’t Work in the European Union
This is the part that hits hardest for users in Serbia and the region who buy phones with European specs or travel to the EU. Apple was direct about it in its official availability notice:
“Mac and Apple Vision Pro users in the EU will be able to access Siri AI when set to a supported language.”
In other words, Siri AI works in the European Union on Mac computers and Vision Pro headsets, provided the device is set to a supported language. On the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, Siri AI doesn’t work at all in the EU, and Apple points to the Digital Markets Act, the European regulation that limits how platforms like Apple can keep their systems closed, as the reason. Apple hasn’t announced a date for when that might change.
Interestingly, the United Kingdom falls into the same language and hardware group as the EU, but since the Digital Markets Act no longer applies there after Brexit, users there get Siri AI with no restrictions.
Language doesn’t make things easier even for those the EU ban doesn’t affect. At launch, Siri AI works only in English. French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish arrive in October, while Apple hasn’t announced a date for German yet. In China, the feature isn’t available at all for now.
The restrictions don’t end with geography. Features that rely on Apple’s servers come with a daily usage limit, though Apple hasn’t disclosed what that limit is. The company also says expanded access will come at an extra cost in the future, while for now everything remains free.
What Else Is Coming This Month
September’s release schedule was already known in advance. The iPhone 18 Pro, Apple Watch Series 12, and AirPods 5 go on sale September 18. The foldable iPhone Duo follows a different timeline, with preorders opening October 16 and sales starting October 23.
For now, if you’re in Serbia and want to try the new Siri, updating to iOS 27 is the first step, but Siri AI itself still depends on the waitlist and an English language setting, just like in every other country outside the EU that currently has no block in place.
