Several iOS 19 features reportedly delayed until spring 2026

Apple will reportedly delay many of the bigger changes in iOS 19 until spring 2026. They will arrive eventually as part of iOS 19.4 instead of being available when the OS first drops in September 2025.

Apparently, the delay will affect “a larger-than-usual number of features.”

Apple might delay several major iOS 19 features

Apple held back several major features from iOS 18’s initial public release. Notably, the company launched Apple Intelligence, one of the OS’s key highlights, a month later with iOS 18.1. Despite the delay, not all of Apple’s AI features showcased at WWDC24 are available to users yet.

Apple plans to release iOS 18.2 with Image Playground, Visual Intelligence, and ChatGPT integration in Siri in early December. Then, in spring 2025, with iOS 18.4, the company will roll out a more powerful Siri that can control apps.

In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman claims Apple will follow a similar strategy with the bigger features in iOS 19. His sources claim that Apple will delay a “larger-than-usual number of features” to iOS 19.4’s release in spring 2026.

These delayed features do not include iOS 19’s new LLM-powered Siri, which will provide a more conversational experience. It has also been seemingly delayed until spring 2026.

Delayed iOS features might become more common in the future

The delayed iOS 18 features led Apple to launch the iPhone 16 series without access to many key features. It also caused the company to promote and hype features, like Visual Intelligence, despite not being ready by launch day.

However, it seems this delayed rollout of major new features might just become the norm going forward, with iOS 19 reportedly following in the same trajectory as well.

With iOS 19 being almost a year away from release, there’s always a possibility that Apple could address the delays and change the release timeline of major new features.