Siri is getting Gemini superpowers, and that could be awful for Android

At this point, it should probably be accepted as a universal fact that Siri is one of the weakest voice assistants in the world. That was true before its redesign in iOS 18, and it’s still true even after Apple added ChatGPT. The new smarts may have given Siri a new brain, but Siri still hasn’t figured out how to use that brain properly.

We’ve collectively bullied Siri for years (rightfully so), to the point that Apple has now decided to partner with Google and base Siri on none other than its biggest — and far better — competitor, Gemini. There’s something deeply funny about a company using its rival’s underlying tech because it couldn’t quite build its own or find a better alternative.

But if you look past the humor, the Gemini-fication of Siri discounts one of the key reasons people still pick Android smartphones. That long-standing, lopsided advantage in Android’s favor may finally be slipping away — and this time, possibly for good.

Gemini is already great on iPhone

Siri is deeply integrated into Apple’s broader ecosystem, and to be fair, it does some things really well. For instance, you can ask Siri how something is done on the iPhone, and it will often pull up information straight from official Apple support pages with precise, context-aware answers. I genuinely like Siri for this.

And yet — funnily enough — I still find myself firing up Gemini on my iPhone via an on-screen widget rather than long-pressing the power button to wake Siri.

Gemini isn’t deeply integrated at the system level on iOS the way Siri is. Even so, in its current limited form, Gemini is miles ahead of Siri for anything that requires actual thinking. It’s my default tool for morning news rundowns. It’s where I go for everyday life hacks. Now, I’ve even started using it as a learning partner. And it does all of this without the friction and unpredictability that still define Siri.

Unlike Siri, Gemini can’t read the iPhone’s system state and can’t open apps or take actions across them. It feels like a layer sitting on top of iOS, rather than something baked in, unlike Gemini on Android or Siri on the iPhone.

And despite all of these limitations, I still reach for Gemini more than Siri. That alone says a lot.

I don’t have a lot of confidence in Apple here, largely because we’ve already seen it fumble Siri even with ChatGPT in the mix. But if Apple manages to pull this off properly, a Gemini-powered Siri wouldn’t just be a better Siri — it would be a structural shift in how compelling the iPhone feels.

Historically, Siri has been the weakest link in Apple’s ecosystem. Since the early days of the Google Assistant, Android users have enjoyed a better voice assistant without constantly worrying that Apple would suddenly leapfrog them. Gemini only carried that legacy forward — it’s more conversational, understands context better, has strong reasoning abilities, and, crucially, is deeply tied into Android.

Now, imagine that same intelligence arriving on the iPhone, paired with Apple’s famously tight system-level integration. Think of it as a replacement for Siri that can take actions across iOS, understand device context, and hook directly into Apple’s services.

That’s where the equation flips on its head.

Exactly where Android’s disadvantage lies

When we talk about Android versus iOS, the conversation usually circles around customization, flexibility, and choice — all valid points in Android’s favor. But Android’s real soft advantage has always been Google’s AI lead.

Google never needed to loudly market that its assistant was better. You just knew it was. Anyone who has used Siri long enough knows how often it falls flat, and how instinctively you end up turning to Gemini instead.

For a long time, that was enough to keep people on Android — or at least make them actively dismiss iPhones for lacking a serious, reliable voice assistant. If Apple adopts Gemini in a meaningful way, that advantage evaporates.

And there’s a very real chance of that happening. Apple has a long track record of taking borrowed technology and turning it into polished, mainstream experiences. Touch ID, for instance, came from an acquired fingerprint sensor company and is still preferred by many over Face ID. Apple doesn’t always invent first, but it refines, integrates, and scales better than almost anyone, Google included.

So, if Gemini indeed gets more deeply embedded into iOS than it is across most Android devices, Apple could genuinely beat Google at its own AI game. And as AI increasingly becomes the thing that defines platform lock-in, that’s a dangerous position for Android to be in.

The story isn’t finished — yet

There’s an important distinction to be made here: Siri using Gemini as an underlying language model is very different from Apple handing over the keys to its assistant experience.

What’s more likely is that Apple treats Gemini as a backend brain while keeping Siri’s surface-level behavior largely intact. In that scenario, Siri would get smarter without becoming a full-fledged Gemini assistant. It’d be enough to satisfy longtime critics without directly threatening how well Gemini works as an assistant on Android.

That would mean it’s not Gemini coming to the iPhone — it’s Gemini powering Siri. My educated guess is that Siri will see meaningful improvements, with Gemini doing most of the heavy lifting behind the scenes. From there, the real question becomes strategic rather than technical.

Google isn’t dumb. It’s a multi-trillion-dollar company, and it wouldn’t casually hand one of its biggest competitive moats to a rival this large. Google has almost certainly gamed this out far more deeply than any of us can see from the outside. Making Gemini the default AI layer across billions of additional devices — even ones Google doesn’t directly control — may outweigh the risk of weakening Android’s differentiation. It’s also possible Google believes model access alone is no longer the moat, and that the real advantage lies in how Gemini is woven into its services, data, and workflows on Android.

Right now, though, it’s still a muddy space with very little clarity. Whether Apple ends up trumping Google at its own game, or Google proves to be the more shrewd long-term strategist, is something we’ll only know once Gemini-powered Siri actually shows up in public.

I, for one, can’t wait to put them side by side and see who wins.