Apple expanded Siri AI beyond English with the iOS 27.2 update, adding support for French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. The update, released roughly two months after the personal assistant's beta launch with iOS 27, marks the first addition of new languages to Siri since its introduction.
However, a persistent limitation remains: Siri does not support bilingual usage. To use a new language, users must change their iPhone's overall language setting via Settings > Siri > Language, and the device must be set to that same language; otherwise, Siri reverts to a previous experience. Language switching is further delayed by the need to download on-device models, so the transfer is not immediate.
Users can type to Siri to switch languages mid-conversation, and the assistant can understand and respond in the selected language. However, Siri cannot translate to languages outside its supported set — for example, requesting a translation to Hungarian requires an online search, as the assistant cannot use its local model for such requests.
The expansion adds on-device language capabilities for understanding on-screen information and tapping user data in the newly supported languages. Apple has not announced a timeline for adding true bilingual support, where users could switch languages mid-conversation without changing device settings.
