More than expected
The block on Siri AI in the European Union was known from the June 8 keynote: Apple cited the Digital Markets Act and EU regulators' rejection of its proposed compliance solutions as the reason for the exclusion affecting end users on iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. What was less clear was the operational scope of the block on the developer side.
According to TechTimes reporting based on WWDC technical sessions, developers with accounts in the EU are unable to test the new Siri AI features within their own applications during the development phase. This means that anyone building apps that rely on advanced App Intents or deep Siri AI integration cannot verify code behaviour directly on their European test machines and devices.
A concrete problem for European teams
The practical implications are tangible: development teams based in Europe will need to set up test environments outside the EU, or wait for Apple to resolve the regulatory situation, to work on the advanced AI features intended for global users. This is not unprecedented — the EU block on certain Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18 had already created friction — but the fact that it now also affects the development environment, and not just the finished product, raises the level of complication for the European ecosystem.