Can’t Get Siri to Glow in the New Year? Here’s Why

iOS26 lots of new stuff features for the iPhone, but the big showcase is its new look. Liquid glassof course, is the most noticeable change, but there is another visual improvement that not everyone sees. In fact, this is a subtle addition made by iOS 18.

This is the updated Siri and its rainbow that shimmers around the edges of the screen when you activate the virtual assistant. It seems silly to prioritize a priority, but Siri’s new look isn’t just a cosmetic makeover. As part of Apple Intelligence features such as notification summaries, Genmoji and the Cleaning tool in Photos, Siri also benefits from new features.

But don’t panic if you don’t see colors and the familiar Siri orb at the bottom of the screen appears instead. You may still need help triggering it. If you recently upgraded to iOS26 and you don’t know how to activate the new Siri glow, here’s what to do.

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Watch this: How to Get the Siri Glow on Your iPhone

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Your iPhone may not be able to run Apple Intelligence

You may need a new phone for Apple Intelligence to work properly. Most likely, you will just need to do a quick software update.

The latest system update is for everyone who owns an iPhone 11 or later. Since much of the AI ​​computing is done on-device, only a handful of models can currently run the new technologies:

• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Pro Max
• iPhone16
• iPhone 16 Plus
• iPhone16E
• iPhone 16 Pro
• iPhone 16 Pro Max
• iPhone17
• iPhone 17 Pro
• iPhone 17 Pro Max
• iPhoneAir

Apple Intelligence will also work on Macs and iPads with M-series processors, as well as the latest iPadMini (which is powered by the A17 Pro chip).

If you own one of these models, you’ll see the new shimmery look when you summon Siri. On Mac, the Siri search box achieves the same effect instead of the entire screen edges. If you have a different model, you will see the same Siri orb.

You may need to re-enable Apple Intelligence

After the first Apple Intelligence features arrived in iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and MacOS Sequoia 15.1, they were not automatically enabled. You had to register and wait a few hours or days to gain access.

The latest updates (iOS 26.0.1, iPadOS 26, and MacOS Tahoe 26) now automatically enable Apple Intelligence. Even if you just upgraded from an earlier iOS to 26, Apple Intelligence should be enabled and the new Siri interface should appear.

However, if you had Apple Intelligence on your device at some point, but I turned it offthe latest updates don’t flip the switch to turn it back on. Go to Settings > Apple Intelligence and Siri and make sure that Apple Intelligence the toggle is activated.

Check your Siri language settings

Currently, Apple Intelligence is not available globally and only uses English models. In Settings > Apple Intelligence and Sirimake sure Language is set to one of the following:

• English
• French
• German
• Italian
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Spanish
• Chinese (simplified)
• Japanese
• Korean

Additionally, if you’ve changed the Language setting to something else (talking to Siri in another language may be more fun than Duolingo), selecting one of the languages ​​above may not automatically re-enable the new Siri. But there is a simple solution: in Settings > Apple Intelligence and Siriturn Apple Intelligence off and on again. Then restart the iPhone. This downloads the necessary language model again.

To find out more about the new features related to iOS 26, here the right way to backup your iPhone before installing iOS 26 and which settings you want to change first in iOS 26. And don’t miss my six favorites Apple Intelligence features.

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