Can't Get Siri to Glow in the New Year? Here's Why - CNET

iOS 26 has plenty of new features for the iPhone , but the big showcase is its new look. Liquid Glass , of course, is the most noticeable change, but there's another visual enhancement that not everyone is seeing. In fact, it's a subtle addition brought over from iOS 18. Zooey Liao/CNET That's the updated Siri and its rainbow shimmer around the edges of the screen when you activate the virtual assistant. It sounds like a silly thing to prioritize, but Siri's new look isn't just a cosmetic makeover. As part of Apple Intelligence features such as notification summaries , Genmoji and the Clean Up tool in Photos, Siri gets new features, too. But don't panic if you can't see the colors and the familiar Siri orb at the bottom of the screen appears instead. You may still need some assistance getting it to trigger. If you recently upgraded to iOS 26 and aren't sure how to activate Siri's new glow, here's what to do. Don't miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source. The new design of Siri is a glowing border that distorts everything briefly. Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNET Watch this: How to Get Siri's Glow-up on Your iPhone 03:01 Your iPhone might not be able to run Apple Intelligence It's possible you may need a new phone to get Apple Intelligence to work properly. More than likely, you'll just need to do a quick software update. The latest system update is for everyone with an iPhone 11 or later. Because much of the AI computation is done on the device, only a handful of models can currently run the new technologies: iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16E iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 17 iPhone 17 Pro iPhone 17 Pro Max iPhone Air Apple Intelligence will also run on Macs and iPads with M-series processors, as well as the latest iPad Mini (which is powered by the A17 Pro chip). If you have any of those models, you'll see the shimmering new look when you invoke Siri. On the Mac, the Siri search field gets the same effect instead of the entire screen edges. If you have a different model, you'll see the same Siri orb. Siri under iOS 18 looks the same as it did in iOS 17 for many people. Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNET 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 weren't automatically turned on. You had to sign up and wait for a few hours or days to get access. The latest updates (iOS 26.0.1, iPadOS 26 and MacOS Tahoe 26) now automatically enable Apple Intelligence. Even if you just jumped from an earlier iOS to 26, Apple Intelligence should be on, and the new Siri interface should appear. However, if you had Apple Intelligence on your device...

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