3 min read
Apple is preparing a major shift in how iPhone users interact with voice assistants, as the upcoming iOS 26.2 update. This update will allow individuals in Japan to replace Siri with a third-party assistant. They can trigger it directly by the iPhone’s side button. This change is significant because the side button has always been tightly protected as a Siri-only shortcut, making this the first time Apple has opened a core hardware trigger to outside developers.
Early code discoveries in iOS 26.2 beta versions reveal a new internal framework called SystemVoiceAssistant and region-controlled strings. Japan will be the first market where this capability is officially enabled. Apple believes:
By adopting the App Intents framework and offering App Shortcuts, you let people instantly access app functionality and integrate it with system experiences like Spotlight or App Shortcuts. For example, a person might place an App Shortcut you provide on the Action button. In Japan, people might place an action on the side button of iPhone that instantly launches your voice-based conversational app.
To allow people to press and hold the side button to launch your voice-based conversational app to its conversation experience:
- Add the com.apple.developer.side-button-access.allow entitlement to the .entitlements file in your app’s Xcode project. For details on adding this entitlement, see Side Button Access.
- Create an app intent that conforms to the activate app intent schema.
- In the app intent’s perform() implementation, navigate to the scene that provides voice-based conversational functionality and start an audio session.
Japan has been increasingly proactive in digital competition policy, and Apple’s choice to pilot the feature there may reflect both regulatory readiness and a strong market environment for alternative voice assistants developed by Japanese companies. Japan-based users can now long-press the side button to launch a competing assistant instead of Siri, gaining a level of freedom never before offered on iPhones.
iOS 26.2 also adds support for third-party App Stores and provides a Safari Search Engine choice screen during setup in Japan.
Consumers can now expect more diverse choices in conversational AI, especially as competing platforms integrate more advanced model-based intelligence. Developers can also gain a rare opportunity to integrate more deeply with the iPhone’s primary hardware inputs, potentially reshaping the competitive landscape for voice-controlled apps in Japan and influencing how developers design assistant-first experiences moving forward.
iOS 26.2 underlying code references support structures that could enable a broader rollout with minimal changes. Which suggests that Apple may be preparing for expansion depending on user adoption, developer involvement and regional regulatory demands.
For now, the iOS 26.2 update positions Japan as the testing ground for new AI assistants. Apple is yet to roll out this feature for other countries. If the feature spreads globally, it would represent a notable shift in how Apple manages default system behaviors.
