The new Siri AI in iOS 27 shows up as a glowing pill on the iPhone — and it might just be teasing the iPhone 18 Pro’s biggest design change. On the iPhone 17, the Dynamic Island forces Siri AI to stretch wide and flat to mask the cutout, sacrificing its intended shape.
It looks out of place. But if you pick up an iPhone 18 Pro this fall, that might change. Siri’s pill shape on the current iPhone results from a hardware constraint, and rumors indicate Apple already engineered a fix into its upcoming flagship phone.
iPhone 18 Pro’s smaller Dynamic Island might let Siri be an orb
The connection became clear after users noted that the Siri AI orb on the iPhone looks different from how it appears on other Apple devices. And everything points to the Dynamic Island.
Apple envisioned the new Siri AI as a circle, but the iPhone’s current cutout is way too wide for the orb to appear as a perfect sphere. This is why it stretches sideways into a pill.
“Apple designed the new Siri with the iPhone 18 Pro/Max in mind, as with the rumored smaller Dynamic Island it’s a perfect orb,” wrote UI designer Lorenzo last week on X. “This explains why it’s not a pill in iPadOS and MacOS.”
Several leaks already indicated that the iPhone 18 Pro series will come with a significantly smaller Dynamic Island. Tipster Ice Universe predicted the upcoming device could shrink the Dynamic Island by roughly 35%, meaning it could measure just 13.5 mm wide.
Apple reportedly made that possible by relocating the Face ID components under the display, a move the company has been working toward for years. Prototype pictures and screen protector leaks from a few months ago seem to corroborate these rumors.
Apple already hinted at the change
The giveaway was always there in plain sight. The new Siri app icon is a circle, and so are the promotional materials showcased at WWDC26. The Mac, Apple’s Vision Pro headset and the iPad also use a circular Siri, with the current-generation iPhone being the only exception.
What it means is that Apple may have designed iOS 27’s Siri around hardware that doesn’t ship until fall. The pill-shaped Siri AI in the iOS 27 developer beta could be a workaround for the iPhone 17. Siri will likely assume its true orblike shape on the iPhone 18 Pro.
Apple should unveil the iPhone 18 lineup this September alongside iOS 27.
