• Apple is set to pay $95 million to settle a class-action lawsuit based on Siri's privacy.
• The lawsuit accused Apple of obtaining private communications via Siri without user consent.
• The settlement confirmed a July 2 deadline to submit claims.

Attention, US-based residents of the Apple ecosystem: it's time to rummage through your receipts.

If you bought a Siri-enabled device between September 2014 and December 31, you may be able to get in on the payout of a class-action lawsuit brought against Apple. Those who can provide proof of purchase have until July 2 to submit their claims, according to a website dedicated to the suit.

Apple agreed in December 2024 to pay $95 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged users' confidential or private communications were obtained by Apple as a result of an unintended Siri activation. Although the company denied all of the allegations, a settlement agreement was filed on December 31.

US-based users can submit claims for up to five devices and potentially receive up to $20 per device for a total payout capped at $100, according to the terms of the settlement.

The case is still awaiting approval from a judge in August, so payments will be made only if the judge approves the settlement and resolves any potential appeals.

Apple doesn't publicly disclose the exact number of active devices being used, but CFO Kevan Parekh told investors that it reached "a new all-time high across all products and geographic segments" in January.

Eligible devices include: Siri-enabled iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook, iMac, HomePod, iPod touch, or Apple TV.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Insider.

Siri made its debut in 2011 with the iPhone 4S. The lawsuit covers devices purchased after Apple introduced the "Hey, Siri" voice activation feature in 2014. The virtual assistant is currently under construction as Apple prepares to usher it into a new era powered by its AI software.

In March, Apple announced that it would delay its Siri overhaul, which would add Apple Intelligence for a "more personalized" experience, until next year.

For its Apple Intelligence delays, the tech giant is facing another lawsuit that alleges Apple misled consumers with its ads about the features of its AI software.

If you'd like to submit a claim for the class-action settlement for Siri, visit this site.

• Apple and Amazon were early movers with voice assistants. Their upgrades are panning out differently.
• Andy Jassy said on Thursday's earnings call that 100,000 users now have Amazon's Alexa+.
• Tim Cook told investors that Apple's Siri upgrade is delayed until later this year.

It was a tale of two voice assistants.

Amazon and Apple showed during Thursday earnings calls just how far apart they are in the race to build a smarter AI assistant.

Apple CEO Tim Cook addressed the delay for the company's much-anticipated Siri upgrade, first announced nearly a year ago as part of Apple Intelligence.

"We need more time to complete our work on these features so they meet our high-quality bar," Cook told analysts and investors, adding, "It's just taking a bit longer than we thought."

Cook didn't give a specific timeline for releasing its more personal, context-aware version of Siri, but Apple said in March it expected it in the "coming year."

While Cook fielded questions about delays, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy focused on rollout. Alexa+, the company's revamped voice assistant powered by generative AI, has already reached over 100,000 paying users since its February launch, he said on Thursday's earnings call.

"People are really liking Alexa+ thus far," Jassy said. "We have a lot more functionality that we plan to add in the coming months."

Alexa+ includes AI-powered features like providing dinner recipes, texting friends and family, and sending out party invitations, Panos Panay, Amazon's senior vice president of devices and services, said at the February launch event.

Both companies were early movers in the voice assistant market. Apple, which introduced Siri in 2011, has been scrambling to catch up in a race in which it had a head start.

Alexa+ has also faced some holdups. It's missing some key features demoed at launch, including third-party app integration, AI-generated bedtime stories, and gift idea suggestions.

In March, Apple took the rare step of delaying the rollout of its upgraded Siri, which is set to be powered by large language models. It was first announced at its June 2024 WWDC event.

The new Siri features — including on-screen awareness, personal context, and deeper app integration — were originally expected with iOS 18.4, which was released on March 31. Now, they are being tipped by Apple observers to land with iOS 19, which could arrive this fall.

• Apple is going overboard with some of its AI claims, an advertising watchdog says.
• The Better Business Bureau's advertising division says Apple should tone it down a bit.
• Apple Intelligence has been plagued by delays.

Apple's marketing is legendary. Remember the "1984" and "Think Different" campaigns, and the dancing iPod silhouettes?

This works, though, only if the product and technology are on time and actually good.

Apple now finds itself under scrutiny with its fumbled generative-AI launch. The company went on a marketing blitz last year to promote upcoming Apple Intelligence features.

Its big AI splash may have come a little too soon, the Better Business Bureau's advertising watchdog says. The organization's National Advertising Division said Tuesday that it recommended Apple tone down or tweak some of its marketing claims, especially around the timing of certain hyped-up features.

The main issue? A bold "Available Now" label splashed across the company's Apple Intelligence webpage and iPhone 16 marketing materials. The division said it gave the impression that all the listed features, like priority notifications, Image Playground, Genmoji, Image Wand, and ChatGPT integration with Siri, were ready to go at the launch of the iPhone 16 in September.

In reality, Apple rolled out those tools gradually between October 2024 and March. And the big one — that Siri upgrade — has been delayed.

The National Advertising Division didn't love the fine print, either. The group said Apple's footnotes and small-print disclosures weren't clear or close enough to the main claims to set the record straight.

While the features are now live, the division's message was clear: Don't say something's "available now" unless it really is.

The review also took a look at Apple's promises around next-gen Siri upgrades, including smarter on-screen awareness, personal context understanding, and cross-app actions, all of which were also listed under that same "Available Now" header.

Apple told the group those Siri features were delayed and updated its promotional materials to reflect the change. It pulled the "More Personal Siri" video, so the watchdog didn't review the specific claims in that clip. The BBB is an independent nonprofit organization; participation in its National Advertising Division is voluntary.

"While we disagree with the NAD's findings related to features that are available to users now, we appreciate the opportunity to work with them and will follow their recommendations," Apple said in a statement to the organization. Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Bottom line: Apple's getting a gentle nudge to be more careful with how it markets cutting-edge features that aren't quite ready for prime time. It's a reminder that in the race to wow consumers, the underlying technology must live up to the hype.

Apple was slower than most Big Tech firms to jump on the generative AI hype train, but it finally got there with the release of Apple Intelligence. The first components of Apple's AI rolled out last year, but it's going to take a bit longer for one of the most hotly anticipated features. After announcing that the improved Siri was delayed until 2026, Apple has reportedly begun an uncharacteristic reorganization of its executive ranks.

The new report from Bloomberg claims that Apple hopes to get its AI-backed Siri efforts back on track after months of delays. The updated assistant is supposed to leverage on-device data to improve personal context to make interactions more natural and work across apps. CEO Tim Cook has apparently become dissatisfied with John Giannandrea, the company's AI head. Apple leadership discussed the lagging Siri AI features at length during a recent summit, and the result is that Giannandrea will no longer be overseeing Siri development.

In the coming days, Apple is expected to tell employees that Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell will be stepping in to take over development of the next-gen Siri. This will remove Apple's troubled virtual assistant completely from Giannandrea's oversight, leaving him to work on AI research and testing initiatives. Apple's Vision Products Group, which is responsible for developing the company's VR headsets, will be managed by Rockwell deputy Paul Meade going forward.

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• iPhone sales have flatlined for a decade, and Siri has sucked for about as long.
• And yet, Apple has added roughly trillions of dollars in market value during that time.
• It's time to think of Apple as more like a utility.

It's time to think differently about Apple.

The company is becoming a utility, which is hard for fanboys to accept, though it's not all bad.

The iPhone has become the standard tool for accessing online data and running our lives. Most owners don't care about cutting-edge AI or the latest speedy chip. They just need the device to keep working.

Apple fans have been aflutter lately over the company's decision to postpone new AI features, with some analysts predicting lower iPhone sales as a result.

That may be important for a tiny fraction of customers, such as Apple bloggers and the odd person who absolutely needs the latest and greatest iPhone. For everyone else, we don't care. We mostly want the battery to last all day, our apps to run, our texts to go through, and a camera to just work. This can be done with any iPhone, and it doesn't need AI.

Similar to an electric utility, we rely on the iPhone a lot. Most of us don't think about it passionately until something goes wrong. That's usually the battery degrading. Or when Apple updates the operating system, and a few older iPhones no longer work. Or you damage it beyond repair, or it gets stolen.

This drives an iPhone upgrade cycle that has become incredibly powerful and has little to do with fancy new AI features. Eventually, every one of the roughly 1.5 billion iPhones out there will have to be replaced.

"300 million iPhones have not upgraded in over four years," Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote recently in an email to Business Insider. "That's a lot of pent-up demand."

This is the main driver of iPhone sales now. It's not that sexy, and it's not high growth. Instead, it's big and steady, like a utility.

The chart above, based on data compiled by Dan Morgan, a portfolio manager at Synovus, shows that iPhone sales have flatlined for a decade.

That seems bad. However, Apple shares have soared sevenfold in the last decade, massively outperforming the broader stock market. It's the most valuable public company in the world. By a lot.

During that same time, Siri — Apple's main AI offering — has sucked pretty hard. How much did that derail the iPhone upgrade train? Not much, judging by the data above.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

Why Warren Buffett likes utilities and Apple

Warren Buffett, a massive utility investor, remains one of Apple's largest shareholders. In his latest letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, he listed Apple alongside other unsexy, non-AI companies, such as American Express, Coca-Cola, and Moody's.

He seems blissfully uninterested in the latest whizz-bang Apple technology and how that might help sell more iPhones in a given quarter.

"The idea that spending loads of time trying to guess how many iPhone X or whatever are going to be sold in a given three-month period, to me, it totally misses the point," Buffett said in 2018.

Buffett likes Apple for similar reasons he loves utilities and other vaguely boring, profitable companies. Many people need what these companies sell, which helps them generate large, reliable returns — including juicy dividends.

'Panic' on the streets of Silicon Valley

Electricity. Water. An iPhone. These are essential ingredients for modern life. Without them, things can get difficult quickly. Take my family's experience as an example.

My wife's iPhone was stolen last year. She only waited a few hours before driving to the nearest Apple store to hand over almost $1,000 for a replacement. She described the thought of existing without an iPhone as "panic."

First up: She used two-factor authentication via her iPhone to access sensitive work documents. She couldn't work without a new Apple device. (She's added a backup now. Guess what it is? An iPad!)

Then, a long list of other practical tasks revealed themselves to be difficult without an iPhone: Booking an exercise class, texting a group of friends, keeping streaks going on mobile games, and accessing the iPhone's digital wallet for tickets she needed soon.

My daughter broke her iPhone beyond repair last year. She experienced similar panic and bought a replacement from Apple within 24 hours.

She uses a mobile app on her iPhone to authenticate and access her college accounts for submitting homework and doing other study-related stuff. She also had a plane to catch and was worried about not having the digital ticket.

My wife and daughter both worried about the data on their iPhones and thought it would be safer and easier to get a new iPhone to reclaim this digital information.

This year, my iPhone SE's battery started running low, and I struggled to hear people well on phone calls. These problems were fixable and probably related to user error. I could have gotten a new battery from Apple, for instance, yet I just could not be bothered. So I bought a new iPhone 16e. It was so easy, and my life was uninterrupted. I did not think about AI once during this process.

Android switching doesn't really happen anymore

My wife, my daughter, and I did not ever once consider getting an Android phone instead. For many non-technical consumers, switching is too complex.

My wife knew her stolen iPhone was backed up in Apple's iCloud, so getting the same device again made the replacement process much quicker and smoother.

"I knew that if I bought another one, it would be as painless as possible to access my photos, wallet, apps, contacts, etc," she told me. "I was already pained by the stolen iPhone. Switching to Android at that moment made no sense. I'd have been breaking myself into jail."

A 2023 study by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimated that only about 4% of Android phone buyers switched from an iPhone. The authors wrote that a big reason was "fear of the complexity of switching."

"There's not a lot of iOS-to-Android switching," said Josh Lowitz, a partner at CIRP. "Switching between platforms is not that difficult, but the habits and iOS-specific apps and connections are hard to leave."

This is why a year or so of delay in AI features won't matter much. When everyone's iPhone stops working, they will buy another, with or without AI.

So we should watch: How many old iPhones will Apple stop supporting? The company does an amazing job keeping these devices running for years. But after a certain point, the hardware just can't keep up.

That's when some handsets are dropped from iOS. Later this year, probably in September, Apple will do this again, and millions of people will have to pay to upgrade — just like I have to keep paying PG&E to pump electricity and natural gas into my house. 

All is not lost

This is a long way from the cutting-edge technology that Apple fanboys love to nerd out about. There hasn't been much to get excited about lately on that front. Apple scrapped its car project. The Vision Pro mixed-reality goggles have flopped so far. And now, these AI delays show how far Apple lags behind Google, Meta, and OpenAI.

All is not lost, though. If Apple were a true utility, regulators would cap what it charges customers, which would probably crush the stock.

Instead, Apple can charge what it wants for iPhones. Take the latest example. The cheapest version of the new iPhone 16e costs $170 more than the last entry-level iPhone, the SE. That's 40% inflation in the base cost to access your digital life.

"Without a new iPhone SE, current iPhone SE owners will likely hold on to their phones a little longer," said CIRP's Lowitz. "When they need to get a new phone, they will likely buy the most affordable new iPhone."

What an incredible business. No wonder Apple has become the world's most valuable company — with or without AI.

• Apple was late to AI. But this past spring, it said it was catching up and promised all kinds of AI features.
• Many of those have yet to materialize, and close Apple watchers are wondering whether Apple will ever deliver them.
• Maybe Apple eventually shrugs this off. But when people like John Gruber, an Apple blogger, are publicly shaming the company, you know something's up.

Do you remember when Apple told the world it was going to bring artificial intelligence to its phones, which would allow them to do all kinds of amazing things?

That was June. And, it turns out, a bunch of the stuff Apple promised was coming has yet to show up, and now may not show up for some time — if ever.

If you're a normal person, you probably don't care about this. But for close Apple watchers and Apple fans, this has become an increasingly big problem: It's making them wonder whether Apple made a distinctly un-Apple-like mistake last year, by showing off stuff it doesn't know how to deliver.

And that has them worrying about the state of Apple itself.

That crisis of faith materialized most prominently on Wednesday, via a blistering post from John Gruber, an influential Apple blogger. The title gets right at it: "Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino."

Gruber's argument boiled down: Apple hasn't shipped the most consequential features it showed off in June — like the ability for the phone to sift through your emails and texts, and to tell you when your mom is arriving at the airport. More worrisome is Gruber's belief that Apple doesn't actually know how to deliver that kind of feature, and that what it showed off in the spring was mere "vaporware" — perhaps the most damning thing you can say about an Apple product.

Even more worrisome: It wasn't just that Apple showed this stuff off at a developer conference — it has been telling normal people that these features are coming soon, via an ad campaign it has now shelved.

Add it all up, Gruber said, and it points to a deep malaise at the company — one he says is ultimately a problem for CEO Tim Cook. If Cook can't figure it out immediately, Gruber argued, "then, I fear, that's all she wrote. The ride is over."

"When mediocrity, excuses, and bulls—t take root, they take over," he said. "A culture of excellence, accountability, and integrity cannot abide the acceptance of any of those things, and will quickly collapse upon itself with the acceptance of all three."

Gruber isn't the only one worried about the state of Apple's AI efforts. Earlier this week, Ben Thompson, an analyst, noted the delays and concluded, "It appears Apple tried to do too much all at once."

These critiques have been building for some time: In November, Marques Brownlee, a hyperpopular tech reviewer, assessed the AI features that Apple had rolled out by then and was unimpressed. "Apple's made this promise that this huge thing is coming," he said. "I think that promise is starting to fade."

I've asked Apple for comment.

Does any of this matter in the real world? Maybe. Apple's stock is down 10% this week, double the decline that the broader Nasdaq has seen. Of course, there are other reasons for investors to be concerned about Apple — namely, the specter of a trade war that could dramatically increase costs for Apple's supply chain, which is highly dependent on China.

That said: A year ago, Google was in the middle of what seemed like an existential crisis as it stumbled through its own AI rollout — you may recall embarrassing "woke" results from its Gemini chatbot or equally embarrassing answers about putting glue on your pizza. But Google kept at it, and for better or worse, Google now gives you AI-generated answers much of the time, whether you want them or not.

It's also possible that Apple can simply sidestep this problem entirely by leaving the AI to companies that spent a gazillion dollars chasing AI and focusing on what Apple does really well: making high-end hardware at scale.

Analysts are excited about new Apple devices — like a newly released desktop PC that's supposed to work really well with the computing demands state-of-the-art AI requires.

"Apple doesn't need to have its own industry-leading AI s—t. Not right now at least. That'd be great if they did, but it's fine if they don't," Gruber told me via email.

"What Apple has are the best platforms to use AI from anyone. Best phone to use ChatGPT is iPhone. Best phone to use Claude or Perplexity is iPhone. ChatGPT has a fantastic native Mac app. Even Google makes a really good Gemini app for iPhone… Apple should be hammering that."

What's a bit strange is that "Apple makes good hardware for other people's AI" was, in fact, a major component of Apple's AI pitch last year, and people like Thompson thought that was quite smart.

"Having an interface for the folks that want to spend billions of dollars to do these huge large language models, to plug in and sort of take it or leave it — it's Apple leveraging their position of being the trusted device in people's lives, and getting everyone to dance to their tune," he told me in the spring.

Could Apple just focus on that version of AI, instead of trying to play catch-up to everyone else? It would be very unlike Apple to pull an about-face and announce that a very big thing they promised was never going to happen. It's also very unlike Apple to get this kind of grief from some of its biggest fans.

• Apple was among the first to release a digital assistant when it introduced Siri in 2011.
• It has struggled to capitalize on the headstart it had.
• Fresh delays in upgrading Siri have set Apple back at a time when AI assistants are the rage.

It was 2011. The newest iPhone on the block was the 4s. And Apple was raring to introduce the world to a major acquisition it had been readying for over a year: Siri.

Bought for an undisclosed sum, the "intelligent assistant" meant Apple was among the first to show smartphone users why they would want or need an AI-powered voice companion in their pocket.

Fast-forward to 2025, and Apple's promises for Siri look uncertain. The voice assistant that should have given it a headstart in the ChatGPT era is struggling to catch up to a pack of rivals leading with far more powerful AI assistants.

In other words, Apple is falling behind in a race it originally led.

Siri hit by delays

Last week, Apple confirmed that it was delaying generative AI features for Siri that were first shown off at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2024. It's a rare instance in which Apple no longer has a clear release date in sight for a product it has already announced.

Jacqueline Roy, an Apple spokesperson, told the unofficial Apple blog Daring Fireball that "it's going to take us longer than we thought to deliver" on upgraded features that transform Siri into a "more natural, more contextually relevant, and more personal" experience.

This has all caused some degree of embarrassment for Apple. Its marketing campaigns for a slate of new devices released over the past several months — including iPhones, iPads, and Macs — consistently mentioned their synchronicity with Apple Intelligence, which Siri is a fundamental part of.

It helps explain why the company has now made a September ad, which stars the actor Bella Ramsey using a Siri feature that does not yet exist, private on its YouTube channel.

"The delay makes a lot of sense," Hamish Low, an analyst at Enders Analysis, told Business Insider. "Apple clearly got ahead of itself with Apple Intelligence with disappointing features, awkward marketing campaigns, and tepid consumer demand. Apple's position here is ultimately defensive, it has much more to lose than to gain from the AI race."

Rivals overtake Siri

Though Apple said it anticipates rolling out the features "in the coming year," its Apple Intelligence upgrade delays — a tool it once pinned its future on — signals how much of an issue Siri has become at a time when rival services are flourishing.

As companies have spent more time thinking about how to make generative AI useful to consumers, a series of Siri alternatives that embed powerful features have emerged — all while Apple struggles to deliver on all the promises it made for a generative AI-led Siri.

OpenAI and Google have leaned heavily on building AI-powered voice assistants that industry followers say offer a more natural and engaging conversational experience than the one users currently get with Apple.

Amazon, another early mover in the virtual assistant space, introduced a revamped version of Alexa last month that's free for Prime subscribers. Prominent Apple followers, such as Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, have described it as "ChatGPT Voice Mode on steroids."

As he put it on X last month, "It is frightening how far behind Apple is in this space."

"Alexa+ is notable for at least claiming to bring much of the advanced functionality that you would want from a real AI assistant," Low said. "We will need to see how far it lives up to this with its public launch later this month, but its ability to plug into a host of APIs, and directly access and interact with websites in the background otherwise, is key."

The stakes are high if Apple fails to get Siri right.

The generative AI age has introduced consumers to a growing assortment of AI-enabled smartphones that threaten to steal market share by offering AI features that offer more value.

Threat to market share has become a key issue for the company in places like China, where it is facing fierce competition from local competitors introducing smartphones with AI capabilities that aim to win over local audiences.

Apple's dilemma is clear. It is behind in a race that it entered nearly 15 years ago — with a headstart over many rivals — when it introduced Siri as an integrated feature of the iPhone 4s.

Its turnaround plan for Siri has plenty riding on it.

Apple announced this week that the “more personalized” version of Siri that it promised last year has been delayed — and according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, that’s also postponed the launch of the company’s planned smart home hub. In a statement, Apple said the upgraded Siri features, which are part of its broader Apple Intelligence […]

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• Apple said it's delaying its AI-powered Siri overhaul, which is now expected in the coming year.
• The Siri upgrade was announced in 2024 and promised a more personalized and capable virtual assistant.
• It's rare for Apple to delay a product once it's already been announced.

You can probably count on one hand the number of times Apple has publicly announced a product delay.

But Apple did just that on Friday, announcing that its plan for an AI overhaul to its virtual assistant, Siri, is taking longer than expected.

"It's going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year," Jacqueline Roy, a company spokesperson, told the unaffiliated Apple blog Daring Fireball about the "more personalized" Siri.

It's not the first time Apple has delayed a product after announcing it, but it's a rare occurrence.

In 2016, AirPods were expected to go on sale in October, but Apple delayed the release until December. Before that, in 2011, the white iPhone 4 was released 10 months after the black model, as Daring Fireball author John Gruber wrote in his blog post about the delay.

And on one extremely rare occasion, Apple outright canceled a product after showing it off.

After its AirPower wireless charging mat was announced in 2017 with an expected 2018 launch, Apple confirmed that it was no longer in the works, apologizing to customers and saying that it had determined that the product would "not achieve our high standards."

When Apple Intelligence was first announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference 2024, the tech giant highlighted an AI-powered Siri that could answer users' more complex questions using personal context.

As AI features came to iOS 18 beginning in October, Apple said to expect new languages this spring, but it didn't specify exactly when the new Siri would be ready. There have been some smaller tweaks to Siri since 2024, including ChatGPT integration, the ability to type out questions to Siri, and a more conversational assistant.

In September — ahead of the iPhone 16 release — Apple published an ad featuring the actor Bella Ramsey to demonstrate the "more personal" Siri's ability to pull information from the Calendar app to help Ramsey remember someone's name.

Now, it looks as if the highly anticipated upgrade won't arrive on iPhones until 2026 or the next generation of its iOS operating system.

Apple is delaying the rollout of the “more personalized Siri” experience it promised as part of its rollout of Apple Intelligence. According to a statement from the tech giant published on Friday by Apple blog Daring Fireball, the company admits it will “take us longer than we thought to deliver” on these new Siri features. […]

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As more people turn to AI chatbots like ChatGPT to look things up on the internet, the way companies approach their online presence has to change. Scrunch AI wants to help enterprises better prepare for a world in which more AI bots and agents visit their website than humans do. Scrunch AI says its platform […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Apple is struggling to rebuild Siri for the age of generative AI, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who says the company might not release “a true modernized, conversational version of Siri” until iOS 20 comes out in 2027. That doesn’t mean there won’t be big Siri updates before then. A new version Siri will reportedly […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Amazon and Apple are struggling to put generative AI technology in their digital assistants — Alexa and Siri, respectively — according to a pair of reports that came out on Friday. Amazon hoped to release its new Alexa during an event in New York on February 26. Now Amazon plans to delay the release of […]

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• Apple agreed to settle a Siri privacy lawsuit that alleged privacy violations.
• The plaintiffs said Siri recorded private conversations when unintentionally activated and shared them with third parties.
• Apple denied wrongdoing as the settlement awaits court approval.

Have you ever had a private conversation, glanced at your iPhone or Apple Watch, and realized Siri had been accidentally activated? You might be entitled to a small payout.

Apple agreed to a $95 million cash payout to settle a proposed class action lawsuit alleging privacy violations tied to the Siri voice assistant.

Plaintiffs said the alleged privacy violations took place over a 10-year period from September 2014 to December 31, beginning when Apple introduced the "Hey, Siri" voice activation feature.

The lawsuit alleges Apple recorded snippets of private and confidential conversations when Siri was unintentionally activated, which were then shared with third parties, such as human reviewers and advertisers.

The company has denied any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

After The Guardian reported in 2019 that Apple contractors frequently overheard portions of private conversations while reviewing Siri recordings for quality control, Apple issued a rare apology and announced changes to how it graded user interactions with the voice assistant.

"As a result of our review, we realize we haven't been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologize," the company said in 2019.

The class-action lawsuit was filed against Apple in the wake of The Guardian's report.

Eligible class members, estimated to be in the tens of millions, can receive up to $20 per Siri-enabled device, according to a preliminary settlement filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

The proposed settlement defines eligible class members as "all individual current or former owners or purchasers of a Siri Device, who reside in the United States and its territories." They also must be willing to declare under oath that Apple recorded their confidential conversations while Siri was inadvertently activated.

The size of each individual payout will fluctuate depending on how many eligible Siri-enabled devices they own and how many total claimants there are.

Under the proposed settlement, Apple would be required to publish a webpage to explain how users can opt-in to improve Siri and what information will be stored. Additionally, Apple would have to confirm that it has permanently deleted individual audio recordings from Siri collected before October 2019.

It's now up to US District Judge Jeffrey White to approve the settlement. Lawyer fees for the plaintiffs could cost Apple an additional $28.5 million and another $1.1 million for litigation expenses, according to the court documents.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Insider.

Siri was first introduced in 2011 with the iPhone 4S. The tech giant is "entering a new era" of a more personal and conversational AI-powered Siri. With the help of OpenAI's ChatGPT, the revamped Siri can handle more complex requests.

The new Siri can use AI to have "on-screen awareness" and "personal context understanding," Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, during the "Glowtime" event in September 2024.

The overhauled Siri is expected to be rolled out in full next year.

Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that its voice assistant Siri routinely recorded private conversations that were then shared with third parties and used for targeted ads.

In the proposed class-action settlement—which comes after five years of litigation—Apple admitted to no wrongdoing. Instead, the settlement refers to "unintentional" Siri activations that occurred after the "Hey, Siri" feature was introduced in 2014, where recordings were apparently prompted without users ever saying the trigger words, "Hey, Siri."

Sometimes Siri would be inadvertently activated, a whistleblower told The Guardian, when an Apple Watch was raised and speech was detected. The only clue that users seemingly had of Siri's alleged spying was eerily accurate targeted ads that appeared after they had just been talking about specific items like Air Jordans or brands like Olive Garden, Reuters noted (claims which remain disputed).

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