For a company that spent the last two years getting absolutely lapped in the AI race, Apple is finally acting like it knows the game is on. The next move could quietly reshape what your iPhone actually does for you.
Apple wants AI agents and vibe coding apps on the App Store
A new report (subscription required to view) says Apple is figuring out how to officially welcome AI agent apps and vibe coding tools onto the App Store. The plan is to build a system that lets these apps do their thing without breaking Apple’s security and privacy rules, although the technical details aren’t public yet. This matters because Apple’s current rules were not built for any of this.
iPhone 15 Pro with the app store in its homepage. | Image by PhoneArena
Siri is getting a serious overhaul too
The bigger picture is that Apple is preparing Siri to compete with ChatGPT and Claude for real this time, powered by custom Gemini models from Google. We dug into the full strategy when Apple basically admitted it can’t win the AI race alone, and it should be noted that this App Store shift fits neatly into that same playbook.
The report claims Apple has started talking to app developers about plugging their apps into the new Siri so it can do things like book flights and send calendar invites. Some developers are pushing back, though, because they’re worried this becomes another way for Apple to collect commissions down the road.
However, Apple is telling them there won’t be fees during the early rollout, but isn’t ruling them out forever. Companies like Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent are reportedly already nervous about that exact thing.
Why this is a big deal for iPhone users
If this lands the way Apple wants it to, your iPhone stops being a phone that runs AI apps and starts being a phone you talk to that handles real tasks for you. That’s the whole pitch behind agentic AI, and right now Pixel and Galaxy phones are inching toward it much faster than Apple is.
Apple needs to commit before this turns into another delay
Honestly? Good. Apple sat on its hands for two years while my Pixel 10 Pro Fold got smarter every other month, and pretending otherwise was getting embarrassing.
I’m a Pixel user, so I’m not personally rushing to switch; however, I do want the iPhone to be a real competitor again because it pushes everyone else forward.
The bigger question is whether Apple can resist choking this with App Store fees the second it starts making money, because that’s exactly the move that would kill developer trust before agentic iOS even gets off the ground. WWDC kicks off June 8, so we’ll see if Apple actually commits to this plan or hedges its way through another keynote.
