Overview
- Apple’s developer documentation confirms that iPhone users in Japan will be able to long‑press the Side Button to open a third‑party voice assistant such as Alexa, Gemini, or ChatGPT instead of Siri.
- The feature is restricted to devices physically located in Japan with the Apple Account region set to Japan.
- Developers must opt in by adding the com.apple.developer.side-button-access.allow entitlement, creating an activate app intent, and starting an immediate audio session on launch.
- Apple says iOS 26.2 will ship in December, aligning the rollout with Japan’s Mobile Software Competition Act guidelines.
- iOS 26.2 beta 3 includes a SystemVoiceAssistant system app and Side Button strings referencing a configurable “Side Button App” and region-based eligibility messages.