Macworld

Apple has officially unveiled the new features coming to compatible iPhones running iOS 27 later this year, introducing major Apple Intelligence upgrades, changes to Siri, parental controls enhancements and improvements across core iPhone apps.

iOS 27 is currently available as a beta test version for developers and public testers. The software has been going through several months of testing before its full public release – which is likely to happen in the next few weeks. Apple typically launches new versions of iOS in September, often around the second week – making Monday, September 14 a likely release date based on past patterns.

iOS 27 will be supported on every iPhone all the way back to iPhone 11 and iPhone SE 2, though some Apple Intelligence and Siri related features will only be available on newer iPhones.

This hub contains everything Apple has confirmed will be coming in iOS 27 when it launches, including new features, compatible iPhones, beta release information, Apple Intelligence updates and what’s new for Siri.

What’s New in iOS 27 at a Glance
  • Siri AI: Apple’s new Siri AI combines personal context, onscreen awareness and web knowledge to deliver more natural conversations, richer answers, app actions and cross-device chat history.
  • Apple Intelligence across apps: Apple Intelligence expands across Safari, Photos, Messages, Mail, Calendar, Home and Shortcuts, adding smarter suggestions, automation, image generation and context-aware assistance.
  • Smarter Photos editing: Photos gains Spatial Reframing, Extend and an upgraded Clean Up tool, allowing users to improve composition, expand images and remove distractions more naturally.
  • Child safety and parental controls: New parental controls include Ask to Browse, Time Allowances, app schedules and enhanced Communication Safety tools designed to give parents more control.
  • Safari and productivity upgrades: Safari can organise tabs, monitor webpages and build extensions from descriptions, while Passwords, Calendar and Shortcuts gain powerful new AI-powered capabilities.
iOS 27 release date: When will Apple release iOS 27?
  • September 2026

iOS 27 has been in beta since it was unveiled at WWDC in June, but the official version of iOS 27 will not be available to install on compatible iPhones until later in 2026.

Apple has confirmed that the iPhone launch event will take place on September 9, so we anticipate that iOS 27 will be available to download on Monday, September 14, as the iOS download usually closely follows Apple’s September event.

What is the latest iOS 27 beta?

As of September 1, iOS 27 beta 8 is now available to developers, with the public beta expected shortly.

At this late stage in the development cycle, Apple is focusing on stability rather than adding new features, with recent betas mainly delivering bug fixes, security updates, performance improvements and final polish ahead of launch.

Siri AI in iOS 27

Apple

By far the biggest upgrade coming in iOS 27 is Siri AI – Apple’s new Apple Intelligence-powered version of Siri. Apple says it is more personal, conversational and capable than the current assistant, with support for natural follow-up questions, personal context, onscreen awareness and up-to-date information from the web.

Siri AI features

  • More natural conversations: Siri AI can understand open-ended questions, follow-up requests and more complex natural language, making interactions feel less like issuing simple voice commands.
  • Personal context: Siri can draw on information stored in Messages, Mail, Photos and Notes to find details and answer questions. For example, you could ask it to find information buried in an old email or message.
  • Onscreen awareness: Siri can understand what you’re viewing and act on it, such as saving an address from a message, adding an event to Calendar or answering questions about an article.
  • Camera intelligence: A new Siri Camera mode lets you show Siri something through the iPhone’s camera, then ask questions or perform actions based on what it sees.
  • More capable app actions: Siri can perform tasks within apps such as Messages, Music and Reminders. It can, for example, edit a recently sent message, add a song to a playlist or handle more complex Apple Music requests.
  • Better general knowledge and web answers: Siri can use information from the web to answer questions about recent events and tackle more specific or complicated queries than before.
  • Conversation history across devices: A dedicated Siri app lets users revisit previous conversations, pin important chats and continue conversations across Apple devices using iCloud syncing.
  • More natural Siri voices: Siri gains more expressive voices, with controls on compatible devices for adjusting speaking pace and expressiveness. Voice customisation requires an iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone Air or newer.
  • Improved dictation: Better speech recognition, automatic punctuation, capitalisation and formatting allow users to dictate more naturally when converting speech into text.
  • AI-assisted message replies: Siri can compose contextual replies in Messages using the conversation, personal information and web searches. Shortcuts can also automate replies to selected contacts, although manual Siri-assisted replies allow users to check and edit the response before it is sent.

For more Siri AI message replies read about what happened when we made Siri AI Answer all our Messages.

How good is Siri AI?

Siri AI represents a significant improvement over the old Siri, particularly when handling conversational questions, current information and personal context.

Early testing suggests it can deal with far more complicated requests than Siri previously could. Apple Music is a good example: Siri can identify very specific groups of songs, create playlists and combine music knowledge with reasoning.

It could therefore become one of the biggest reasons to upgrade to iOS 27, potentially changing Siri from a basic voice-command system into a more general way of interacting with the iPhone.

However, Siri AI is still in beta. Testing has revealed server failures, incorrect answers, weak reasoning and unexplained limitations, so its usefulness will depend heavily on how much Apple improves reliability before release.

Apple’s approach to AI safety also appears more restrained than some rival chatbots, with Siri designed to avoid excessive flattery, pretending to be human or responding inappropriately to potentially harmful requests.

When will Siri AI launch?

Apple says iOS 27 arrives in autumn 2026, but Siri AI does not yet have a specific public release date. Apple currently says the new Siri will launch in English later in 2026.

Regional Siri AI availability

Siri AI will not initially be available on iPhone or iPad in the EU. It will also remain unavailable in China while Apple works through regulatory issues.

Siri AI compatibility

Some Siri AI features have more demanding hardware requirements than others. In particular, Apple’s new Siri voice customisation controls require an iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone Air or newer.

Apple Intelligence across apps

As well as Siri AI, the enhanced Apple Intelligence will also power new AI-powered features in Apple’s core apps throughout iOS 27. Safari will organise tabs into topics, monitor webpages for changes and even build extensions from natural-language descriptions. Photos is set to gain a new Spatial Reframing edit tools including and an upgraded Clean Up feature. Messages, Mail and Calendar will be able to understand context, suggest actions and create events from simple descriptions.

New features coming to apps in iOS 27

iOS 27 brings a mix of major Apple Intelligence upgrades and smaller quality-of-life improvements across Safari, Photos, Messages, AirPods, Passwords, Wallet and other core iPhone apps. Apple is also making iOS more adaptable to different screen sizes and orientations, changes that appear to be laying some of the groundwork for its expected folding iPhone.

Safari

Safari will automatically group tabs into topics, making related pages easier to find. A new Notify Me feature will monitor webpages and alert you to changes such as price drops or products coming back into stock.
Apple is also adding Describe an Extension, which lets users create custom Safari extensions simply by explaining what they want the extension to do.


Apple

Photos

Photos gains significantly more powerful AI editing tools.

Spatial Reframing/Reframe can alter the composition and perspective of an existing photo, while Extend generates new image content beyond the original frame when straightening a horizon or changing the aspect ratio.

Apple

Clean Up has also been improved, with Fast and High Quality modes for removing unwanted objects. High Quality mode can produce considerably more natural results, although more ambitious edits can still introduce distortions or invented details.

Photos also adds new categories and the ability to save a frame from a video as a full-resolution photo. The resulting HEIF or JPG retains the video’s original resolution, date and location metadata rather than simply creating a screenshot.

Camera

Apple is developing a customizable Camera interface, although it has not appeared consistently throughout the iOS 27 beta cycle. It could arrive in a later iOS 27 update.

Apple is also reportedly developing Apple Reference Image, an authentication system designed to prove that a photo or video was genuinely captured on an iPhone and has not subsequently been manipulated.

The feature would use additional metadata and Apple’s Private Cloud Compute to authenticate an image and assign it a unique ID. Its usefulness may be greatest for journalists, insurers and investigators rather than as a general solution to AI-generated imagery, particularly because authentication would be optional and social networks frequently remove metadata.

Messages

Foundry

Messages gets several useful improvements.

You can also decide what the microphone button beside the text field does. Under Settings > Apps > Messages > Show in Text Field, it can be set to Record Audio, Start Dictation or None. Disabling it does not remove either feature: dictation remains available from the keyboard and audio messages remain in the + menu.

Voice-message playback controls are easier to access, while Apple Intelligence can suggest actions based on a conversation, such as creating a reminder, making a note or finding relevant photos.

Messages will also gain smarter suggested replies that can better reflect the user’s writing style.

Drawing

Foundry

A new dedicated Drawing app replaces the old hidden handwriting interface. Accessible from the + menu, it uses the familiar pens, colours and drawing controls found in Notes and Markup, with finished drawings sent as images.

Mail

Mail gains more context-aware smart replies, including responses that can better match the user’s usual writing style.

Apple Intelligence can also surface information from Mail elsewhere in iOS. For example, the Phone app could retrieve a flight confirmation number from an email when you call an airline.

Phone

A new Call Context feature can surface information that may be useful when calling a business. Apple says the information is selected according to who you are calling rather than by listening to the conversation. For example, calling an airline could cause iOS to surface the relevant flight confirmation from Mail.

Birthday reminders can also appear when calling contacts whose birthdays are stored on the iPhone.

FaceTime

FaceTime gains Dual Capture, allowing the front and rear cameras to be used at the same time during a call.

Passwords

Passwords in iOS 27 will fix things for you.


Apple

The Passwords app will continue to warn about weak, reused and compromised credentials, but iOS 27 goes a step further by offering to fix some of them automatically.

Using Apple Intelligence, Passwords can visit supported websites, change a vulnerable password and save the replacement credentials. See: Apple got rid of my biggest password headache.

The usefulness of the feature will depend on how widely websites are supported and how well it handles obstacles such as two-factor authentication and unusual account-management interfaces.

Shortcuts

Shortcuts gains Describe a Shortcut, allowing users to create automations simply by explaining what they want to happen.

Apple Intelligence will interpret the request and assemble the appropriate actions across supported apps, potentially making Shortcuts significantly easier to use for people unfamiliar with building automations manually.

Calendar

Calendar can create or modify events from natural-language instructions.

Apple says the app can recognise contacts, locations, dates and other event details as users type, reducing the amount of information that needs to be entered manually.

Image Playground

Image Playground is becoming considerably more powerful.

Apple says it can create photorealistic images and lets users modify generated pictures simply by describing the changes they want. Individual objects can also be selected, resized or repositioned.

AI-generated images will include a SynthID watermark identifying them as synthetic content.

Wallet

Wallet can create custom passes from QR codes.

Users can add their own fields and information to the pass, and passes automatically sync to Apple Watch.

Home app

Apple Intelligence comes to the Home app for compatible HomeKit Secure Video cameras.
It can group related camera notifications, describe recorded video and highlight clips that appear particularly noteworthy.

Maps

Apple Maps improves Flyover using higher-quality aerial imagery and Visual Intelligence models.

Apple says this produces sharper architectural detail and more realistic rendering of elements such as individual trees.

Podcasts

Video podcasts become easier to use, with improved controls for switching between watching a podcast and simply listening to it.

Fitness

Workout summaries have been redesigned to make them easier to share.

Users can also hide completed Fitness+ workouts.

iOS 27 changes beyond the iPhone

CarPlay

CarPlay gains an audio scrubber, giving drivers and passengers more direct control when moving through audio tracks and other content.

AirPods

iOS 27 introduces several new AirPods features.

A new Custom EQ lets users independently adjust bass, mids and treble using a simple three-band equalizer under Settings > AirPods > Audio and Routing > Equalizer > Custom.

Compatible AirPods also gain improved Precision Finding through Find My, making individual earbuds easier to locate.

Some features require both iOS 27 and compatible AirPods firmware.

Read How to tune your AirPods with a custom EQ in iOS 27.

Other changes coming with iOS 27

It’s not only individual apps that will see changes.

Home Screen and landscape mode

Apple is making iOS significantly more flexible when dealing with different screen orientations and sizes.
More Apple apps now work properly in landscape, including Health, Home, Music, Weather and Watch. Dynamic Island and Live Activities can also adapt to landscape orientation. The Home Screen additionally supports extra-large widgets.

These changes could simply improve iPhone usability, but they also appear well suited to Apple’s expected folding iPhone, which is likely to have an unusual, wider aspect ratio.

Evidence within Apple’s software also includes new foldState and angleDegrees variables that could allow apps to respond to whether a device is folded and at what angle.

iPhone Mirroring in macOS 27 has similarly become freely resizable, with Apple apps dynamically rearranging their interfaces as the window changes shape.

Liquid Glass refinements

Apple

Apple says Liquid Glass has been refined for better readability, more uniform refraction and improved contrast. A new slider lets users adjust the look from ultraclear to fully tinted, while updated icons, toolbars, sidebars and window shapes add polish.

Ringtones, alarms and alert volume

iOS 27 finally separates several sound-volume controls.

Instead of one combined Ringtone and Alerts slider, users can independently adjust:

  • Ringtones
  • Alarms and timers
  • Alerts and system sounds

The change is optional. Under Settings > Sounds & Haptics, turning off Match Ringtone Volume reveals separate controls.

Media and call volume continue to work independently as before.

Keyboard

iOS 27 introduces a new quick-paste control above the keyboard.

It lets you paste recently copied text, images or screenshots without having to long-press inside a text field, making everyday copy-and-paste considerably faster.

Apple has also made the Liquid Glass keyboard design more consistent across apps.

Privacy and Find My

iOS 27 introduces the ability to temporarily pause Find My location sharing without notifying the person with whom the location is normally shared.

Recovery and troubleshooting

Apple is also expanding the iPhone’s recovery interface, giving users more options for diagnosing problems and recovering an iPhone without immediately connecting it to another device.

System changes and how iOS 27 will make your iPhone faster

Alongside the headline AI features, Apple says iOS 27 includes a wide range of under-the-hood improvements designed to make iPhones faster, smoother and more efficient.

Apple says apps can launch up to 30% faster, newly taken photos can appear in the Photos library up to 70% faster, and AirDrop transfers can be up to 80% quicker. External drive transfers should also improve, while updates to network performance and the system-wide search index are designed to ma