iOS 27: Everything you need to know about the latest iPhone update announced at WWDC

As it’s done for the past several years, Apple previewed the next version of its iOS operating system during its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday. The new update, iOS 27, includes a range of new features and tune-ups for the company’s iPhone software. Here’s a rundown of what to expect.

For one, Apple is giving the visual design of its platforms a bit of a change. While the overall look isn’t massively different from the current version of iOS, the sweeping “Liquid Glass” redesign the company introduced last year can now be customized to be look less transparent through an adjustable slider. Sidebars in apps will now expand to the full edge of an app’s window, while sidebar icons will retain their color. (The lack of the latter was a common user complaint with the original version of Liquid Glass.) Certain app icons will have new Liquid Glass-inspired touches as well.

The company is also promising improved responsiveness and overall performance with the update. Apps, file transfers, content and features like AirDrop should all load faster, while system animations should be smoother. Apple says new captures in the Photos app can load up to 70 percent quicker than before, for example. The company has also rebuilt its search infrastructure to be more efficient and comprehensive.

AirPods owners are getting a new custom EQ feature that makes it easier to adjust how the wireless earbuds sound. The cycle tracking feature in the Health app, meanwhile, now has menopause and perimenopause support.

Perhaps the headline feature of iOS 27 is an overhauled version of Siri, which is Apple is calling Siri AI. In general, this is Apple’s stab at transforming Siri from a simpler voice assistant to a wider-ranging AI companion that’s more in line with OpenAI‘s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini. The company first promised a Siri revamp along these lines two years ago, but after multiple delays, some internal shuffling and the release of other (oft-derided) AI features under the “Apple Intelligence” banner, it’s now ready to ship a more AI-infused version of its assistant to the public.

Siri Ai (and Apple Intelligence as a whole) can tap into your emails, messages, photos, calendar items, notes, contacts and other personal data across your devices and Apple account in an attempt to provide more contextually-relevant help. It can also recognize and respond to information currently shown on your phone’s screen, as well as complete more involved actions in and across apps.

All of this allows the assistant to perform deeper, multi-step tasks and pull up specific information using natural language requests. If you’re looking at a photo of a landmark in Instagram, for instance, you could just ask “where is this?” and it’ll bring up an answer. You could also tell it to “show me photos from my trip last weekend,” and it’ll pull out the corresponding pics from the Photos app. You can also combine multiple commands in a single request. Apple has tweaked Siri’s voice to make it sound more expressive as well.

Siri AI is based in the Dynamic Island, which is the pill-shaped cutout at the top of an iPhone’s display. A new dark-colored animation replaces the glowing swirl that’s show at the bottom or edges of the phone if you call on Siri today. Answers are presented in card-like bubble interface. You can still access the assistant by saying “Hey Siri” or pressing the side button on your phone, and you can now ask follow-up questions directly from the new UI via voice or text. Swiping down from the center of the screen will let you access Siri AI as well.

On top of its system-level integration, Siri will also be available through a new standalone app. Much like the apps for ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, this lets you ask questions and chat with Siri in a conversational manner. You can view past conversations through a list or card-based grid with short summaries, and your chats will sync across devices through iCloud.

There’s a new Siri mode in the Camera app as well, through which Siri can recognize objects and present follow-up actions. You can take a photo of a receipt from a restaurant, for example, then divide the bill to split it with friends using the Apple Cash service.

There are a few new options for editing photos with AI as well: “Extend” lets you fill out a photo with generated image content beyond the original frame when you adjust the crop, while “Spatial reframing” lets you change the perspective of a 3D spatial photo — the kind you might view on a Vision Pro headset — after it’s shot. Apple also promises an improved “Clean Up” feature that’s designed to let you remove photobombers and other distracting elements from a pic.

Apple says it is still taking a privacy-conscious approach to AI, with the company’s Craig Federighi calling it “non-negotiable” during its keynote. The company stressed that user data will only be used to execute your request, and that it won’t be accessible to Apple or anyone else.

The overhauled Siri is built on Google’s Gemini models instead of relying on in-house models from Apple. The two firms announced a multi-year partnership earlier this year.

The iOS 27 update will be available on iPhones dating all the way back to the iPhone 11, so devices that support the current iOS 26 will be good to go. Siri AI, meanwhile, will only be available in English to start, with more languages promised in the future.

This is a developing story.

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