Everything New in iOS 27 Beta 3

Monday July 6, 2026 3:19 pm PDT by Juli Clover

Apple is continuing to refine iOS 27 ahead of its planned September launch, and the third beta includes several new features. Siri is more customizable, there's a fun new wallpaper action, and some useful improvements to Photos and Shortcuts.

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Siri Voice

Beta 3 adds support for ‌Siri‌ voice customization on compatible devices. The customization option existed in prior betas, but it was not active. It's now usable, and you can customize the pace and expressivity of ‌Siri‌, with two base voice options available right now.

ios 27 siri voices
‌Siri‌ voice customization requires an iPhone 17 Pro or an iPhone Air because it uses on-device processing.

Live Recognition

In Accessibility, Apple added a new Live Recognition section. Live Recognition uses on-device intelligence to detect and describe things around you with the camera app. The feature is able to answer questions about what it sees, with an option to set a default question. There's also support for custom activities.

Reminders

The Reminders app has an updated icon with Liquid Glass to-do list bullets.

Photos

In the ‌Photos‌ section of the Settings app, there's a new Show Rating Controls toggle. It displays star ratings on photos and videos, and shows a rating badge on thumbnails.

Control Center

In Control Center, you can see details about your cellular connection even when connected to Wi-Fi. It shows signal strength and whether you're connected to LTE or 5G.

Shortcuts

You can now choose whether to open to the Describe a Shortcut interface or the manual Shortcuts editor when creating a new shortcut.

Wallpaper

When you swipe down into the notification center, a cutout of the subject of your wallpaper now appears first over the Home Screen or app you're using.

iOS 27 beta 3 adds a new wallpaper animation which is so smooth pic.twitter.com/8LzBOx3HMD — Aaron (@aaronp613) July 6, 2026

AirPods

The Adaptive setting on the AirPods has a slider that lets you select more transparency or more noise cancellation.

Home App

Apple clarified that Apple Intelligence features in the Home app will require a 2TB iCloud+ plan.

Maps

Apple added a tooltip to make it clearer that route preferences haven't been eliminated and can be accessed by tapping under the options interface when getting directions.

Lock Screen

The Control Center buttons on the Lock Screen now have black icons instead of white icons with some wallpaper.

5G in India

5G+ is now available in India on supported carriers.

Related Roundups: iOS 27, iPadOS 27

Top Rated Comments

DoctorKrabs

1 week ago

Wow. They went and made the horrible nonsense trash Notification Center animation apply system-wide now instead of just on the home screen. Look at the layers. This is something only Apple could do.

Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)

ItsASpider

1 week ago

The lockscreen animation still doesn't make any sense for the metaphor they're using here being a sheet of glass, and now it also just looks terrible if your wallpaper isn't optimized for this effect.

Also, various icons got design updates; the shadows are much less intense so they appear less like "black borders".

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)

chuckles235

1 week ago

Does the keyboard work or does it still just spit out typos

Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)

EM2013

1 week ago

That wallpaper animation is not smooth at all 😂

Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Dashey

1 week ago

There’s a typo, Apple Intelligence features in the Home app require 2TB Plan, not 2GB as said in the article.

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

-BigMac-

1 week ago

Apple is continuing to refine iOS 27 ahead of its planned September launch, and the third beta includes several new features. Siri is more customizable, there's a fun new wallpaper action, and some useful improvements to Photos and Shortcuts.

Siri Voice

Beta 3 adds support for Siri voice customization on compatible devices. The customization option existed in prior betas, but it was not active. It's now usable, and you can customize the pace and expressivity of Siri, with two base voice options available right now.

Siri voice customization requires an iPhone 17 Pro or an iPhone Air because it uses on-device processing.

Live Recognition

In Accessibility, Apple added a new Live Recognition section. Live Recognition uses on-device intelligence to detect and describe things around you with the camera app. The feature is able to answer questions about what it sees, with an option to set a default question. There's also support for custom activities.

Reminders

The Reminders app has an updated icon with Liquid Glass to-do list bullets.

Photos

In the Photos section of the Settings app, there's a new Show Rating Controls toggle. It displays star ratings on photos and videos, and shows a rating badge on thumbnails.

Control Center

In Control Center, you can see details about your cellular connection even when connected to Wi-Fi. It shows signal strength and whether you're connected to LTE or 5G.

Shortcuts

You can now choose whether to open to the Describe a Shortcut interface or the manual Shortcuts editor when creating a new shortcut.

Wallpaper

When you swipe down into the notification center, a cutout of the subject of your wallpaper now appears first over the Home Screen or app you're using.

iOS 27 beta 3 adds a new wallpaper animation which is so smooth pic.twitter.com/8LzBOx3HMD ('https://t.co/8LzBOx3HMD')— Aaron (@Aaronp613) July 6, 2026 ('https://x.com/aaronp613/status/2074243407233372612?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw')

AirPods

The Adaptive setting on the AirPods has a slider that lets you select more transparency or more noise cancellation.

Home App

Apple clarified that Apple Intelligence features in the Home app will require a 2GB iCloud+ plan ('https://www.macrumors.com/2026/07/06/ios-27-home-app-features-icloud/').

Maps

Apple added a tooltip to make it clearer that route preferences haven't been eliminated and can be accessed by tapping under the options interface when getting directions.

Lock Screen

The Control Center buttons on the Lock Screen now have black icons instead of white icons with some wallpaper.

5G in India

5G+ is now available ('https://x.com/apple_inte/status/2074207666218627262?s=20') in India on supported carriers.

Article Link: Everything New in iOS 27 Beta 3 ('https://www.macrumors.com/2026/07/06/ios-27-beta-3-features/')

The wallpaper effect is surely a new bug