iOS 27 introduces Siri AI, tons of new Apple Intelligence features, Liquid Glass updates, and performance improvements to make your iPhone feel faster. There are plenty of new features, but here's a list of what you should check out first.
Performance Improvements
Apple sped up a long list of features in iOS 27, and it's immediately noticeable when you download the software.
Everything feels faster than it did in iOS 26. Animations are quicker, apps launch faster, and AirDrop transfers complete faster. You'll see improvements when taking photos, opening the keyboard, using the App Library, and swapping Home Screen pages. Your iMessages between devices sync more accurately, messages won't fail to send and will be automatically retried, and your iPhone can transition more smoothly between Wi-Fi and cellular.
The majority of new features in iOS 27 require Apple Intelligence and an iPhone 15 Pro or later, but the under-the-hood improvements are available on all iPhones, so even older iPhones will feel faster. For more on what's new, we have a list of the best performance improvements in iOS 27.
Siri AI
Siri AI is the new version of Siri. It's more like ChatGPT or Claude Siri in iOS 26, with support for back-and-forth conversations. Siri AI can do a lot of what other AI chatbots can do, but unlike other AI options, Siri has private access to your messages, emails, photos, apps, and other personal data so it can complete a wider range of tasks. Siri can also search the web, so it can answer all kinds of queries.
You can activate Siri with a wake word, swipe down from the middle of your screen to type a question to Siri, chat with Siri in the Siri app, or press the side button to activate Siri.
Some examples of what Siri is now able to do:
- Create home automations with a command like lock all the doors at midnight.
- Find specific emails, messages, photos, images, links, files, and other documents people have sent to you. You can ask based on person, time, location, and more.
- Delete files, emails, photos, or messages.
- Add all items from a recipe on a website to a shopping list.
- Recommend activities, places, and restaurants you might like based on what it knows about you.
- Look at something on your screen like a website and answer questions about it.
- Answer general knowledge questions.
- Add information about people to the Contacts app when asked, like birthdays or additional phone numbers.
- Find passwords for websites and apps that are stored in the Passwords app.
For more on some of the commands you can use with Siri, we have a dedicated Siri AI guide.
Visual Intelligence
Visual Intelligence is now in the Camera app, and you can get to it by swiping to a new Siri mode that's available as an alternative to the photo and video modes.
There are new Visual Intelligence features, and Siri can do things like tell you the nutritional value of something you're about to eat, or calculate what everyone owes from an image of a receipt. We have more examples in our iOS 27 Visual Intelligence guide.
Write with Siri
Siri can generate text from scratch in iOS 27, and there's a system-wide Write with Siri feature you can get to from the keyboard. Siri can help you write, give you feedback on what you've written, change the tone or wording of your writing, and even write in your style by analyzing your emails and messages.
Your iPhone also automatically suggests grammar fixes in addition to spelling fixes.
Photos Clean Up
The Clean Up tool that removes unwanted objects from images in the Photos app is much improved in iOS 27, and it does a better job cleanly removing what you don't want and filling in what's missing more convincingly.
There are also new Extend and Reframe image tools for extending the borders of a photo using AI and changing the perspective or composition of an image.
Our full iOS 27 Photos guide goes through all of the new features.
Adjust Liquid Glass
There's a new Liquid Glass slider that lets you choose how clear or opaque you want your buttons, toolbars, and menus to be. Get to the new slider in the Settings app by choosing Appearance and then tapping on Liquid Glass.
Safari
You can create custom extensions with natural language commands in Safari, which is useful for when you want to do something specific but there isn't a good extension available. Some sample suggestions, from Apple:
- Create a citation for the current webpage and copy it to my clipboard
- Create a 3-minute focus timer for the page
- Set the minimum font size to 14pt
- Turn the page into pirate speak
- Style websites like 90s websites with bold colors and type
- Every time I open a new tab, draw me a different flower
- Highlight and show the dimensions of webpage elements when I tap on them
- Enter the design mode for a website so that I can edit the contents
Safari can also automatically organize your tabs into categories and watch a webpage and let you know if there are changes. For more, read our iOS 27 Safari guide.
Home App
Use HomeKit Secure Video cameras? They now support 2K and 4K recording. There's also a new AI feature that gives you text descriptions for what's happening in your home, and there's an option to search through videos using natural language to find something you're looking for.
The AI features require a 2TB iCloud+ plan for one camera and a higher plan for more cameras, but the 4K streaming doesn't.
For more on what's new in the Home app, check out our iOS 27 Home guide.
AirPods EQ
If you've ever wanted to adjust the sound of your AirPods, you can do so with new AirPods customization options that let you tweak mids, highs, and lows. Custom EQ is available for AirPods 4, AirPods 5, AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, and AirPods Max 2.
Shortcuts
If you find the Shortcuts app intimidating, it's easier to use in iOS 27. You can tell the Shortcuts app what you want to be able to accomplish with a shortcut, and it'll make it using AI. You can then refine it with further natural language requests, or manually edit.
More on Shortcuts is available in our Shortcuts guide.
How to Install iOS 27
You can install iOS 27 the same way any iOS update is installed. Open the Settings app, go to General, tap on Software Update, and wait for the iOS 27 update to pop up.
Apple will also send out prompts suggesting that users upgrade to the new operating system.
More iOS 27 Info
If you want to see a complete list of the features available in iOS 27, you can find that information in our full iOS 27 roundup.
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