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iOS 27: Release date, Beta, compatible iPhones and all new features

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 whats new for Siri. Whats New in iOS 27 at a Glance Siri AI : Apples 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 Apples 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 Apples 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 youre 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 iPhones 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. Apples 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, Apples 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 Apples 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 videos 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 Apples 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 users 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 users 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 Its 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 Apples expected folding iPhone, which is likely to have an unusual, wider aspect ratio. Evidence within Apples 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 iPhones 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 make connectivity and finding information faster. The company has also reworked core technologies including CPU scheduling, display performance and processing efficiency. These changes should benefit older iPhones in particular, with Apple promising smoother performance and more efficient battery use on devices as old as the iPhone 11 and second-generation iPhone SE. Our testing of the iOS 27 beta supports those claims. On an iPhone 11 Pro Max, Camera launch time fell from 0.98 seconds in iOS 26 to 0.65 seconds in iOS 27, while Maps improved from 3.01 seconds to 1.36 seconds. Everyday use also feels smoother, with more fluid animations, unlocking, Control Center and app transitions. The phone ran cooler during testing too, which could point to improved system efficiency and potentially better battery performance. More broadly, iOS 27 appears focused on refinement rather than simply adding new features. Apple says it has addressed dozens of common user frustrations, while changes such as more adjustable Liquid Glass effects are intended to improve readability and general usability. That focus should make iOS 27 particularly worthwhile for owners of older iPhones, even on models that do not support Siri AI. Those devices still gain performance improvements alongside features such as clipboard tools for the keyboard, independent alarm and timer volume controls, custom Wallet passes, Photos changes, larger widgets and Liquid Glass refinements. Child safety and parental controls Apple There are lots of improvements coming to parental controls, including new time allowances for entertainments, games, and social media, and new schedule tools for different times of day or days of the week. This includes new features like an expansion of the existing ask to buy feature for apps to websites. Before a child can view a new website, theyll have to ask for permission. Ask to Browse : Ask to Browse will expand the current Ask to Buy fetaure to the web. Apple says children will need to request permission before visiting new websites, and parents can review requests in Messages before approving. Communication Safety : Communication Safety will continue to help protect children from viewing or sharing nudity in Messages, FaceTime and other apps. Apple says it will also intervene before children see gore or violent content in shared images and videos. Time Allowances and schedules : Parents will be able to set Time Allowances across categories such as Entertainment, Games and Social Media. Recommendations are based on a childs age combined with guidance from clinical and child development experts. Schedules let parents choose which apps are available at different times or on different days. Redesigned Screen Time : Screen Time will get a redesigned interface with an at-a-glance view of average device usage and most-used apps. Apple says parents can quickly limit or extend access in the moment. Child accounts and family safety : Apple says child accounts remain central to age-appropriate protections. Parents can manage app access, web access, communication permissions and Screen Time settings. Apple says it is working with the American Academy of Pediatrics to adapt its Family Media Plan. Accessibility changes coming in iOS 27 Accessibility features will be smarter and more intuitive in iOS 27: VoiceOver will get richer image descriptions and better understanding of onscreen content. Live Recognition will let users press the Action button to ask questions about their surroundings and receive detailed responses. Voice Control will become more intuitive, allowing users to describe onscreen buttons and controls rather than remembering exact labels or numbers. Accessibility Reader will be able to handle more complex source material and provide summaries and translation. iOS 27 compatibility iPhone 11 is supported by iOS 27. Roman Loyola/IDG According to Apple, iOS 27 supports iPhones back to the iPhone 11 and second-generation iPhone SE, although some Apple Intelligence and Siri AI features require newer hardware. Support for iOS 27 does not mean every device gets every feature. Apple Intelligence requires an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 or later, while the most advanced on-device AI models require an iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone Air. On iPad, Apple Intelligence requires an M1-class model or the A17 Pro iPad mini, while the newest on-device models require an M4 iPad with at least 12GB of RAM. There had been speculation that the iPhone 11 series and iPhone SE 2 would miss out on iOS 27 after leaker Instant Digital claimed on Weibo that the 2019 iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, along with the 2020 iPhone SE 2, would no longer be supported. That prediction proved incorrect, giving those models at least one more year of software support. However, the iPhone 11 generation is nearing the end of its support life. As we explain in our guide to how long Apple supports iPhones , the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max have already been added to Apples Vintage iPhone list . The iOS 27 compatibility list is: iPhone 17e (launched in 2026 ) iPhone 17 , 17 Pro / 17 Pro Max (launched in 2025 ) iPhone Air (launched in 2025 ) iPhone 16e (launched in 2025 ) iPhone 16 / 16 Plus and iPhone 16 Pro / 16 Pro Max (launched in 2024 ) iPhone 15 / 15 Plus and iPhone 15 Pro / 15 Pro Max (launched in 2023 ) iPhone 14 / 14 Plus / 14 Pro / 14 Pro Max (launched in 2022 ) iPhone SE 3 (launched in 2022 ) iPhone 13 / 13 mini / 13 Pro / 13 Pro Max (launched in 2021 ) iPhone 12 / 12 mini / 12 Pro / 12 Pro Max (launched in 2020 ) iPhone SE 2 (launched in 2020 ) iPhone 11 / 11 Pro / 11 Pro Max (launched in 2019 ) The main dividing line for Apple Intelligence remains the iPhone 15 Pro generation: the standard iPhone 15 and all older models can run iOS 27, but they do not support Apple Intelligence. FAQ 1. When is iOS 27 coming out? Apple hasnt confirmed exactly when iOS 27 will be available to install, but it usually launches to the general public in September, or at the latest October. Once iOS 27 launches Apple will likely continue beta development to test new features that werent available at launch. 2. Should I install the iOS 27 beta? Installing a beta lets you test new features ahead of release, so you may be keen to install the beta on your iPhone, but before you do beware of the risks. For most users, the recommendation is simple: dont install the beta. Pre-release software can be unstable. Bugs, performance issues, and app incompatibility are common as Apple uses the beta period to identify and fix problems before the final version launches. If, despite our warnings, youre still eager to try the new features, be sure to make a backup of all important information, passwords, and so on. If you want to uninstall the iOS 27 beta read: How to remove an iOS beta from your iPhone. 3. Which iPhones get iOS 27? The iPhone 11 and iPhone SE 2 and newer get iOS 27. However, the new Siri voices feature requires iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro or newer.

2 Sep 2026 10:36 pm