At its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple talked about the upcoming iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. Both of these are available in preview for developers today, and they’ll be in open beta for anyone to try starting next month. They will then be released to the public this fall.
The key feature for both iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 is, of course, Siri AI, the company’s long-awaited AI chatbot that’s deeply integrated into these systems with its own apps. There are also a bunch of other new AI features that Apple has grouped into “Next Generation Apple Intelligence.”
In addition to all that AI stuff, you can expect to see design refinements to Liquid Glass, including a slider you can use to choose how much transparency you want. Apple also says it has updated the UI “with more uniform refraction and better contrast,” while app icons should be sharper and more detailed.
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App launches will be up to 30% faster, new photos will load into your library up to 70% faster, and AirDrop transfers will be up to 80% faster. Network transitions between Wi-Fi and cellular data will also be smoother. There’s even a new optimized CPU scheduler to increase smoothness.
The Mail app’s Search has a new ranking system that “brings the most relevant results to the top,” Apple promises, while VoiceOver gets “new capabilities to understand the world around you.” With rich image description and action button integration, it automatically generates synced subtitles for any video, and can even translate existing captions into other languages.
iCloud Shared Albums will let friends and family using Android and Windows join in and contribute their photos, and Shared Albums will also have support for full-resolution sharing. The Maps app gets an enhanced Flyover mode, and GymKit comes to the iPhone and AirPods Pro 3, letting you connect to compatible gym devices.
iPadOS 27 will let you play any set of photos and videos as a slideshow, with options for duration, transition style, and music, and you can even save it as a video in your library if you want. Missed message notifications and unread counts sync faster and more reliably across your iPad, and you can add and edit events in your calendar simply by describing them. Finally, browsing and transferring files from iPad to external drives is five times faster.