Apple is set to announce iOS 27 at WWDC 2026 on June 8. Developer betas follow immediately after the keynote, a public beta lands in July, and the full release is expected in September 2026 — likely alongside the iPhone 18 lineup. Here is everything confirmed and credibly reported about what is coming.
The Big Picture: A "Stability" Update with Major New Features
Apple's primary focus with iOS 27 is quality and underlying performance. After the massive Apple Intelligence launch in iOS 18 and the sweeping Liquid Glass redesign in iOS 26, Apple engineers are going through the operating system looking for bugs to fix, bloat to cut, and performance to improve. Think of it as Apple's "Snow Leopard moment" — a refinement year. iOS 27 should make your iPhone faster, more battery-efficient, and more reliable.
That said, stability does not mean boring. Several meaningful features are arriving, particularly around Siri, the iPhone Fold, and the Camera and Photos apps.
iPhone Fold Support — Split-Screen Multitasking
One of the most significant iOS 27 changes is preparation for Apple's first foldable iPhone, expected to launch alongside the iPhone 18 in September 2026. The device will reportedly have an approximately 7.8-inch inner display and a 5.5-inch outer display. To support it, iOS 27 will introduce:
- Split-screen multitasking — run two apps side-by-side, something never possible on any iPhone before
- New windowing features specifically designed for the larger inner display
- Redesigned layouts for Apple's own apps to take advantage of the extra screen space, with third-party developers also able to adopt these layouts
Even on standard iPhones, the split-screen addition (particularly for Pro Max models) is expected to be a genuinely useful productivity upgrade.
Siri 2.0 — Completely Rebuilt
Siri receives the most dramatic overhaul in its history. According to Bloomberg, iOS 27 redesigns Siri to live inside the Dynamic Island with a new animation, replacing the glowing edge interface. When you say "Siri" or hold the power button, the assistant opens in the Dynamic Island with a dark-toned interface optimised for voice queries.
Separately, you can swipe down from the top centre of your screen to launch a "Search or Ask" interface, which surfaces Siri Suggestions, frequently used apps, recent searches, and notes.
Apple has also partnered with Google to bring Gemini models into Siri and Apple Intelligence, powering features like:
- Siri remembers past conversations — contextual memory across sessions
- Proactive suggestions — Siri can suggest you leave home early based on traffic and a calendar appointment
- AI-powered web search — a new platform designed to rival Perplexity, built into iOS
A brand new standalone Siri chatbot app is also coming — with a grid of past conversations, file and photo uploads, auto-deleting chats, and a design similar to ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. This makes Siri a proper AI assistant app, not just a voice command shortcut.
Writing Tools — Grammarly Built Into iOS
iOS 27 adds a significantly improved grammar checker to Writing Tools — described as similar to Grammarly. It appears as a translucent menu that slides up from the bottom of the screen, showing your original text alongside suggested revisions. You can accept individual suggestions, approve all changes, or ignore them. A new "Write With Siri" toggle appears at the top of the keyboard, and a "Help Me Write" button appears whenever you activate Siri inside a text field.
Natural language shortcut creation is also confirmed — instead of manually building Shortcuts actions, you can simply describe what you want the shortcut to do in plain language and Siri builds it.
Camera App — Fully Customisable
iOS 26 redesigned the Camera app from scratch. iOS 27 makes it fully customisable. A new "Add Widgets" system lets you choose which features appear in the Camera interface and where they are placed. You can configure the Camera app to match exactly how you shoot.
Visual Intelligence is also coming directly to the Camera app, and it is getting smarter — it will now be able to recognise nutrition labels and contact information directly from what you point your camera at.
AI-generated custom wallpapers are confirmed too, building on the existing Image Playground framework and appearing inside the wallpaper picker.
Photos — Three Powerful New Editing Tools
The Photos app is gaining three AI-powered editing features:
- Extend — generates image content beyond the original frame of a photo, effectively expanding the canvas
- Enhance — automatically improves a photo's quality, lighting, and colours
- Reframe — shifts perspective on spatial photos
The existing Clean Up tool is also getting "significant improvements." Apple is additionally testing natural language photo editing — describing edits in plain text — though this may not make the initial release.
Calendar, Wallet, and App Updates
Calendar is getting its biggest overhaul in years. It was originally planned for iOS 26 but was delayed and is now confirmed for iOS 27, with AI-powered scheduling and event management.
Apple Wallet gets two big new features:
- Create a Pass — scan any physical membership card, gym pass, or loyalty card and convert it to a digital pass in Wallet
- Bill splitting — photograph a restaurant receipt, assign items to different people, and generate Apple Cash payment requests automatically
Other app updates include:
- Safari — new start page with four tabs for favourites, bookmarks, reading list, and browser history
- Weather — new "Conditions" panel on the main city page showing rain, wind, and current conditions clearly
- Health — redesigned interface with improved layout and contextual insights
- AirPods — redesigned Settings UI and new pairing system
- Find My — subtle visual refresh with new tab bar icons
Liquid Glass: Tweaks, Not a Redesign
There is no major Liquid Glass redesign coming in iOS 27. Apple is, however, working on a Liquid Glass Slider — a setting that lets you finely control the intensity of the glass effect across the interface. It was started during iOS 26 development but hit engineering challenges, so whether it ships with iOS 27 is still to be confirmed.
One confirmed streamlining change: the separate search button in apps like Podcasts, Music, TV, Health, and News will be combined back into the main tab bar, simplifying navigation.
Other Notable Changes
- Notifications now slide in from the left of the screen rather than dropping from the top
- Keyboard gets a new animation where keys slide up from the bottom when the keyboard appears
- Home screen gets undo and redo controls when editing layouts
- Expanded satellite connectivity — now supports non-emergency use cases, not just SOS
- Third-party AirPlay alternatives (like Google Cast) may be supported, possibly EU-only initially
- Accessibility: VoiceOver gets live recognition mode, Magnifier improvements, 50 new languages added, Hearing Aid Handoff between devices
iOS 27 Compatibility — Which iPhones Are Dropping?
iOS 27 is confirmed to drop support for the following models:
- iPhone SE (2nd generation)
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
If you are on any of these devices, iOS 26 will be your final major update. All other iPhones from iPhone 12 onwards are expected to be supported.
When Does iOS 27 Release?
- Announced: WWDC 2026 — June 8, 2026
- Developer Beta: June 2026 (immediately after keynote)
- Public Beta: July 2026
- Public Release: September 2026 (alongside iPhone 18)
