Apple’s products are about to get more AI-ish.
On Monday, the tech giant is releasing its big annual software update. This year’s release is centered on the new AI-powered Siri, Apple’s big bet that it can keep pace with rival AI assistants.
Apple’s iOS 27 works on iPhone 11 models and newer, though the splashiest Apple Intelligence tools require an iPhone 15 Pro or later. iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27 are also arriving the same day.
Here are the biggest changes coming to your iPhone’s brain:
Siri gets an AI facelift — and a new home
For years, Siri has been a shortcut for setting timers or figuring out if iPhone users needed to pack a rain jacket for the day.
Now, Apple says it’ll act more like a personal assistant.
“We know there are times when you expect more from Siri,” Mike Rockwell, Apple’s VP of Siri engineering, said during the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June. “Siri is now a profoundly more capable assistant that helps you find what you need and gets more done.”
The new Siri AI can answer probing questions, hold longer conversations, and use details across several Apple and third-party apps to find what users need, the company says. It can, for example, find a hotel confirmation in an older email, find a recipe a friend texted a while ago, or enter a café WiFi password after taking a picture.
There’s also a new stand-alone Siri AI app where users can revisit conversations on other Apple devices, too.
It’s the biggest test yet of Apple’s AI ambitions. Siri AI is initially available in English and is partially available in Europe.
New parental controls
Apple is trying to make its kid-safety tools more useful before a parent has to confiscate the phone.
Parents setting up an iPhone for a child can decide which built-in apps are available from the start. An Ask to Browse feature also makes a child ask permission before visiting a new website. The parent gets the request in Messages and can approve or decline it.
Screen Time gets more granular, with category-based allowances for entertainment, games, and social media, as well as schedules that control which apps are usable at particular times. Parents can compare their child’s screen usage with recommendations from clinical and child development experts, Apple says.
The company has redesigned the parent-facing settings, too, promising a clearer dashboard and quicker in-the-moment controls.
AI photo editing
Missed the shot? Apple wants to give you a second chance.
There are several new photo editing tools included in the iOS update: Spatial Reframing lets users adjust a photo’s camera perspective after the shutter has been released, Extend uses AI to add space around the edges of an image, and the upgraded Clean Up tool helps delete or reframe blurry elements in a photo.
Siri AI will try to write in your voice
Siri AI wants a spot at the writer’s table, too.
Apple says the updated assistant can start a draft or revise copy in the Mail and Messages apps. The writing can draw on how you usually communicate with a particular person, including a user’s typical punctuation and tone. The tools can also offer writing suggestions and automatically proofread text as you type, including in many third-party apps.
Your own shortcut
Shortcuts has long been one of the iPhone’s coolest and least approachable apps. It lets users stitch together actions across apps, but building a simple automation could require working through a lot of menus.
Now, users can describe what they want in plain English, and Shortcuts will create the workflow. Apple’s example: “When I’m leaving work, message Pedro I’m on my way with my ETA.”
Easing up on the Liquid Glass
Liquid Glass is getting a dimmer switch.
Last year, Apple introduced an interface setting that made the edges of some icons look glassier. Now, users can edit that update to their liking. iOS 27 lets users tune the effect from “ultraclear” to fully tinted.
Last year’s update didn’t receive the warmest of embraces…
Faster speeds
Apple says iOS 27 will speed up everyday tasks: apps can launch up to 30% faster, new Photos library images can load up to 70% faster, and AirDrop transfers can be up to 80% faster.
It should also switch more smoothly between WiFi and cellular networks.
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