iOS 27: Major features, compatible iPhones, updates, and more

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, which are changes necessary for the iPhone Duo.

Safari

Safari can automatically group open 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.
There’s also a new Describe an Extension feature which lets users create custom Safari extensions simply by explaining what they want the extension to do.

Photos

Photos gains significantly more powerful AI editing tools.

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.

Clean Up has also been improved, with Fast and High Quality modes for removing unwanted objects or details. 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 video’s original resolution, date, and location metadata rather than simply creating a screenshot.

Camera

iOS 27 features a new more customizable camera interface that lets you pin the controls you use most often. For the iPhone 18 Pro, there are also “pro controls” like white balance, shutter speed, and manufal focus along with 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 new Siri mode in the Camera app is a more convenient and logical way to access the Visual Intelligence features that used to require either a long-press of the camera button or a Control Center button.

Messages

Messages gets several useful improvements.

You can 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 user’s writing style.

Drawing

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 user’s 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 while on a call. 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

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 recognize contacts, locations, dates and other event details as users type, reducing the amount of information that needs to be entered manually.

Siri can also create complete Calendar entries for information that is on your screen in that moment, or by taking a picture with the Siri mode in the Camera app.

Image Playground

Image Playground is considerably more powerful and realistic.

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.

Weather

Weather gets a clearer, more detailed forecast interface, with rearranged information tiles and new 10-day views showing precipitation probability/amount and wind speed throughout each day.

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.