Stealing the Spotlight
Spotlight Search was once one of the best tools to find any local file, launch apps, define words, run shortcuts, calculate, and much more. It was predictable, and it worked well; you swipe down anywhere on the Home Screen to reveal the search bar, start typing, and on-device results would instantly populate and update as you enter your keywords in real time. That was until Siri AI stole its spot and downgraded the entire system.
As of iOS 27, the same gesture reveals a Search or Ask field powered by Siri. Instead of immediately showing you a list of all relevant, on-device results, it now tends to highlight only one local item and prioritizes relaying your search query to Siri. You still get a button to show all results, but the overall workflow is now unintuitive and time-consuming. I often find myself quickly hitting search to locate something, only for Siri AI to take over and give me something I didn’t want.
I get why Apple decided to merge the two functionalities, but many users agree that Spotlight Search and Siri are two very different tools that serve unique purposes. Taking away Spotlight’s predictability defeats the point of the quick search feature. And don’t get me started on the smaller touch target for the Notification Center.
Siri intrudes on too many menus in iOS 27.
Foundry
Writing fools
Spotlight Search isn’t Siri AI’s only new home. iOS 27 also brings Writing Tools under the broader Siri umbrella, degrading the user experience in the process.
Since its initial debut a couple of years ago, I’ve actively relied on the Proofread feature to pinpoint typos and double spaces in my articles. Unlike asking an AI chatbot to proofread, it strictly amends language errors, sparing you from the infamous robotic recommendations and unwanted stylistic tweaks. It’s also less prone to hallucinating or skipping through the text.
With the latest update, Writing Tools are now part of the Write with Siri feature, which prioritizes generating text from scratch rather than simple editing. When I select a passage, the Proofread button doesn’t always show up—and manually asking Siri to proofread the selection gets me a subjective AI chatbot response rather than triggering the objective editing flow.
