Before we dig into the next-generation assistant, let’s touch on how iOS 27 looks, which is…mainly iOS 26. There are some welcome fine-tuned design features, like more granular control of system transparency and all those transparent panels and UI features. Move the slider to the right, and iOS 27 has a much duller, sharper look. Apple has tweaked how iOS offers complex background images, adding dark outlines around light menus and light images to help differentiate between layers of a layout.
But iOS 27 is all about Siri. In the face of rapidly growing AI assistants, applications and services – whether that’s Gemini, ChatGPT or Claude – Apple’s Siri was left in the dust. With iOS 27, Apple Intelligence and Siri AI have caught up with their competitors, although there are still a few more notable features than we expected.
The changes start with the way you interact with Siri. In addition to “Hey Siri” next to your iPhone, or holding down the side button, the assistant can still be accessed by swiping down from the Dynamic Island. Although it’s a neat piece of UI design, I found the interaction to be cramped; swiping down from the top already brings you to Control Center (right side) and notifications (left side). The third addition to the top edge makes it a little tighter. Hopefully the muscle memory will eventually kick in.
There’s also a dedicated Siri app, which keeps a running history of your requests and interactions. Smartly, it won’t keep timers and other simple tasks. I think the new Siri app is where there is a lot of room for improvement: When you upload photos to Siri to share or access them, it won’t show an icon or a confirmation. This means that I will try to upload the same image multiple times with no result. Well, that’s easy.
Another feature of Siri AI is “Voice Expression,” which allows you to customize the expression and flow of Siri’s voice. It is only available in US English, however, with one male and one female voice option. I appreciate the fine tuning as I find most voice assistants either too chipper or too slow.
Siri AI works best when it’s drawing on context, figuring out what you’re looking for and pulling it right into your iPhone. For example, pulling up the Siri dropdown and typing “Black Clover” will show the episode I recently watched on Crunchyroll.
This advanced phone search does what the likes of Claude and ChatGPT can’t because Siri AI is built into your iPhone. In fact, it can take several days for Siri AI to index and optimize its search for everything on your phone once you’ve upgraded to iOS 27. Apple suggests keeping your phone plugged in to charge for a long time to speed up this often time-consuming process. (You can also block apps you don’t want Siri to search for results.)
Although it sometimes flashes, it is still in beta. I found that I had to make sure I was using the built-in email app, not Gmail (my primary email app), in order for Siri to issue messages and delivery updates. Hopefully, third-party app compatibility will improve over time.
This may be a bit of a ‘me’ thing, but using the new Siri finally provides a straightforward and quick way to interact with timers, timers and alarms without going into widgets or jumping into the clock app. iOS 27 also introduces a new XL widget size option for those looking for a full-screen information dump, or at least a calendar widget that you can read and interact with. At the moment, it’s mostly native apps, but it didn’t take long for major app developers to release improved widgets before the official launch of previous iOS updates.
Siri AI is also good at digging up specific photos, like my passport photos or photos of my nieces and nephews. There is still a lot of room for growth though. When I asked about some phone settings, Siri AI would immediately come up. It couldn’t even explain why it couldn’t navigate me to the settings I was asking for, either tell I where a certain menu can be.
Although not a Siri AI feature, the accuracy of the system’s pronunciation is greatly improved in handling punctuation and formatting automatically as you speak. I found transcribing long Voice Memos between people to be very accurate and very fast.
Siri’s multimodal capabilities are also integrated directly into the Camera app in iOS 27. There’s a new Siri tab that sits between the portrait and panorama camera functions. Tap the shutter button, and Siri analyzes the image’s content. While it successfully identified the hexagonal pen with the Muji logo (down to the size of the nib!), it failed to recognize the unique Tiki mug from Ikea. You can also expand your questions, so I was able to get help identifying a type of plant or adding dates from a poster to my personal calendar.
Apple is developing its own AI-powered writing tools, too. In the Mail and Messages apps, Siri can now mimic your normal communication style. If you’re a “bullet to boss” type of sender, it will write emails that match that tone and format, although I wish this knowledge base of personal communication styles could be applied to all non-Apple applications.
The new “Write with Siri” button, which extends from the Dynamic Island, is a significant improvement over the previous iteration. It feels tightly integrated, so you’re not jumping between different interfaces just to cool a draft.
For power users, creating shortcuts using natural language is a game changer. You simply type the function you want into the text box (or say it), and Apple Intelligence creates a shortcut for you. It’s a neat way to manage automation, without needing to be a coding wizard. It’s more straightforward and less intimidating than the original Shortcuts app. I have three shortcuts working, all of which took minutes to set up. Here’s a suggestion to try: turn on WiFi when your iPhone detects you’re home. Beyond natural language input, iOS 27 makes it easy to adjust and fix shortcuts or defaults without digging into technical nuts and bolts. If you’ve never touched the Shortcuts app before, it might be time to give it a try.
Matt Smith for Engadget
The Photos app gets a lot of productive AI features, but Apple has focused this on effective editing instead of gimmicky, IP-baiting AI slop made up of a few instructions. The new “Expand” tool allows you to expand images to give your subject more space. At the same time, “Spatial Reframing” allows you to manually adjust the shooting angle – a unique and welcome addition to fine-tuning. While these features work with any image you have stored on your phone, you may find yourself transformed into a chunky PS1-era character depending on the actual image composition and resolution.
Sometimes the results are fine and subtle tweaks, or, you will see the fingerprints of AI editing, trying to duplicate the text, for example, after a quick edit.
Apple says that photo production will eventually have limits for daily use, which may be combined with an iCloud + subscription. We expect the company to share details closer to its public launch.
