For a long time, Siri felt like a tool I only turned to for the simplest jobs—setting a timer, maybe an alarm, nothing more. iOS 27 has completely reversed that habit. These days I keep coming back to Siri for genuinely complicated requests and for help understanding whatever is on my screen. Siri is unmistakably the star of this Apple software release, but the smaller everyday improvements deserve attention too.

I've had iOS 27 running on my primary phone since the public beta arrived, and on a second device during the developer beta phase before that. The new Siri has been genuinely fun to use, and I've found myself hunting for fresh ways to put it to work. That's arguably Apple's biggest victory here, because I—like plenty of other people—had written Siri off long before this release. More than two years ago, Apple unveiled Apple Intelligence and dangled the promise of a far more capable Siri. After repeated pushbacks, that promise has finally arrived, and it lives up to the hype. Powered by Google's Gemini models, Siri is dramatically sharper than the older version, which leaned on extended knowledge plus a shaky ChatGPT integration. It also sports a fresh logo and a new transition animation.

To start testing, I threw all sorts of sports questions at Siri—World Cup matches, team lineups, scores. The early developer builds stumbled occasionally, but the vast majority of answers checked out. Siri also handles complicated, multi-step instructions. I asked it, for example, to dig up small or hidden but genuinely useful iOS 27 features and drop them into a note—and it handled the job well. It can also compose a message and fire it off to someone for you. And since Siri can pull context from your files, messages, and email, you can have it track down a specific conversation—say, one about a delivery—and then draft a return message based on it.

Siri's awareness of what's on screen proved a huge asset as well. While staring at World Cup lineups for two teams, I could ask throwaway questions like who the oldest player on the pitch was, or have Siri read on-screen text aloud when I couldn't be bothered to read it myself. While browsing a startup's website, I could ask Siri to dig up its funding details and its competitors. One of my favorite routines involved scrolling coffee-focused Reddit threads for new roasters and beans, then telling Siri to save them to a particular note. Getting Siri to target the correct note took some trial and error, but simplifying the note's name eventually fixed the consistency issues. The Camera app now hooks into Siri too, so you can ask about whatever appears in your viewfinder. Sitting in a restaurant, I asked Siri to identify the drink in my hand. Going purely on color, it offered "This is green juice"—a reasonable first guess. Once I mentioned I was at an Indian restaurant, it correctly narrowed things down to Jaljeera or Aam Panna. (It was Aam Panna.) I also photographed the restaurant's sign and asked Siri to recommend the best dishes on the menu. Another scenario that now works far better: snap a picture of a coffee bag and ask Siri for the ideal brewing method.

With iOS 27, Siri AI gains a dedicated app where you can revisit earlier chats. In Settings, you can also adjust Siri's voice and expressiveness. The new assistant is built to cooperate with third-party apps, and once developers update their software following the OS rollout, it'll be worth watching whether the handoff between Siri and those apps feels smooth.

Apple Intelligence

Apple Intelligence drives a whole set of AI capabilities across iOS 27. Apple has, for instance, woven vibe-coding-style features throughout the system. The first is a Shortcuts builder that lets you describe shortcuts and automations in plain language and have them created for you. You can kick things off with something simple—"Show me today's to-do items every morning at 8 am" or "convert photo to JPEG"—rather than figuring out how to construct the shortcut by hand. Once it exists, you can layer on complexity with extra steps, like "convert selected photos to JPEG and share them through AirDrop."

I'd always wanted a running list of songs I heard and liked in bars and cafes, so I built a shortcut that Shazams the track and saves both the song and the location. Safari also now lets you set a custom alert to monitor changes on a page—a blog, a product's price, a privacy policy, whatever you need. The Photos app picks up handy new tools like "reframe" and "extend." They don't always nail it, but in certain cases they can noticeably improve an image. Apple's eraser tool, meanwhile, has clearly gotten better—it leaves far fewer odd artifacts behind when you remove an object.

Thanks to Apple Intelligence, when certain messages arrive—event details or a location, for example—smart suggestions will offer to drop them into your Calendar or Notes. On top of that, the Passwords app can now change passwords on your behalf by logging into a site automatically.

Other quality-of-life improvements

Before anything else, I have to gush about the new clipboard feature. It lets you paste just about anything—links, photos, videos, text—from one app into another with ease. Once something's on your clipboard, a shortcut button appears on the keyboard reading "paste from Safari" (or whatever the relevant app is), letting you drop the item in. I've leaned on this constantly, and I can't overstate how much of a difference it makes for such a small change.

iOS 27 also tackles complaints about how the Liquid Glass design looked. With this update, you can adjust the transparency of Liquid Glass to your own taste. The control is granular, so there's no need to settle for presets. Apple also rolled out intelligent network switching, which automatically moves your connection from Wi-Fi to mobile data whenever the wireless signal acts up. The switch happens seamlessly and is a lifesaver during important work, keeping you from dropping your internet connection. Child safety gets major attention in this release too, with a new setup flow that automatically recommends essential apps. Parents can additionally set schedules, time limits, and allowances for different days of the week. Guardians receive notifications when kids visit new websites and can approve that access remotely. The system also shows a warning whenever children encounter nudity in Messages, FaceTime, and other apps.

Apart from Siri AI, iOS 27 doesn't pack many headline-grabbing features, but it smooths out daily life considerably. In past years, my reflex would have been to open ChatGPT or Gemini for an answer. With iOS 27, I'm reaching for Siri far more often—even though I don't live inside Apple's Messages and Mail apps. iOS 27 is rolling out to everyone with an iPhone 11 or later and iPhone SE (2nd gen) or later. To grab the latest version, head to Settings > General > Software Update.