iOS 27, all the new features of the iPhone software

The main innovation on the hardware front will be the management of the folding screen. Apple in September will present a device with a 5.5-inch display when closed and 7.8 inches when open, characterized by a 4:3 aspect ratio. iOS 27 will adapt the interface depending on your configuration: a standard mode for the external screen and an iPadOS-like experience for extended viewing. The operating system will remain iOS and will not run iPad-specific applications, but will introduce native multitasking with two apps side by side and sidebars for proprietary programs.

The other pillar of the update concerns Siri. Delays in the development of Apple Intelligence features initially planned for iOS 26.4 have pushed the company to postpone plans, integrating the improvements directly into iOS 27. The voice assistant will evolve into a full chatbot to compete directly with solutions from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. The latter will collaborate with Apple by providing a customized model based on Gemini. Siri will benefit from a deep awareness of personal context, analyzing emails, messages and photos to answer complex queries, and an understanding of what appears on the screen to perform contextual actions within applications.

The renewal of the assistant will also feature a dedicated application, structured with a grid of past conversations, a search bar and the ability to start text or voice chats via iMessage-style bubbles. The system interface will move within the Dynamic Islandwhich will show dedicated animations while processing requests and then expand into translucent cards. Apple will also open the system to third-party chatbots: through the “Extensions” section in the settings, users will be able to choose alternative solutions such as Claude or Gemini to manage writing tools or image generation, even being able to associate different voices with individual services. In the development framework, the new Core AI library will take the place of Core ML.

In terms of multimedia features and productivity tools, the Photos application will integrate the new “Extend” tools, to expand the edges of images using artificial intelligence“Enhance” for automatically correcting lights and colors, and “Reframe” for changing the perspective of spatial shots. The Quick Commands app will allow you to create complex workflows starting from natural language requests, while the writing tools will include an advanced grammar checker with a scrolling menu to accept or reject revisions. Minor changes will affect the Calendar app, which will integrate predictive functions, and the generation of Genmoji, optimized to reduce energy consumption and overheating of the device.

The overall design will retain the Liquid Glass aesthetic, but will reintroduce a unified navigation bar that brings together search across applications like Apple Music and Apple TV, eliminating the previous separation. A universal selector to adjust the opacity of the menus could debut in the system settingsextending the function already seen for the lock screen clock. The Camera application will become more flexible thanks to a bar of customizable widgets for manual controls and a dedicated Siri mode, which will leverage Visual Intelligence to scan nutrition labels, business cards or physical tickets to convert to digital formats. Wallet will offer the “Create a Pass” function to digitize cards and passes without native support via QR codes. Safari will update with a home page divided into four panels for favorites, bookmarks, reading list, and history.

Accessibility options will be enriched thanks to Apple Intelligence: VoiceOver Image Explorer will offer detailed descriptions of files and their surroundings via the Action key, Magnifier will support direct voice commands, and voice control will allow interaction with colloquially described interface elements. We will introduce automatically generated subtitles on the device for non-described videos, support for the Sony Access controller and new APIs to integrate sign language interpreters into FaceTime. As for connectivity, Apple partners with Globalstar to expand satellite capabilitiesstudying solutions for navigating on Apple Maps, sending photos in Messages and connecting in the background under the 5G network, even in the absence of a clear line of sight to the sky.

The priority of Cupertino engineers remains stability: much of the work will focus on removing obsolete code and resolving system bugs to ensure greater general fluidity and an increase in energy autonomy. Regarding compatibility, the new software version may discontinue support for devices equipped with older chips, excluding the iPhone 11 range and the second generation iPhone SEguaranteeing installation starting from the iPhone 12 series models up to subsequent models.