7 new i Phone features coming to your phone in i OS 27 — from the new Siri AI to big Liquid Glass upgrades | Tech Radar

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7 new i Phone features coming to your phone in i OS 27 — from the new Siri AI to big Liquid Glass upgrades

It looks like a major improvement, across the board

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i OS 27 has been officially revealed — and if you're an i Phone owner, that means there's a very long list of software treats heading your way.

The final version of i OS 27 won't actually be released until September, but an early developer beta is available to download now and a public beta will likely follow in July.

But what exactly do you have to look forward to? I've been using i Phones since the 3GS (yes, I'm that old) and below are the seven biggest i OS 27 features that I'm looking forward to taking for a spin.

Yes, it's finally happening. Two years after Apple originally announced a more personalized version of Siri, a next-gen assistant called Siri AI is finally coming — well, as long as you live outside the EU.

Siri AI appears to be the conversational assistant we hoped to see back in 2024. Based on Apple's new Foundation Models (which were built with Google), it understands your "personal context" — so can answer questions by pulling information from across your messages, emails, photos, and more.

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It'll also be available in a dedicated Siri AI app, which lets you go back to old conversations that it remembers, and you can also use i Cloud to sync your conversations privately across devices. A Siri mode in the Camera app will also boost the i Phone's visual search — for example, letting you get nutritional info about your hastily-concocted dinner.

Unfortunately for those in the EU (which doesn't include the UK), Apple has said that Siri AI won't be available there due to the Digital Markets Act (DMA). But for the rest of us, it looks like i OS 27's biggest upgrade — and it's coming to the i Pad, Mac, Apple Watch and Vision Pro, too.

If you're not a huge fan of Liquid Glass on i OS 26, we have good news — Apple has admitted that its critics had a point and has given us an opacity slider to adjust the effect to our liking.

The new slider will let you tweak how, well, glassy the effect is in areas like tabs and menus. Apple says it can go from "ultra clear" to "fully tinted" (which basically removes the effect).

Liquid Glass will also now apparently do a much better job of diffusing any content that's behind the effect, which should be a boon for readability.

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3. The Passwords app can change your passwords for you

Here's a smaller i OS 27 update that could be one of its sleeper hits — the Passwords app will now be able to change weak or compromised passwords for you.

The app currently tells you if any of your passwords have been leaked or appeared in known security incidents. But rather than fixing those passwords manually, in i OS 27 you can tell the Passwords app to automatically change and update them to something that's strong and secure.

Apple says the feature will let you update the passwords on "eligible accounts", so it remains to be seen how wide that support is, but it certainly sounds like a potential time-saver.

Apple Photos has slowly been catching up with Google's photo editing trickery on Android — and i OS 27 will see it take another solid step forward with three features that you'll find in its 'Tools' section (above).

The first, Clean Up, already exists but is apparently getting a "big upgrade" that will help you remove distractions in a more realistic way. As its name suggests, the 'Extend' tool also lets you expand your photo in the same way as Photoshop, using generative AI to fill in the details.

Lastly, there's an even more fancy tool called 'Spatial Reframing', which uses on-device spatial models to help you tweak the perspective. It's a bit like 'Spatial Scenes' from i OS 26, which let you convert 2D photos into 3D, only you get to save the perspective change into your photo.

In a slight dig at Google, Alok Deshpande (Apple's Director of Camera and Photos Software Engineering) said: "At Apple, we have a deep respect for the craft of photography, and so our goal for bringing AI into the Photos app is to help photographers enhance their photos in ways that respect the original moment". Touché, Apple.

If you've been frustrated with how sluggish i OS 26 feels on your i Phone, particularly if you're on an older model, then i OS 27 could improve things.

According to Apple, i OS 27 will feel much snappier than its predecessor thanks to range of bug fixes and performance boosts. It claims that app launches will be up to 30% faster, Air Drop transfers will be 80% quicker, and loading new snaps in Photos will be 70% faster.

These boosts, and others across Wi-Fi and cellular connections, will likely vary depending on which model you're running (i OS 27 compatibility goes back to the i Phone SE (2020) and i Phone 11 series), but it's promising news for those on older devices.

Apple's built-in parental controls on the i Phone, called Screen Time, are still a work in progress, but fortunately they're getting a big facelift in i OS 27.

In Safari, a new 'Ask to Browse' feature means kids need to ask their parents when they want to browser a new website. Stronger 'Communication Safety' features in the Screen Time settings also blur content that might contain nudity, gore or violent content.

Lastly, 'Time Allowances' gives parents a suggested starting point for the maximum time their child is allowed on certain apps or categories of apps like 'Entertainment' and 'Games', based on their age. There's no doubt Apple had one eye on EU and UK regulators with its new Screen Time boosts, but they certainly look useful for parents.

Shortcuts is one of those apps is loved by a few, but it too confusing for truly mass adoption. Well, i OS 27 might finally change that thanks to a new Apple Intelligence upgrade that lets you describe the shortcut you want using natural language. We've settled on called this 'vibe-cutting'.

Rather than adjusting all your inputs and variables manually, you can type something like "when I'm leaving work message Pedro I'm on my way with my ETA" and the Shortcuts app will automatically pull together all the apps and system actions you need.

Even Apple admitted that the current Shortcuts system in i OS 26 "can feel, well, complicated". So this promises to be a pretty big step forward — and is one we've wanted to see for quite a while.

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Mark is Tech Radar's Senior news editor. Having worked in tech journalism for a ludicrous 17 years, Mark is now attempting to break the world record for the number of camera bags hoarded by one person. He was previously Cameras Editor at both Tech Radar and Trusted Reviews, Acting editor on Stuff.tv, as well as Features editor and Reviews editor on Stuff magazine. As a freelancer, he's contributed to titles including The Sunday Times, Four Four Two and Arena. And in a former life, he also won The Daily Telegraph's Young Sportswriter of the Year. But that was before he discovered the strange joys of getting up at 4am for a photo shoot in London's Square Mile.

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