As expected from the WWDC keynote, Apple has launched iOS 27, with Liquid Glass and responsive improvements coming to your iPhone this fall.
The annual keynote address of Apple's WWDC week has, as usual, introduced developers to the next major release of iOS. Using the new year-based naming convention, iOS 27 will be installable on user iPhones this fall.
As tradition dictates, it will also be testable by developers months in advance, usually starting from a short time after the keynote concludes.
Before the event, Apple was believed to be using iOS 27 as a shoring-up release, fixing bugs and performance issues after last year's massive iOS 26 overhaul. There are also big expectations for AI changes this time around, too.
iOS 27 will be available on all models compatible with iOS 26, meaning all currently-supported iPhones can upgrade to it.
Keeping up appearances
WWDC 2025 saw the introduction of Liquid Glass, an update that was somewhat divisive among users. One year later, and Apple is taking steps to improve what it introduced.
While Apple has already allowed users to control the level of frosting for the glass effect in the lock screen clock under iOS 26, it will be expanded in iOS 27. You now have more granular control over how intense the glass effect is, and how frosted it appears.
Apple also says there's more separation between glass layers. App icons are gaining more glass layers, including more refraction elements to make them more refined.
As part of a performance drive, Apple has also made iOS 27 more responsive. This work has helped in various ways, such as swiping between Home Screen pages faster, making imported images in Photos appear 70% faster, and updates to the CPU scheduler to better manage resources.
Apple Intelligence
Apple's expected AI push in WWDC includes a name-checking of Google Gemini, which is being used to train Apple's Foundation Models. As usual, it is being made to work with onboard processing as well as Private Cloud Compute, in Apple's typical privacy-first way of working.
There's a new System Orchestrator that combines all of the elements and makes it work together as a cohesive whole. Regardless of whether it's text, image generation, or anything else.
Apple's graphic showing the elements of Apple Intelligence
Behind the scenes, Spotlight's semantic index is probed to perform personal context understanding. This was previously teased two WWDCs ago, but failed to arrive at all, so hopefully it arrives this time.
When performing a query, Apple Intelligence can use the semantic index and then use "Broad World Knowledge," namely, getting new information from the Internet. Private Cloud Compute is then used to come up with an answer.
Apple Intelligence also works with App Intents. Also, on-screen awareness will tailor Apple Intelligence based on what you're doing with your iPhone, depending on the apps you're using at that moment.
iOS 27 with new Siri
Then there's the new Siri. Using a large bubble in the Dynamic Island, Siri is now using an upgrade referred to as Siri AI.
Theres the usual verbal commands, but Siri also works with data from multiple apps to find answers for prompts. There's also a dedicated Siri AI app that can maintain a conversation, complete with follow-up questions and prompts.
It's chatbot-style, sure, but it's also kinda expected by now. Much like the two-year-late contextual functionality.
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