iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27

September 14, 2026

UPDATE

Major updates for Apple’s software platforms are now available

Siri AI, the next generation of Apple Intelligence, powerful parental controls, and an expansive set of software improvements start rolling out today across iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and other Apple platforms

Apple’s latest software updates introduce Siri AI, a more intelligent, knowledgeable, and capable version of Siri, and deliver helpful new Apple Intelligence features that make the apps users interact with day to day smarter and more useful. The updates also bring powerful and intuitive new features to help parents create safer, more enriching digital experiences for kids and introduce an expansive set of improvements that make Apple products more responsive, more delightful, and easier to use.

Making Apple Products More Personal and Useful Than Ever

Siri AI is an entirely new version of Siri powered by the next generation of Apple Intelligence and deeply integrated into iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. A more capable and conversational assistant with personal context understanding, broad world knowledge, onscreen awareness, and even more systemwide app actions, Siri AI is now rolling out as a beta in English, with support for French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish coming in October.

Siri AI can understand personal context across messages, emails, photos, and more, to help users find what they need in the moment. It can also answer questions related to the content on a user’s screen or go out to the web to get up-to-date information to generate a helpful answer. Siri is integrated into the Camera app on iPhone with Siri mode, allowing users to get information and take action on what’s in front of them, like splitting a bill and paying friends with Apple Cash,¹ or adding a custom pass to Wallet. With Visual Intelligence, users on iPhone, iPad, or Mac can now ask Siri about what they’re looking at on the screen, and Vision Pro users can search, ask questions, and take action simply by looking at their surroundings and asking Siri.

With Write with Siri, users can simply describe what they need to generate a draft or help refine what they’ve written. A dedicated Siri app uses iCloud to privately sync conversational history across a user’s products, so they can start chatting with Siri on iPhone and continue the conversation on Mac, iPad, Apple Watch, or Apple Vision Pro.

The next generation of Apple Intelligence also brings helpful new features to apps that users rely on every day. In Photos, Spatial Reframing, Extend, and an upgraded Clean Up tool provide more ways to edit photos while respecting the original moment as it was captured. Image Playground gives users the ability to create high-quality images in virtually any style, including photorealistic, and with image metadata and upcoming support for the SynthID standard, users can identify images generated or edited with AI.² In Safari, Apple Intelligence powers new tools that automatically organize a user’s tabs into topics; notify them of website changes, like product restocks or price drops; and enable the creation of custom extensions based on a description. Call Context surfaces relevant information, like a confirmation code or reservation number, when calling a business.

New Expert-Informed Child Safety Features and a Redesigned Screen Time Experience

Easy-to-use new features help parents manage what their kids can see, who they can talk to, and when they have access to apps. A new setup flow for child accounts makes it easier to enable age-based safeguards across the system. From the beginning, parents can choose the exact apps their kids have access to on their device, and gradually add more over time. Ask to Browse allows parents to require approval before their kids access a new website in Safari. In addition to being able to approve each new contact their kids connect with, parents can lean on Communication Safety, which now also detects and intervenes to block gore or violent content when detected in shared images or videos.

Redesigned to be more intuitive for parents, Screen Time offers an at-a-glance view of their kids’ average device usage and top apps. New tools make it easy to set daily total time allowances across Entertainment, Games, and Social Media apps, with guidance from leading clinical and child development experts, and Schedules let parents manage which apps their children have access to at different points in the day.

For parents and families looking for more information on how to help create safer, more enriching digital experiences for their kids, Apple has a dedicated website, which includes details on the latest tools and how to get started using them.

A More Refined Experience Across Platforms

The 2027 software releases deliver platform improvements that span performance, connectivity, search, and more, making Apple products even more responsive, reliable, and delightful to use.

Performance: Users will experience faster performance on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. On iPhone and iPad, apps launch up to 30 percent faster,³ photos load up to 70 percent faster after being taken,⁴ and AirDrop transfers are up to 80 percent faster.⁵ On iPad, browsing files and transferring them to an external USB drive is now up to 5x faster, and there are additional improvements to closing, switching, and dragging windows while multitasking.⁶ On Mac, things users do every day feel extra snappy and responsive. AirDrop transfers are quicker, iCloud Photos uploads begin faster, swiping between spaces and Mission Control is smoother, and more. On Apple Watch, music playback is even faster.

Connectivity: On iPhone and iPad, transitions between cellular and Wi-Fi networks are more seamless than ever. In Messages, sending large photos and videos in low-bandwidth situations no longer prevents subsequent texts from going through, so users can continue replying while media is being delivered. On Mac, users will experience faster network file browsing. Apple Vision Pro starts and connects to Wi-Fi up to 3x faster.⁷

Search: On iPhone, iPad, and Mac, search across Spotlight, Photos, and Mail is more stable, efficient, and comprehensive, so it can better help users find exactly what they are looking for. Additionally, a completely new ranking system in Mail surfaces even more relevant results in Top Hits.

Design: Refinements to the software design with Liquid Glass deliver an even more focused and approachable experience. For example, a new slider in Settings gives users the option to personalize Liquid Glass, adjusting it anywhere from ultraclear to fully tinted to match their preference, and app icons have been updated to be sharper and more defined.

Additional features across platforms:

• iCloud Shared Albums support full-resolution sharing for photos and videos, and make it easier for Android and Windows users to join and contribute.

• The Health app brings support for perimenopause and menopause in Cycle Tracking, including notifications about cycle deviations inclusive of perimenopause.⁸

• AirPods users can now enjoy custom EQ to further personalize how their AirPods sound. And with expanded Apple GymKit functionality, users with AirPods Pro 3 can sync their heart rate data through iPhone while enjoying incredible audio quality.

• Apple Maps brings an enhanced Flyover experience, which combines aerial imagery with AI, allowing users to enjoy even more detailed visuals.

• On Apple Watch, new Smart Stack widget suggestions surface when they are relevant, and users can conveniently open a widget with a new single-handed tap gesture. Workout Buddy is supported even when users don’t have their iPhone nearby, and it’s now available in Spanish in addition to English.

• Apple Vision Pro users can now turn panoramas into spatial scenes with rich depth and use them as a personal Environment, or transform their space entirely with the new Thórsmörk Environment featuring a dynamic Icelandic aurora.

• On Apple TV, users get high-resolution lossless audio support for Apple Music, a redesigned Apple Podcasts app, and broader text-size accessibility options.

The new features start rolling out today across iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, visionOS 27, and tvOS 27.

Availability

• Features are subject to change. Some features may not be available in all languages or regions, and availability may vary due to local laws and regulations. For more information about availability, visit apple.com.

• New Apple Intelligence capabilities across apps are available for users with supported products set to a supported language. Siri AI begins rolling out as a beta in English, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish coming in October.

• Mac and Apple Vision Pro users in the EU will be able to access Siri AI when set to a supported language. Siri AI will not be available initially in the EU in iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS.

• Siri AI and the other new Apple Intelligence features will not be available in China while Apple works through regulatory requirements.

• Users who enable Apple Intelligence on supported products set to a supported language will have access with iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27.

• Apple Intelligence is available with support for these languages: English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Japanese, and Korean. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages. For feature and language availability and system requirements, see apple.com/apple-intelligence.

• Apple Intelligence and Siri AI in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27 are available on iPhone Duo, iPhone Air, iPhone 16 models or later, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad mini (A17 Pro), iPad models with M1 or later, MacBook Neo (A18 Pro), Mac with M1 or later, Apple Vision Pro, Apple Watch Series 9 or later, Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later, and Apple Watch SE 3 when paired with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone. Some features on Apple Watch require iPhone nearby.

• Certain Apple Intelligence features that rely on server-side models are subject to daily usage limits, including but not limited to Siri AI, intelligent photo editing tools, Image Playground, and AFM 3 Cloud models in Shortcuts. Daily limits may vary by feature, request complexity, system demand, system policies, and other factors. Expanded access to such features will be available for a fee in the future. Use of these features is subject to Apple Intelligence terms and conditions. Learn more at apple.com/apple-intelligence. Siri AI is not available for users under 13.

1. Only available in the U.S. on eligible iPhone and iPad devices. Requires Siri AI on an Apple Intelligence-enabled device. Apple Intelligence is available on iPhone 16 models or later, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad mini (A17 Pro), and iPad models with M1 or later. Apple Cash services are provided by Green Dot Bank, Member FDIC. Apple Payments Services LLC, a subsidiary of Apple Inc., is a service provider of Green Dot Bank for Apple Cash accounts. Neither Apple Inc. nor Apple Payments Services LLC is a bank. Learn more about the terms and conditions.
2. SynthID will be available in a software update later this year, and will be included for most edited images, depending on the edits applied.
3. Testing conducted by Apple in August 2026 using iPhone 11 Pro Max with iOS 26.6 and prerelease iOS 27. App launch performance measured after many cycles of device usage. Performance varies based on configuration, settings, content, usage, software versions, environmental conditions, and other factors.
4. Testing conducted by Apple in July 2026 using iPhone 15 with iOS 26.6 and prerelease iOS 27. Photos app tested using a 50,000-asset library, and taking additional individual photos with Camera app. Performance varies based on configuration, settings, content, usage, software versions, environmental conditions, and other factors.
5. Testing conducted by Apple in July 2026 using iPhone 16 Plus with iOS 26.6 and prerelease iOS 27. AirDrop tested by transferring multiple photos totaling 30MB between nearby contacts while not associated with a Wi-Fi network. Performance varies based on configuration, settings, content, usage, software versions, environmental conditions, and other factors.
6. Testing conducted by Apple in July 2026 using iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) with iPadOS 26.6 and prerelease iPadOS 27, and an APFS-formatted USB 4 external SSD. Files app tested using 10,000 JPG files, copying and browsing from iPad to the external drive. Performance varies based on configuration, settings, content, usage, software versions, environmental conditions, and other factors.
7. Testing conducted by Apple in August 2026 using Apple Vision Pro (M2) with visionOS 26.6 and prerelease visionOS 27. System tested from first unlock after reboot to Apple TV app launch and appearance of content. Performance varies based on configuration, settings, content, usage, software versions, environmental conditions, and other factors.
8. The Cycle Tracking app should not be used for birth control or to diagnose a health condition.

Press Contacts

Tania Olkhovaya

Apple

tolkhovaya@apple.com

Apple Media Helpline

media.help@apple.com