iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 build on the major innovations of recent years, but mainly emphasize speed, stability and ease of use. Apple only subtly adjusts the design, introduces stronger parental control options and makes daily tasks noticeably smoother, without your iPhone or iPad suddenly feeling completely different.
In this article we deliberately do not focus on Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, but on all the other new functions and improvements that you will soon notice in daily use. Think of a faster system, refined Liquid Glass, smarter screen time settings, new options in Photos, Wallet and more.
Speed ​​and performance
Apple presents iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 as real optimization releases, with clear gains in speed and responsiveness. With releases scheduled for 2027, Apple products are even more reliable and easy to use. The software design has been refined, there are performance improvements and it is easier to work, communicate, share photos, listen to music with AirPods and track your health.
New OS releases include improvements to key system features, making everyday tasks faster and smoother. iPhone and iPad apps launch up to 30% faster, photos load up to 70% faster, and AirDrop files arrive up to 80% faster. Switching between mobile network and WiFi is now smoother.
Improvements to search and system apps
Under the hood, Apple has significantly improved the search functionality of Spotlight, Photos, and Mail, with the aim of delivering more relevant and stable results. The system learns from your usage, allowing it to make better suggestions over time. In Mail, a new ranking system has been introduced for the most relevant results, so important messages appear at the top more often.
The search function on the iPad is also seamlessly integrated into the entire interface. The system search function (Spotlight) feels faster and more consistent there, and it has become easier to take actions directly from the search screen, such as opening an app, making an appointment or finding a file. All this can be done in natural language, so you can find exactly what you need.
Personalize Liquid Glass and design
The Liquid Glass design introduced with iOS 26 remains largely the same, but Apple now gives you more control over the look. In the settings you will find a new slider that allows you to change the interface from almost completely clear to more strongly tinted.
In addition, app icons have been refreshed and displayed sharper, and contrast and refractions in the interface have been subtly improved. The result is a slightly calmer and more readable whole, without it feeling like you have to learn to work with a completely new system.
Parents and family: new parental control options
With user-friendly new features, you as a parent decide what your children can and cannot see, who they can communicate with and when they can use certain apps. Once you have created a child account, an environment is created that is tailored to the age of your child. The Setup Assistant then lets you choose which apps your child can use, so you maintain control over what is added over time.
In addition, you can set your child to have you approve each new contact first, and the system can automatically intervene if explicit or violent material is shared. Children can now ask permission when they want to visit a protected website or use a new app. This way you can more easily determine together which content is suitable.
With the new features for healthier screen time, you can easily set the total usage time per day for apps in the entertainment, gaming or social media categories. You can use a recommendation for daily time allocation, which is based on insights from renowned experts and parenting experts.
The Schedules feature lets you control which apps your kids can use at different times of the day. In addition, Screen Time has been updated and made more user-friendly, so you can see at a glance how often your children use their device and which apps appeal to them most.
New in iOS 27 and iPadOS 27
iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 also add a series of concrete features that you can use immediately. The most notable non-Apple Intelligence innovations on iPhone and iPad are:
- Improved autocorrect and keyboard : The keyboard correction has been retrained and should correct errors less aggressively, with better suggestions and fewer strange corrections in Dutch and other languages.
- Automatic punctuation when typing on multilingual keyboards.
- Separate volume controls for alarms, timers, alerts and system sounds
- Hide media player on lock screen by swiping left
- Easier access to recovery codes for Apple accounts.
- Ability to resize iPhone apps on an iPad
Photos and Camera
- Improved album organization in Photos, now also includes shared albums
- Share shared albums in full with other users in high resolution
- Shared albums in Photos for Android and Windows
- Adjust permissions per user for shared albums
- Shared albums can automatically expire after 30 days
- React with any emoji in shared albums
- Add keywords to photos and videos
- Collection of ‘Identity Documents’ and ‘Captured by Me’ in Photos
- Save a video frame as a photo
- Create slideshows, customize them and save them as videos
- More accurate photo orientation recognition
- Camera controls more easily accessible via six-dot button
- Simplified view of camera options at the top of the screen
Wallet
- Create your own digital passes for physical cards, such as a sports club or membership card.
- Scan receipts and split amounts, making it easier to split and reclaim a bill with friends using Apple Cash in countries where it’s available.
Messages, FaceTime and Phone
- Improved synchronization of Messages between devices.
- Drawing app in Messages
- Photos, videos and text are sent one after the other, without having to wait for each other
- Merged notifications on multiple tap responses in Messages.
- Search conversations in Messages by phone number or nickname.
- Switch between two iPhone devices with the same phone number.
- Dual camera in FaceTime.
- Better FaceTime quality with poorer connection.
- Live Subtitles for FaceTime in Traditional Chinese.
- Live voicemail transcription for English in Singapore and Japanese.
- Transcription of conversation recordings for traditional Chinese, Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese
Mail, Agenda, Notes and Diary
- More accurate unread badges in Mail for only important or all unread messages
- Improved list formatting in Mail
- Support for more document types in Preview.
- Faster storage of PDF documents.
- Easier to read and edit PDFs with VoiceOver.
- Copy and paste as formatting style in Notes.
- Use dividing lines in Notes.
- Ability to use section links in Notes.
- Improved support for notes from third-party calendar accounts.
- Change multiple calendar appointments at the same time.
- Simplified detail view of calendar appointments.
- Timestamps for diary entries
- iCloud sync status for diary.
- Higher attachment limits in Diary.
Safari
- Customized display of homepage and tab overview
- Instantly access your history, reading list and bookmark from the homepage
- Notify me option for websites, for example, receive a notification of price drops
- Automatically merge open tabs into ‘Topics’
Maps, find my and location
- Improved three-dimensional rendering in Maps
- Flyover now uses aerial imagery and Visual Intelligence models to clearly display architectural details and the shapes of trees.
- Improved offline Maps updates.
- Better navigation and GPS accuracy in CarPlay.
- Decide when location sharing stops in Find My app up to a maximum of 30 days
- Ability to temporarily hide your location from Find My (without notification)
Music, Podcasts and audio
- More reliable streaming of Apple Music.
- New automatic transitions between songs.
- Refreshed artists and album pages in Apple Music.
- Search within episodes in Podcasts.
- Mini player for audio in CarPlay.
Health, fitness and sleep
- Registration and information about menopausal complaints such as peri menopause in the Health app.
- Sort by completed Fitness plus workouts.
- Faster start of training in the Condition app.
- Synced step counting between Health and Fitness apps.
- Support for time zone changes in Sleep.
- More accurate distance for treadmill workouts.
- More accurate route maps in the fitness app after training.
Other improvements
- Automations for screenshots and notifications in Assignments
- Shared folders in Freeform.
- Always show the menu bar on an iPad for apps
- Extra large display for widgets
- Live activities in Dynamic Island in landscape view
- Custom EQ for AirPods to personalize audio
- Refreshed AirPods Settings page
All Apple Intelligence innovations
It is striking that all these innovations are available without Apple Intelligence: they are mainly about improvements in speed, design, productivity and reliability of the system itself. Apple has also added quite a few smart AI functions to iOS and iPadOS, but we have already listed them in full in a separate article. This includes reframing and expanding photos, generating images with Image Playground and more.
Availability of iOS 27 and iPadOS 27
The new software can this fallbe installed on all iPhone models currently running iOS 26. These are the iPhone 11 (Pro) or newer, iPhone SE 2nd generation or newer and the iPhone Air.
Support for the iPad is somewhat more limited, making several tablets no longer compatible compared to the previous software update. This means that the iPad Air 2019 (3rd generation), iPad mini 2019 (5th generation), iPad 2020 (8th generation), 11-inch iPad Pro 2018 (1st generation) and iPad Pro 12.9-inch 2018 (3rd generation) are no longer supported.