Apple Releases Public Beta of iOS 27, Siri AI Gets Smarter and Older Devices Faster

Apple today released the first public beta of its next-generation iOS 27 operating system, allowing general users to experience new features ahead of launch. The biggest highlight is the fully upgraded multimodal assistant Siri AI, along with optimizations to the Liquid Glass interface and improved performance on older devices.

According to tech media 9to5Mac, Apple has rebuilt its voice assistant Siri based on its personal intelligence system, Apple Intelligence. The upgraded Siri AI now supports continuous conversation, deep retrieval of user private information, understanding of on-screen content, and execution of corresponding actions across apps.

Siri's conversation bubble now extends from the Dynamic Island, and a standalone Siri app has been added to save and sync conversation history. Additionally, the camera gains a new Siri Visual Intelligence mode—for example, scanning a membership barcode instantly converts it into a Wallet pass.

Beyond Siri, Apple Intelligence extends across built-in apps. Safari now automatically categorizes tabs by topic, adds a 'Notify Me' feature for webpage change alerts, and can generate custom extensions using natural language.

The Photos app introduces AI-powered editing tools, including 'Clean Up' to remove complex distractions, 'Extend' to generate content beyond image borders, and 'Spatial Reframing' to adjust camera perspective even after taking a photo.

Visually, iOS 27 further refines the Liquid Glass design language introduced last year, enhancing icon and text readability through finer contrast adjustments. A new slider in Settings allows users to freely adjust the intensity of transparency and blur effects.

Notably, Apple has also performed core-level optimizations for older hardware. Official data shows iOS 27 can boost app launch speed by up to 30%, AirDrop transfer speed by 80%, and photo loading speed by 70%. Additionally, switching between Wi-Fi and cellular networks has become smarter, avoiding the issue of devices clinging to weak signals.

The iOS 27 public beta supports iPhone 11 and later models. However, certain Apple Intelligence features, including Siri AI, are limited to iPhone 15 Pro and newer devices.

While users can join Apple's beta software program for free to experience the update early, the iOS 27 public beta may have issues such as battery drain, app compatibility problems, or unknown bugs. Users should back up their data before upgrading and ideally install it on a secondary or non-primary device for testing. (Edited by Yang Kai-Xiang)