Apple built features into iOS 27 that it never mentioned at WWDC. They exist right now, running on employee iPhones.
One of them would let you ditch ChatGPT and use any AI assistant you want, directly through Siri, but Apple just chose not to tell anyone.
Internal builds reportedly already include a customizable widget panel for the Camera app, third-party AI extensions for Siri, and a scaled-down Modular Ultra watch face.
None of these made the stage presentation, meaning Apple will likely roll them out quietly this fall alongside the new hardware
The Feature Apple Had Every Reason to Hide
The most significant of the three is called Extensions. Right now, Siri only hands off to ChatGPT when it needs outside AI help.
Extensions would blow that wide open, letting Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and other AI assistants plug directly into Siri, Writing Tools, and Image Playground. You’d pick your preferred chatbot the same way you pick a default browser.
Apple has already been in conversations with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google about how the framework would work.
The settings panel for it is already built. An App Store section dedicated to AI extensions is sitting there, waiting to be switched on.
Developers running the first iOS 27 beta can already see a chatbot picker that currently shows only Siri and ChatGPT, but that list is supposed to grow.
A Camera Upgrade Tied to One Specific iPhone
The second missing feature is a customizable Camera app. Instead of Apple’s fixed layout, you’d be able to rearrange controls yourself, pulling flash, exposure, timer, depth of field, photo styles, and resolution into whatever order makes sense for how you actually shoot.
Apple is reportedly holding this feature back specifically for the iPhone 18 Pro, pairing it with what’s expected to be the most significant camera hardware upgrade in years.
The company has tied software features to specific hardware launches before, using software to make new devices feel more distinct from the ones people already own.
Apple Watch Gets a New Face
The third item is a new Modular watch face for Apple Watch that was expected to be announced at the event, but that didn’t happen.
The design takes cues from the Modular Ultra face currently locked to the Apple Watch Ultra, simplifying it for standard models.
Apple Watch owners waiting for a genuinely fresh face option will likely have to hold on until fall hardware launches. The new design is to arrive alongside new Apple Watch models rather than through a software update ahead of them.
These features weren’t cut because of bugs or technical issues. The new watch face, camera widgets, and Siri extensions were entirely functional on internal hardware.
Apple made a deliberate choice to pull them from the WWDC stage, opting to hold them in reserve until a future hardware launch or mid-cycle update makes more sense.
