The second iOS 27 public beta is live. If you’ve signed up for Apple’s public beta program, you can test out the revamped Siri, speedier app launches, and new parental controls right now on your primary device.
The most consequential change for most users involves speed. Apps now open up to 30% faster, while AirDrop transfers finish up to 80% faster and new photos appear in the library up to 70% faster. Those improvements apply to iPhone 11 and newer, not just the latest hardware.
The CPU scheduler was optimized specifically to benefit older devices, so an iPhone 13 or 14 should feel noticeably more responsive without a hardware upgrade.
Siri received the most significant redesign in the assistant’s history. Apple rebuilt it on top of its next-generation Apple Intelligence system.
It can hold a continuous conversation, read onscreen content, act inside apps, and pull details from Mail, Messages, Notes, Reminders, and Calendar without losing context between questions.
Responses now appear from the Dynamic Island, and a dedicated Siri app stores conversation history, synced privately through iCloud.
A recent update also extended that access to select third-party apps. Controls for how fast and expressive Siri sounds are now available under Settings, and those settings carry over to spoken directions in Maps and Safari.
Siri AI currently supports select English variants and requires an Apple Intelligence-compatible device, meaning iPhone 15 Pro or newer.
Passwords, Photos, and Safari Pick Up AI Features
The Passwords app can now automatically replace weak or compromised passwords on supported websites, handling the verification step itself and displaying progress via a Live Activity.
For anyone who has delayed fixing flagged passwords because the process felt tedious, that change removes most of the friction.
Photos adds three editing tools with real practical use:
- Clean Up now handles larger and more complex objects.
- Extend generates new content beyond the edges of a photo, which is useful for fixing a shot where something got cut off.
- Spatial Reframing lets users shift the apparent camera angle on a portrait after the fact.
Safari, meanwhile, can automatically sort open tabs by topic, monitor a webpage for changes, such as a product coming back in stock, and build a custom browser extension from a plain-language description.
Calendar gained natural-language event creation. Shortcuts can now build an automation from a plain description and keep refining it in plain language. The Phone app surfaces relevant details, such as a reservation number, when calling a business.
Screen Time Gets a Rebuild Parents Have Been Waiting For
Apple is overhauling Screen Time with a new dashboard that gives parents a clearer view of a child’s activity and one-tap controls for making access changes.
Time Allowances will set limits by category, including games, entertainment, and social media. Schedules will let parents define which apps are available during school hours, evenings, and weekends separately.
Children will be able to send permission requests before visiting a new website or messaging someone new. Communication Safety, which already detects and blurs nudity, now also flags violent or graphic content.
The rebuilt parental controls require all participating Family Sharing devices to be running iOS 27 or later.
Smaller Changes That Add Up
iOS 27 also handles the handoff between Wi-Fi and cellular more intelligently, so the iPhone is less likely to stay connected to a weak home network after a user has walked away.
You can finally set alarm volume separately from system sound, extract any video frame as a photo with one tap, and expand widgets to fill an entire Home Screen page.
AirPods gain a manual equalizer for adjusting lows, mids, and highs. FaceTime on iPhone Air and iPhone 17 models supports simultaneous front and rear camera video during a call.
Joining the beta is free through Apple’s Beta Software Program at beta.apple.com. After signing in with an Apple account and enrolling, the update appears under Settings > General > Software Update.
Apple recommends backing up the device before installing, since beta software can affect battery life and app compatibility. iOS 27 public beta 2 corresponds to the fourth developer beta, which Apple released earlier this month.
