Apple Releases First Public Beta for iOS 27, macOS 27, and More

Following the release of a couple of developer betas, Apple shipped yesterday the first public betas for the upcoming ’27 releases of its operating systems. The main attraction is probably the new Siri AI, which is now available as a standalone app on all devices that support Apple Intelligence, though iPhone users in the EU will have to wait for now.

While Apple is about to finally fix many of Siri’s shortcomings, the new version of the assistant is currently only available in English, and there’s a waitlist to test it. Besides Siri, Apple’s ’27 OS updates bring various new Apple Intelligence features including new editing tools in the Photos app, a more useful Image Playground app that can generate photorealistic images, and more.

Other notable updates in Apple’s major releases include improvements to the Liquid Glass design language and performance improvements. Apple previously mentioned that app launches should be up to 30% faster, and file transfers via AirDrop should be up to 80% faster.

Beta testers will also notice that Safari can intelligently organize tabs into topics. Apple’s Shortcuts automation app now lets users create routines by just using natural language prompts, while the company’s Passwords app can now automatically detect weak passwords and update them.

Apple should release several public betas for iOS 27, iPad OS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27 before their public release in September. In the meantime, 26.6 updates for iOS and other platforms are also in the works and should be released soon, with no big new features.