After three developer betas, Apple has launched the first public beta of its mobile operating system, iOS 27. While still not a final release (that one is coming in September), the public beta is the first stable release for the adventurous users to try.
And try it they should, as iOS 27 brings a number of cool new features and improvements, including a number of upgraded AI features.
We’ve been using the developer beta since the first day, and sifted through every feature and improvement to see which ones actually count. Here’s our list of the seven best new features you should try right now.
Before we start, here’s a big caveat: A lot of these, including the most important ones like Siri AI, are not available anywhere in the EU or China due to Apple’s dispute over AI with European regulators. Unfortunately, the timeline on when they might become available is pretty murky.
Siri AI
If you’re in the U.S., Siri AI will work for you, and you can access it by either uttering the “Hey Siri” voice command, pressing and holding the iPhone’s side button, or swiping down from the Dynamic Island on top of your screen.
Besides being smarter, Siri now looks better, too.
Credit: Apple
Once it’s activated, you can use it to search for documents, emails, and photos on your device, ask it questions about a website on your screen (or any sort of general questions), get recommendations for places and activities, and easily create home automations. For a detailed overview of Siri’s new features, go here.
Visual Intelligence
Unfortunately, the same caveat goes for this one: It’s not available in the EU at launch.
It’s a pity, because it’s a cool feature that lets you point your camera at things and get information about them from Siri. This includes splitting a restaurant bill, getting working hours for a business, figuring out which plant or animal you’re looking at, and more.
You can access Visual Intelligence by clicking and holding the Camera Control button, or (if you have an iPhone that doesn’t have the Camera Control button) either through Control Center or by customizing the Action button or Lock Screen.
Mashable Light Speed
Child Safety
Every parent knows what a nightmare the parental control features can be. You think you’ve set up everything right, only to discover that your kid still has unlimited access to YouTube (and is using it without any limits whatsoever).
Sometimes you just need a few simple options.
Credit: Apple
In iOS 27, Apple has overhauled the Child Safety features with an easier setup, more granular control over apps and websites, and better screen time management. The Communication Safety feature can even intervene before a child sees gore or violence in videos and images shared over Messages and FaceTime.
There are detailed options for time allowances across several categories, including Entertainment, Games, and Social Media. Perhaps most importantly, there are now simple controls to either fully pause device use, or allow unlimited use of a device.
Better photo editing
Not happy with the perspective of the photo? You can now change it after the fact.
Credit: Apple
The new, AI-enhanced photo editing tools are a pretty cool way to fix your photos, even some of the ones which came out quite poorly. The three new tools, available under “Tools” when you start editing a photo, include Clean Up, which lets you remove unwanted objects with a tap or a gesture. The Extend tool will automagically add content around the borders using AI, and Reframe lets you adjust the perspective of a photo.
New Image Playground
Yeah, another thing that’s absent in the EU. If you have it, it’s a cool one. Image Playground was actually there before, in iOS 26, but the images it could generate were mostly cartoons or simple illustrations. Now, you can get photorealistic images, too.
Image Playground is no longer limited to cartoon images.
Credit: Apple
If you don’t like your result, you can fine-tune it by adding additional prompts, with the option to precisely mark the part of the image that you want changed.
Smarter Shortcuts
I don’t know a lot of people who use Shortcuts, probably because the idea of manually setting up a chain of actions for your phone sounds pretty tricky to do.
In iOS 27, however, Apple has simplified this by adding the option to describe the shortcut and have it created automatically. To access it, open Shortcuts and tap New Shortcut, and just describe what you want the Shortcut to do. Stuff like “Turn the lights on, turn on Do Not Disturb, and start playing my favorite album” should work.
Liquid Glass adjustment
Too liquid? You can change that.
Credit: Apple
This is a small one, but it’s important to a lot of folks. Under Settings – Appearances, you can now set exactly how clear or tinted you want your “liquified” apps and UI elements in iOS 27 to be.
Personally, I push the slider to the left for a maximum clear look, but folks who want more readability over visual pizzaz might want to push it the other way to get a more tinted appearance.
AirPods EQ
How long have we been waiting for this one? In iOS 27, Apple finally added detailed equalizer settings for AirPods.
Finding those settings is a little tricky, though. When your AirPods are connected to your phone, go to Settings – Bluetooth, navigate to the AirPods, and tap the little “i” to the right. Then go to Audio and Routing – Equalizer – Custom. From there, you can adjust the bass, midrange, and treble to whatever your heart desires.