Apple dropped the first developer beta of iOS 27 right after its WWDC 2026 event, and I installed it almost immediately. While I don’t recommend anyone to install the developer beta update on their primary iPhone, I couldn’t help myself, as this update seemed to be the one iPhone users have been asking for for years.
iOS 27 isn’t one of those updates that throws a crazy new feature at you every time. There are no dramatic redesigns here and no list of clothes with fancy features. Instead, Apple went back to its roots and tweaked, refined, and polished what was already there.
My last year with iOS 26 was full of controversy. It felt unpolished and full of bugs. After installing the iOS 27 beta, it feels like iOS 26 was a beta, and iOS 27 is the version that Apple originally wanted to ship.
A speed boost you can really feel
The first thing you notice is the speed. Apple claims app launches are up to 30% faster, photo libraries load up to 70% faster, and AirDrop transfers are up to 80% faster. I usually ignore Apple’s percentage jargon, but this time I can hear the difference.
Switching between apps feels fast, and apps open with little to no lag. Images load your content quickly, and animations rarely stutter. Search is still indexed on my iPhone, so Spotlight is still slow. Hopefully, once the indexing is done, the speed will be improved again.
What surprised me the most was the speed of AirDrop. There’s no way for me to quantify this, but AirDrop’s new speed will really blow people away. Small files like photos and documents transfer as soon as I click the AirDrop button and select the destination device.
I selected a dozen photos, each about 10 MB in size, and they were sent to my iPad, even before I put my phone down. Transferring large files feels twice as fast as before. And it seems that this is not limited to the new iPhones.
And the best part is that this upgrade is not just for the latest models. iPhone 11, 12 mini, and 13 owners are reporting the same thing. Most of those phones struggled in iOS 26 with random bugs and overheating, so it’s surprising to see them perform well in what’s still a developer beta.
Apple says the benefits come from reworking how the system handles CPU scheduling, memory, and background tasks. What they did clearly worked, as everything feels smooth now.
Liquid Glass finally gets a slide
One of the biggest complaints about iOS 26 was Liquid Glass. Some people loved it, some hated it, but many people like me wanted more control over it. As the rumors suggested, Apple finally listened and added a Liquid Glass slider, which allows users to control the intensity of the effect.
You can access the slider under Settings → Appearance → Liquid Glass. The first thing I did after installing iOS 27 was to drag that slider towards the colored edges. Apple has also pushed the effect in many areas this time, so the widgets finally take on the same glass look that the rest of the system had, and everything ends up feeling more cohesive.
While some people complain about the clear and colorful icon appearance, saying that the app icons look sharp because of the black border around them, I don’t mind. In fact, I prefer this look as the app icons stand out in the background.
The graphics app steals the show
Apple Intelligence feels more connected to the experience this time around, and the Photos app gets a lot of attention. There are three major improvements here. Clean Up does an excellent job of clearing unwanted items from the frame. Extend can fill and stretch the background of a photo using AI, and Spatial Reframe lets you move the subject within the photo after you’ve already taken it.
The latter is truly intelligent, as the AI reconstructs parts of the image to create a new composition. I’m especially excited about the new Cleaning tool, as it’s far superior to what we had before. It can clean things from complex shots without damaging them. I think this is a feature that many people will appreciate.
Apart from AI editing tools, the photography app also gets several features to improve the quality of life. There is now a “Photos by Me” folder that contains only photos you have taken using your iPhone and a “Documents” folder that includes photos of passports, IDs, bills, and other documents.
You can also save a video frame as a still image and rate the images from one to five stars. Shared Albums get some love, too. Now you can set them to expire after 30 days, perfect for sharing a bunch of photos without them being shared forever.
Inviting people is easy with the new “Create Shared Album” option in any album menu, and you can even create a link that allows others to upload their own photos directly to the album.
Creating shortcuts is finally easy
I’m really excited about the new Shortcuts creation feature. I love using shortcuts on my iPhone. They allow me to perform tasks and perform multi-step actions with just one tap. One reason many people avoid the Shortcuts app is that it can be intimidating.
With this update, users can now describe what they want a shortcut to do in simple language, and Apple Intelligence will create that shortcut for them. I tested it by creating a few shortcuts and found it to be really good for creating simple shortcuts. Although complex shortcuts, like the ones I’m using, will still require user input.
Small prizes you will see every day
This update is full of little quality of life wins that I think people will love. Apple added a new super-sized widget that uses a 4×6 layout and takes up almost the entire Home Screen, perfect if you want a ton of information at a glance. Currently, few Apple apps support it, but as developers start updating their apps with new widget sizes, I can see this feature becoming more useful.
Apple’s apps also get some great features. Safari can now automatically organize your tabs by grouping them, Calendar can create events with plain language descriptions, Passwords can automatically update passwords that have been breached, and Find My lets you hide your location from someone for a set period of time without notifying them.
One of the smaller quality-of-life features that everyone will appreciate are the separate volume controls for alarms, ringtones, and media playback, which Apple finally added with this update. You can find this in the Settings app → Sounds & Haptics. Here, you can toggle “Matching ringtone volume” to separate the volumes for alarms, timers, and system notifications.
The keyboard now shows a paste suggestion when copying text, so you can tap directly instead of long pressing. There’s even a new drawing app inside iMessage for sending quick sketches, and the camera app is easy to navigate. Portrait mode no longer hides in the carousel, and you don’t have to guess which swipe reveals which setting.
A smarter, more conversational Siri: what I’m waiting for
This is the title feature, and should be the first point on this list. But I’m still on the waiting list and have no way to test it, so it’s at the end. I’ll cover it in a separate article once I get access, but for now, here’s the lowdown on what to expect.
Siri, now called Siri AI, will understand the context of every conversation, will be able to see what’s on your screen, and access your Photos, Messages, Calendar, Files, Notes, and Reminders once you give it permission.
Real things are what make me happy. You’ll be able to ask Siri to summarize selected files, create reminders anywhere, organize photos, and organize events, all without having to spell out each step.
Siri also gets its own standalone app with chat history, a new interface tied to Dynamic Island, and more natural voice responses. Behind the scenes, Apple is combining its base models with Google Gemini with Private Cloud Compute for on-demand applications.
I hope Apple can finally deliver on its AI promises. But, like I said, I haven’t had access to the new Siri yet, as Apple is still rolling it out, but on paper, this is a much-needed Siri upgrade.
Should you install it yet?
After two days with iOS 27, I wouldn’t call it the most exciting update Apple has ever sent, but it might be one of the most important. All the focus here is performance, clean interface, and smooth experience on all supported iPhones.
My advice for now is to stay tight and wait for the public beta, as this is still very early software. Also, it’s too soon to say much about battery life. It will take a few days for the phone to stabilize and I can give any verdict on it. I ran into a few bugs, but far fewer than I expected ahead of time, which says a lot about where this beta is starting.
If you’re hoping for a bunch of flashy new features, this isn’t the update. But if you want an iPhone that feels faster, smoother, and more reliable than it did in iOS 26, iOS 27 nails it.
