Apple’s WWDC 2026 keynote spent a lot of time on Apple Intelligence, Siri AI, and (less predictably) child account protections, which meant there wasn’t room to say much about iOS 27 beyond the big-hitting, headline features.
However, with the first developer beta of iOS 27 now out in the world, users are quickly coming across changes and improvements, and posting their findings to social media. There’s also more information now up on the Apple website.
Here we’re going to run through some of the iOS 27 upgrades that Apple didn’t mention at WWDC but which make the mobile operating system worth looking forward to ahead of a full rollout (most likely in September, as usual).
Bear in mind that iOS 27 is still in beta development — there’s a good chance that all these changes will make it to the final version of the software, but it’s not guaranteed, and there may be additional tweaks along the way.
There’s better management of your lock screen, too. As reported by 9to5Mac, you can swipe away the now playing widget from the display when your iPhone is locked, as if it’s a notification. This is something you can already do on Android, and it will please users who don’t want constant access to playback controls.
Then we’ve got the addition of extra-large widgets (9to5Mac again), which give you more space on your Today view and on your home screens. No doubt this points towards the future release of a foldable iPhone, which it seems iOS 27 is setting the scene for.
As we’ve already reported, there are changes to CarPlay that include the ability to watch videos (when you’re parked), and there are bonuses for other apps and services connected to iOS 27: iCloud+ subscriptions will come with higher AI usage limits once you’ve upgraded your iPhone software.
FaceTime, volume control, and Apple Music
More iOS tidbits have been collected by MacRumors from a screen briefly shown during the WWDC 2026 keynote: dual phone numbers (using the same number on two iPhones), dual-camera support in FaceTime, speed improvements for AirPlay and AirDrop, and a new drawing app in Messages.
The arrival of iOS 27 will also usher in separate volume controls for alarms (high on many an iPhone owner’s wishlist), support for Markdown formatting in Notes, the ability to extract video frames as photos in the Photos app, and a few tweaks to the Weather app that include a new Highlights view.
Continuing with upgrades to specific apps in iOS 27, we’re going to get dedicated perimenopause and menopause support in the Health app, which Apple says will include “notifications about cycle deviations inclusive of perimenopause”.
While there aren’t any major changes to Apple Music, there are a few tweaks as spotted by 9to5Mac. These include redesigned artist pages and an update to the AutoMix feature that gives you more options for AI-generated transitions that seamlessly blend one song into the next in a playlist.
Photo slideshows, AirPods, and AI breaks
iOS 27 introduces a new “Hide Location” button in Find My that allows you to stop sharing your location without notifying the other person. pic.twitter.com/p0gIHsMy46June 9, 2026
Another new feature spotted by MacRumors is a long-awaited upgrade: iOS 27 now lets us create slideshows from any photos and videos (rather than just specific albums) — something it’s hard to believe the Photos app hasn’t been able to do before now. Slide duration, transition style, and music can all be customized, and the slideshow can be saved as a video, too.
We’re also indebted to Aaron Perris on X for digging into the iOS 27 developer beta with an impressive amount of diligence. Among the upgrades he’s turned up are the ability to hide your location from someone in Find My (without notifying the other person), a redesigned AirPods settings page, the ability to temporarily disable alarms during recognized holidays, and more control over photo and video sync to iCloud.
There’s also hidden code suggesting that the new Siri AI will recommend that you take breaks if you’ve been chatting with the digital assistant for too long. This isn’t currently enabled or active yet, though, so we’ll have to wait and see if it appears when iOS 27 starts rolling out to everyone.
We can expect more changes, bug fixes, and security patches to appear between now and the full iOS 27 launch — and then development on the software will continue (as it has with iOS 26). While the new AI features will get most of the attention, it’s another significant update from Apple.
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