The iOS 27 Betas Are Here — Go Boldly Forth

I’ve had the iOS 27 and iPad OS 27 betas on my devices for a while now. They’re great — and if you’ve been hesitant to download them, go boldly forth and update.

Why so confident? Simply because this year’s releases, right across iOS, iPadOS, macOS and tvOS, are maintenance releases. Think less UI upheaval (though the Liquid Glass slider is making more than a few people happy) and more under-the-hood work: speed, efficiency, reliability. We’ve seen it before — macOS Snow Leopard still comes up in conversation as the one everyone remembers fondly — and after iOS 26’s enormous visual shift, a year spent quietly dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s is no bad thing.

Siri, worth the wait — unless you’re in the EU

The one catch: unless you’re in the US (or happy to switch regions or use a US-based Apple ID), the new Siri AI isn’t ready to make friends with you just yet. I’ve spent real time with it on the developer beta, and I can report that it is indeed excellent. The rest of the world — minus the EU, unfortunately — will need to wait for the full release, likely sometime in September. For the EU it’s a longer story: Apple has confirmed Siri AI is delayed there indefinitely on iPhone and iPad because of the Digital Markets Act, with no timeline yet (oddly, EU users will get it on the Mac and Vision Pro). Assuming Apple’s servers don’t melt on day one, it’ll be worth the wait, and I suspect it’ll end up being quite the hit.

MacOS gets the broadest updates

If anything, macOS gets the most spit and polish this time. The proliferation of menu icons and the frankly weird array of multi-dimensional corners was enough to have me willing macOS 27 to arrive faster. Spotlight gets a real boost too, especially with Siri sitting behind the scenes with access to newly indexed Mac content. Very compelling indeed.

For the iPad-alongside-Mac crowd

A genuinely useful one: if you use your iPad next to your Mac (or as a second monitor), you can now interact fully with the macOS interface by touch on the iPad. A lot less fiddly than you’d expect considering the lack of finger-sized-UI-optimisation, and properly handy. Surely a taste of the touchscreen MacBook that feels increasingly likely later this year.

The letdown: my Apple Watch Series 8 is out

The biggest disappointment? My last-of-breed 2019 Intel MacBook and Apple Watch Series 8 no longer get updates. The reason is telling: these  older devices simply don’t have the horsepower that the new on-device Siri features lean on. Sad times for both of these workhorses, though I’m sure Apple would be delighted if I replaced them both. It’s also a neat reminder that hardware and software support windows don’t last forever — worth keeping in mind for any app that still leans on older devices.

A treat for Vision Pro owners

Panorama photos can now be used as environments in visionOS 27. This really is something quite remarkable, and my iPhone is now rapidly filling up with panoramas as a consequence. Vision Pros are definitely a tough purchase for your bank balance to bear, especially with Apple now turning their attentions more towards AR glasses, but if you happen to have one, you are in for a treat. The new Siri is pretty cute too, now a floating ball you can place anywhere in your room and talk to just by looking at it.

And a gotcha for developers — this one matters for your app

For the devs and businesses out there, be warned, once you move to macOS 27, the old Xcode 26 will no longer run — you’re on Xcode 27, full stop. On the face of it, not a huge problem, but Xcode 27 is where the Liquid Glass transition stops being optional. If your app still uses the pre-Liquid-Glass UI and you were quietly hoping to hold onto it a while longer, that migration you’ve been putting off now comes firmly into focus.

This is the real story of the 27 releases for app owners. A “maintenance year” for Apple is exactly the moment these under-the-hood shifts catch older apps out — a dropped device here, a required toolchain upgrade there, a design language that’s now the default rather than the option. None of it is dramatic on day one, but all of it adds up. If you’re not sure where your app sits with iOS 27 and the Liquid Glass move, that’s precisely what an iOS Application Health Check is for — and it’s the theme of our recent "Another Apple WWDC" and "Your iOS App Isn't Finished - It's Quietly Ageing" posts too.

Go boldly forth — and if you’d like a second pair of eyes on how your app handles the 27 releases, get in touch.