Apple Mail in iOS 27 Adds Upgraded Search, Third-Party Suggestions, Siri AI

The Mail app's search function has received a major upgrade in iOS 27. A new ranking system places the most relevant results at the top, which the report says helps users find what they need immediately even if a message is buried deep in the inbox. 9to5Mac said its testing so far suggests the update has fixed cases in which search previously failed to find messages the user knew existed.

Suggestions at the top of messages have existed in Apple Mail for years, but iOS 27 gives them a more flexible design and expands them to third-party apps. When Mail detects that a user may want to act on the contents of an email, a suggestion can appear at the top of the message. Existing examples include directions in Maps, creating events in Calendar, and tracking a shipment with Apple Wallet. In iOS 27, third-party apps can offer suggestions too, and when multiple apps offer suggested actions, a drop-down menu shows all available options.

Smart Reply, a keyboard feature that surfaces reply options for one-tap use, is also being improved through the next generation of Apple Intelligence in iOS 27. Apple says Smart Reply can now draw on a user's personalized writing style. Rather than offering fairly generic reply options, the report says, Smart Reply suggestions will sound much more like the user.

Apple has added Ask Siri buttons throughout Apple Mail, as it has in other system apps, and Siri AI brings new capabilities to Mail users. The report cites an example seen on social media: asking Siri to delete all messages from a specific sender who is spamming the user.

Beyond new features, Apple says iOS 27 makes Mail run better through bug fixes and performance improvements. The report lists faster message loading, more reliable search indexing, improved list formatting, and improved unread badge accuracy as specific examples.