Apple Releases iOS 27 and macOS Golden Gate With Beta Siri AI

Apple said Siri AI is available first on supported devices set to English and requires users to opt in through the Settings app; CNBC reported users may have to join a waitlist. Support for French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish is scheduled for October. The assistant will not initially be available in the European Union or China, where Apple cited regulatory requirements and said it is working hard to find a path forward that preserves privacy and security. Users need hardware that supports Apple Intelligence to run Siri AI. iOS 27 itself runs on iPhone 11 and later and second- and third-generation iPhone SE, but Siri AI requires iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16 models or later, plus iPad and Mac models with M1 or later, iPad mini with A17 Pro, MacBook Neo with A18 Pro, Apple Vision Pro, Apple Watch Series 9 or later, Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later and Apple Watch SE 3.

Siri AI can pull information from apps, messages, email and calendars, and it can use what is on screen to answer questions. It can search the web and answer general queries, and it has a new Siri app that saves previous chats and lets users reply to Siri's responses. A systemwide "Ask Siri" option in context menus lets users select text, images or files and ask about them. Apple first revealed the assistant in June; a version announced in 2024 was delayed last year, CNBC reported. Apple is using Google's Gemini to build its own models, according to CNBC, and 9to5Mac reported the revamped Siri was developed in partnership with Google's Gemini model. For more complex requests, Apple uses Private Cloud Compute running on Google Cloud infrastructure with Nvidia and Intel chips. Apple said some cloud-based Siri AI and Apple Intelligence features will have daily usage limits, and expanded limits will be available for a fee in the future. 9to5Mac reported that developers must expose app content and capabilities through Apple's App Intents framework for Siri AI to interact with third-party apps. At its iPhone launch event last week, in his first such event since succeeding Tim Cook on Sept. 1, CEO John Ternus said, "It's personal intelligence that's actually personal," according to CNBC.

Beyond Siri AI, iOS 27 adds a Liquid Glass opacity slider, redesigned app icons, extra-large widgets, separate volume settings for ringtones, alarms, timers, alerts and system sounds, and performance improvements that Apple says make app launches up to 30 percent faster. The update also includes new AI photo-editing tools, custom EQ support for AirPods, a bill-splitting feature in the US, expanded parental controls and a way to use the same phone number on two iPhones. macOS 27 Golden Gate brings its own Liquid Glass refinements, standardized window corner radii, revamped app icons and traffic-light controls, and removes most menu-item icons. Its Siri AI lives in Spotlight and the new Siri app. watchOS 27 adds Workout Buddy features, a new tap gesture, Smart Stack suggestions and an improved Find My app. visionOS 27 lets users preview notifications with their eyes, updates Control Center and allows panoramas to be used as immersive scenes. iPadOS 27 improves external-drive file transfer speeds, browsing speed and Wi-Fi-to-cellular transitions.

Security was also part of Monday's rollout. According to 9to5Mac, Apple's security content page lists more than 120 fixes in iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, including patches for vulnerabilities that could allow attackers or malicious apps to execute arbitrary code, gain kernel or root privileges, access sensitive user data or bypass system protections. The affected components include Accelerate Framework, Accessibility, Accounts, APFS, App Store, Apple Account, Apple Neural Engine and AppleAVD.

App developers began using the new tools on day one. Daydream, an AI fashion discovery app, launched two features built with Apple's iOS 27 developer tools, according to TechCrunch. One uses Apple's image-context capabilities to analyze outfits saved in the Photos app, identify individual pieces and surface shoppable matches or similar styles from Daydream's catalog of roughly 3 million products. The other lets users search for clothing and accessories through Siri by voice or text without opening the app. Daydream co-founder and CEO Julie Bornstein told TechCrunch the app can handle variations such as "I like this sweater but want it in red." She said most visual search tools lack fashion category expertise and return inaccurate results or non-shoppable images. Daydream launched last year and says it has more than 1.5 million shoppers browsing products from more than 325 retailers and 10,000 brands, including Anthropologie, Dolce & Gabbana, Uniqlo, J.Crew, Reformation, Gucci and Nordstrom. Bornstein described the features as one step toward a broader shopping agent.

SmartGym 8, a fitness tracking app, also updated with natural-language workout creation and deeper Siri AI integration, according to 9to5Mac. The app introduced SmartGym Intelligence, its own private cloud alternative, because developer Matt Abras said SmartGym is not eligible to use Apple's Private Cloud Compute through the new Foundation Models framework. SmartGym 8 relies on Apple's new Language Model APIs to extend the Foundation Models framework to frontier models running on SmartGym's own private cloud infrastructure, according to 9to5Mac. SmartGym says requests are anonymous, prompts and responses are not logged or retained, and users' submissions are not used to train AI models. It says it never connects directly to an AI lab, and the labs behind the frontier models do not receive users' prompts. Users can type or dictate prompts such as "create a push-pull-legs workout with 10 exercises per day. Avoid bench press. Include 2 warm-up exercises per day," or ask Siri to start workouts, log sets or show heart rates. SmartGym is free to download on the App Store.

Apple's hardware calendar continues alongside the software release. The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max arrive this week, and the foldable iPhone Duo is expected next month, according to Engadget. Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4 and AirPods 5 are set to be available starting September 18, while new Mac mini and Mac Studio models arrive next week. Refreshed MacBooks and iPads are expected in the coming months.