Beyond Siri: Here are the practical AI features coming to your iPhone in iOS 27

An AI overhaul for Siri may have been the major announcement at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, but Apple’s broader AI strategy is being shaped by a series of smaller features built into its software.

Instead of asking consumers to adopt the new AI-powered version of Siri to get all the benefits that AI brings, the company is integrating AI into the apps and services people already use, with a focus on solving real-world problems. The result is that your iPhone will be able to split restaurant bills between friends, secure your passwords after a data breach, automate tasks, and organize information with less manual effort, among other things.

Individually, these features may not be as exciting as Siri finally understanding your personal context and can take actions on your behalf. But together they offer a vision for AI that’s less about chatting with a bot and more about making Apple’s own software smarter and more capable.

Beyond Siri AI, here are the smaller AI features in iOS 27 that we’re looking forward to using. The features are now in developer beta and will soon reach public beta, ahead of the public release of iOS 27 later this fall.

Split the bill

When iOS 27 rolls out later this fall, customers will be able to split a restaurant bill using Apple Cash. Powered by Apple Intelligence, simply snap a photo of your receipt (or upload one), and you’ll then see a new option that lets you choose to split the bill with others. Apple Intelligence extracts key details from the bill, such as items ordered, quantities, tip, and total. You can select the items you ordered from the receipt and then share an order for others to do the same by messaging the group chat. Others can choose their own items and quantities – even choose half (1/2) if they split with another. To pay, simply double-tap just like you would with any other Apple Cash transaction.

The split bill option doesn’t seem complicated because it only appears when you need it and works with existing apps and services people already know, like Messages and Apple Cash. It’s also smart enough to ask for everyone’s share of tax and tip as well as the prices of the items.

Update password

Thanks to password managers like Apple’s Passwords app or others from third parties like 1Password, Dashlane, or Bitwarden, you’ve probably created complex passwords that aren’t easy to guess. Unfortunately, this is no longer enough to keep passwords secure. As numerous data breaches have shown us over the years, your passwords often end up in the hands of bad actors through no fault of your own.

Apple’s new Password Update feature will now leverage artificial intelligence to take action on users’ behalf by identifying weak and compromised passwords – such as those found in a data breach. Instead of forcing you to manually update your passwords, the feature securely navigates websites, logging in and upgrading your passwords to new, more secure versions.

One-click message suggestions

If you thought the feature that automatically displays the SMS passcode you need to sign in to a website right above your keyboard was one of the best things Apple has ever done, you’ll love the new one-click suggestions in iOS 27.

Using Apple Intelligence, the Messages app will offer a variety of one-click suggestions based on users’ conversation topics. For example, if a friend texts you asking you to bring something when you meet them, a one-click suggestion might ask if you’d like to add the request to your reminders. If someone asks you to share photos from an event, Apple Intelligence can suggest appropriate photos to send using its understanding of keywords, locations, and people in their photo library. Or, if you’re planning a dinner date or business meeting, Messages can prompt you to add the event to your calendar. And so on.

Once again, the feature presents itself as a useful tool in your chat, not as an obviously AI-powered addition.

Call context

Another under-the-radar option coming in iOS 27 will make phone calls with companies’ customer service departments a little less stressful, as it will show up the necessary information you might need to provide the answering business representative. For example, if you’re calling about your airline reservation, the call context feature will display your confirmation code directly on the call screen.

To work, the feature leverages Apple’s intelligence to pull information from your email into Mail, and run it entirely on-device for privacy. Moreover, it is a tool that only works in the background; It doesn’t require you to talk to the AI ​​assistant to extract information – the necessary details just appear.

Add calendar events

Replicating a feature that third-party apps like Fantasical have provided for years, Apple will now also allow you to add or change calendar events just by describing them in natural language. Under the hood, Apple Intelligence extracts contacts and locations and generates an event address for you. This feature makes it easier to add things to your Apple Calendar without having to think about which field needs to enter the information.

Dynamic coding abbreviations

One of the most powerful apps on the iPhone, Shortcuts, has been out of reach for many users due to the technical overhead involved. The app lets you program tasks and workflows and create automated processes that make your life easier. But using shortcuts can be a frustrating experience for non-professional users, who will have to search online tutorials or other resources, such as shortcut galleries, to find the tools they need.

In iOS 27, you can only describe what you want your iPhone to do. Apple suggests that you can set your alarm each night based on events on your calendar the next day, or have it open your favorite productivity apps in a certain way every time you connect the Magic Keyboard to your iPad. But you don’t even have to get that obsessive — Shortcuts can also perform other everyday tasks, like automatically texting your partner with your ETA when you leave work, or turning on your porch lights when a DoorDash order arrives.

Reduce spam in the Home app

Smart home users know that their apps can often inundate them with a large number of unimportant notifications that are actually a single event. For example, if your partner comes home, opens the smart garage door, checks the mail, and then enters the house, you can get one notification for each action — which feels like spam. Using Apple Intelligence in iOS 27, the Home app can understand multiple actions and how they’re related, so it sends a single notification related to overall activity: that someone arrived home and closed the garage door.

AI can also help you find the segments you need, such as a package delivery or other event, via search. The Home app will have noteworthy clips for review at the top of the screen.

Organized tabs in Safari

Another less obvious AI feature is the tab organizer in the Safari web browser. With Apple Intelligence, Safari can now understand what you’re browsing across websites, then organize your tabs into relevant topics. For example, if you have multiple tabs open related to a trip you’re planning, Safari can add all of them to a tab group for Travel. These appear at the top of your browser, at the top of the web page, for easy access when you’re ready to return to your web search.

Apple notes that the AI ​​that does this work for you also respects users’ privacy, because it doesn’t reveal your browsing data to anyone — even Apple.