Siri’s AI overhaul may have been the main announcement at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, but Apple’s broader AI strategy is taking shape through a series of smaller features built into its software.
Instead of asking consumers to adopt the new AI version of Siri to get all the benefits AI has to offer, the company is embedding 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 among your friends, protect your passwords after data breaches, automate tasks, and organize information with less manual effort, among other things.
Individually, these features may not be as dramatic as a Siri that finally understands your personal context and can take action on your behalf. But combined, they present a vision of AI that’s less about chatting with a bot and more about making Apple’s software itself feel smarter and more capable.
Beyond Siri AIhere are the smaller AI features in iOS 27 that we can’t wait to use. The features are live now in developer beta and will soon reach public beta before the general public release of iOS 27 later this fall.
Account split
When iOS 27 is released later this fall, customers will be able to split the restaurant bill using Apple Cash. Powered by Apple Intelligence, you simply take a photo of the receipt (or upload a photo) and then you’ll see a new option that lets you choose to share the bill with others. Apple Intelligence works to extract key details from the bill, such as items ordered and quantities, tip and total. You can select the products you ordered from the receipt and then share a request for others to do the same by sending a message in the group chat. Others can choose their items and amounts — even choosing half (1/2) if they split with another. To pay, you double-click as you would for any other Apple Cash transaction.
The option to separate accounts doesn’t seem complicated because it only appears when needed and works with existing apps and services that people already know, like Messages and Apple Cash. It’s also smart enough to ask for everyone’s share of the tax and tip along with the prices of the items.
Update password
Thanks to password managers like Apple’s Passwords app or third-party ones like 1Password, Dashlane, or Bitwarden, you’ve probably already created complex passwords that aren’t prone to being easily guessed. Unfortunately, this is no longer enough to keep passwords secure. As many data breaches over the years have shown us, your passwords often still 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 behalf of users, detecting both weak and compromised passwords — like those found in a data breach. Instead of forcing you to manually update your passwords, the feature safely navigates websites, links and upgrades your passwords to new, more secure versions.
Messages’ suggestions with a tap
If you thought the feature that appears automatically the SMS password you need to sign in to a website right above the keyboard is one of the best things Apple has ever introduced, you’ll love the new one-tap suggestions in iOS 27.
Using Apple Intelligence, the Messages app will offer a variety of one-tap suggestions based on the topics of users’ conversations. For example, if a friend texts to ask you to bring them something when you meet, the one-tap suggestion can ask if you want to add the request to your reminders. If someone asks you to share photos from an event, Apple Intelligence can suggest the right photos to send using its understanding of keywords, locations, and people in its photo library. Or, if you’re planning a dinner date or a work meeting, Messages can prompt you to add the event to your Calendar. And so on.
Again, the feature itself just appears as a useful tool in your chat, not an obviously AI-powered addition.
Call environment
Another under-the-radar option coming to iOS 27 will make phone calls with companies’ customer service departments a little less stressful by displaying the necessary information you might need to give to the business representative who answers. For example, if you are calling for your airline reservation, the Call Box feature will display the confirmation code directly on the call screen.
To work, the feature leverages Apple Intelligence to pull the information from your email in Mail, which runs entirely on the device for privacy. Moreover, it is a tool that just works in the background. it doesn’t require you to talk to an AI assistant to extract the information — it just displays the necessary details.
Add Calendar events
Copying a feature that third-party apps like Fantasical have had for years, Apple will now let you add or change Calendar events just by describing them in natural language. Under the hood, Apple Intelligence extracts the contacts and locations and creates a title for the event for you. The feature makes it easy to add items to Apple Calendar without having to think about which field you need to enter information.
Vibe Coding Shortcuts
One of the most powerful apps on the iPhone, Shortcuts, is inaccessible for many users due to technical overhead. The app lets you write tasks and workflows and create automations that make your life easier. However, using Shortcuts could be a frustrating experience for power-hungry users, who would have to look to tutorials or other resources, such as a shortcut gallery, to find the tools they need.
In iOS 27, you can simply describe what you want your iPhone to do. Apple suggests being able to set your alarm clock each night based on events in your calendar the next day, or have your favorite productivity apps open a certain way every time you connect your Magic Keyboard to an iPad. But you don’t even have to get that crazy — Shortcuts can also perform other everyday tasks, like automatically texting your partner your ETA when you leave work or turning on the porch lights when your DoorDash order arrives.
Less Home app spam
Smart home users know that their apps can often overwhelm them with a series of trivial notifications that are really all a single event. For example, if your partner comes home, lifts the smart garage door, checks mail, and then walks into the house, you could get one notification per action — which starts to look like spam. With Apple Intelligence in iOS 27, the Home app can understand multiple actions and how they’re connected, so it sends a single notification related to the overall activity: that someone arrived home and closed the garage door.
AI can also help you find clips you need, such as a package delivery or other event, through search. And the Home app will feature notable clips to control at the top of the screen.
Organized tabs in Safari
Another less obvious AI feature is tab organization in the Safari web browser. Using Apple Intelligence, Safari can now understand what websites you’re browsing and then organize your tabs into relevant topics. For example, if you have multiple tabs open related to a trip you’re planning, Safari could add them all to a trip tab group. These appear at the top of the browser, above the web page, for easy access when you’re ready to return to your web research.
Apple notes that the AI that does this work for you also respects user privacy by not exposing your browsing data to anyone — not even Apple.
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