We may earn compensation from reviewed products. Learn about our editorial policies.
Need-to-knows
- iPadOS 27 was announced at WWDC 2026 on 8th June
- Siri AI is the headline feature
- Several older iPads have been dropped, including the iPad 8th gen, iPad Air 3rd gen, and iPad mini 5
- Full Apple Intelligence features require M4 and at least 12GB of unified memory
iPadOS 27 is undeniably a much more understated release than 2025’s iPadOS 26. Last year, Apple finally brought some Mac-like features the iPad, making it more capable as a work device, with the arrival of things like window resizing and file management. iPadOS 27 sprinkles on some other things on top, but it is mainly bout introducing Siri AI, Apples newly built AI app.
What you get instead is a set of well-targeted improvements across Siri, productivity, parental controls, and performance, all wrapped in a refined version of Liquid Glass. Here’s our in-depth look!
Siri AI: a proper assistant at last
The centrepiece of iPadOS 27, same as on every other Apple platform this year, is a completely rebuilt Siri. It’s no longer the hit-and-miss voice command system you’ve tolerated for years. The new Siri AI can hold multi-turn conversations, pull information from your Photos, Mail, Notes, and Messages, and take actions across apps — creating reminders, editing photos, adding songs to playlists, sending emails, all through natural language.
Read our full WWDC 2026 roundup!
There’s also a pop-out Siri window specific to iPad, which keeps the assistant visible as a floating panel rather than taking over the whole screen. That’s a thoughtful choice for a device you’re likely using for something else when you invoke it. Conversations sync across your Apple devices via iCloud too, so something you started on your Mac or iPhone can carry over to your iPad without starting from scratch.
One of the demos at WWDC showed Siri planning a World Cup watch party from scratch — pulling a match schedule, suggesting food, searching through old message threads to find a relevant recommendation. Whether that works as smoothly in the real world remains to be seen, but the direction is clear. This is an assistant designed to actually know your life, not just respond to keywords.
Visual Intelligence comes to iPad
iPadOS 27 gains Visual Intelligence, which lets you ask Siri about anything on your screen. Point the camera at something in the real world, or use an Apple Pencil markup or screenshot to highlight something on-screen, and Siri can answer questions about it or take relevant action.
Read our breakdown of what the Siri rebuild means: Siri AI features
On a large-screen device like an iPad, where you’re often looking at documents, reference images, or content from multiple apps at once, this is more useful than it might sound. You don’t have to switch apps to look something up — just circle it and ask.
Productivity and multitasking improvements
iPadOS 26 made the iPad feel more like a laptop. iPadOS 27 makes it feel faster and a bit less clunky to use. Gestures for closing, switching, and dragging windows are quicker. Context menus open faster with a cursor. App names now show in the status bar, and tapping the name pulls up the menu bar instantly without hovering.
Looking at the current iPad lineup? See our Best iPad guide!
Stage Manager has been refined again, and iPhone apps that run on iPad can now be resized to larger dimensions — which should fix the issue of phone apps looking like postage stamps on an 11-inch screen.
There’s also a welcome addition for people running desktop-style workflows: the option to keep the menu bar permanently visible. It’s a small thing, but if you’re using the iPad with a keyboard and trackpad as a primary work device, not having the menu bar disappear every few seconds is quietly a big deal.
More: Best iPad Keyboard – Magic Keyboard vs Logitech
The Shortcuts app gains natural language creation. Describe what you want an automation to do, and Apple Intelligence will build it for you. That’s going to bring Shortcuts to a much wider audience — the people who knew it could save them time but never wanted to learn the interface to build one.
Photos and creative tools
Photos is getting a meaningful upgrade. New Apple Intelligence-powered editing tools include Spatial Reframing, which lets you recompose a shot after you’ve taken it, plus an improved Clean Up that can handle larger objects, and an Extend tool that expands a photo beyond its original frame.
There’s also a new slideshow creation tool that can turn a collection of photos and videos into a shareable, customisable presentation video. You can adjust timing, transitions, and music before exporting. It’s not a professional video editing feature, but for family moments and trips it’s the kind of thing people will actually use.
Cross-platform sharing for shared albums has been expanded too — Android and Windows users can now access iCloud Shared Albums more easily. That’s a quiet but practical move for mixed-device households.
Parental controls get a serious overhaul
This is a big one. Screen Time has been redesigned, and the new parental control tools are considerably more capable than what existed before. Parents can now:
- Set category-based Time Allowances for entertainment, games, and social media
- Schedule specific apps to be available only during certain times of day
- Restrict access to individual apps
- Control who children can communicate with through iMessage
- Require approval before visiting new websites, via the new Ask to Browse feature
Ask to Browse is particularly well thought-through. When a child wants to visit an unfamiliar site, the request gets sent to the parent via Messages. The parent can approve or deny it remotely — no need to grab the device. Communication Safety has also been expanded; it now intervenes before children view graphic violence in shared content, not just nudity.
Related: iOS 27 new features
Apple is also opening up its parental control APIs to third-party developers, so apps can build in age-appropriate experiences using a new Declared Age Range system.
Safari, performance, and everything else
Safari gains the same Automatic Tab Topics feature as on macOS — it groups your open tabs by topic automatically, which should help anyone who keeps twenty tabs open at once. The Notify Me feature lets you ask Safari to watch a webpage and alert you when something changes.
On performance, the numbers Apple is citing are solid. Apps launch up to 30% faster thanks to intelligent preloading. AirDrop transfers are reportedly up to 80% quicker. File transfers to an external drive are up to 5x faster — a change that will matter to anyone using an iPad for video work or photography. Apple has also expanded its CPU scheduler to all iPadOS 27-supported iPads, which means even older hardware in the compatibility window should feel noticeably snappier.
Liquid Glass has been refined with better contrast, more uniform refraction, and a new customisation slider that lets you adjust how transparent or tinted the interface looks. App icons are sharper and more detailed. The overall impression is that Apple has listened to the criticism the Liquid Glass redesign attracted in its first year and addressed the most common complaints.
Compatibility: who’s in and who’s out
iPadOS 27 has a broader compatibility cut than people might expect. Several iPads that ran iPadOS 26 won’t be getting this update:
- iPad 8th generation (2020)
- iPad Air 3rd generation
- iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation
- iPad mini 5th generation
Unlike iOS 27, which carries forward every iPhone from iOS 26, Apple has made a definitive break on iPad. Dropped models will still receive security updates, but they won’t see the new features.
Thinking about whether it’s time to upgrade? Our M4 iPad Air review is the place to start
The supported list covers iPad Pro M1 and later (both 11-inch and 13-inch), iPad Air M2 and later, iPad 9th generation and later, iPad (A16), iPad mini 6th generation and later, and iPad mini A17 Pro.
There’s an additional caveat on top of that. The full Siri AI experience — including the most powerful on-device Apple Intelligence models — requires an M4 iPad with at least 12GB of unified memory. That means if you’re on an M1 or M2 iPad, you’ll get the base update and the performance improvements, but some of the more advanced AI features will be off the table.
When can you get it?
The developer beta is live now. A public beta is expected in July, with the final release arriving in September 2026, alongside iOS 27 and macOS 27 Golden Gate.
7 Comments
This is a helpful overview of the new iPadOS 27 features, especially the improvements to Siri AI, multitasking, and productivity tools. As a quick break from reading tech news, I’ve been playing Among Us lately since its mix of social deduction, teamwork, and quick matches is a fun way to unwind.
Really solid breakdown of iPadOS 27—clear, easy to follow, and it does a great job highlighting what actually matters without overcomplicating things Her Trees Free
This is a useful summary of the new iPadOS 27 features, including the enhancements to productivity tools, multitasking, and Siri AI. geometry dash lite
Personal income plays a major role in determining how quickly someone can save. A person with a higher disposable income may be able to purchase sex dolls cheap within weeks or months, while someone managing rent, bills, family expenses, and other financial responsibilities may need significantly more time. The key factor is not simply how much someone earns, but how much money remains after essential expenses are covered.
The best sex dolls features meticulously crafted proportions and intricate surface details, showcasing the superb craftsmanship and artistic techniques employed in its creation.
Constructed from high-quality silicone or TPE, the love doll offers a durable structure, a smooth and refined surface, and a consistent finish suitable for long-term display.
Even after playing many times, I still return to Dinosaur Game because it is familiar, accessible, and challenging enough to make every new score feel rewarding.