iOS 27, macOS 27 and watchOS 27: Everything Confirmed So Far

Unlike the hardware stories in this roundup, this one isn't a rumour piece. Apple unveiled iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and watchOS 27 at its WWDC 2026 keynote in June, and developer betas have been public ever since. Public betas followed in July, and the final releases are expected in September alongside the iPhone 18 Pro. Here is everything Apple has actually confirmed, gathered from the keynote and the Platforms State of the Union.

Liquid Glass Gets Fixed, Not Replaced

The dominant story of this software generation is Apple listening to a year of complaints about Liquid Glass, the transparency-heavy redesign introduced across all platforms in 2025. Apple has been explicit that it isn't abandoning the look — Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has reported that adoption and satisfaction data internally don't support the idea of a crisis, whatever the loudest online criticism suggested. Instead, Apple has tuned the underlying material itself: it now diffuses complex background content more effectively, improving readability behind menus, Control Center panels, and app overlays. Apple has also added a darkened edge around Liquid Glass elements for better visual separation, along with brighter specular highlights to add depth.

The most requested change has finally shipped too: a systemwide Liquid Glass intensity slider in Settings, letting you dial the effect anywhere from fully clear to fully tinted, rather than choosing between only the two fixed options iOS 26 offered. Apple had reportedly wanted this since iOS 26's development but ran into engineering difficulty extending the effect it built for the Lock Screen clock across the whole system. It made it into iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 alike, and app icons now pick up an extra layer of the Liquid Glass treatment as well.

iOS 27: A Quality-Focused Release

Early rumours compared iOS 27 to Mac OS X Snow Leopard — a release about stability and refinement rather than headline features — and that framing has largely held up. Beyond the Liquid Glass work, confirmed iOS 27 additions include a home screen customisation tool that lets you revert layout changes rather than committing to them immediately, an updated keyboard with more capable autocorrect, and a new dedicated Siri app that introduces an "Extensions" system, shared across iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27. Several new Apple Intelligence features are also rolling out for iPhone 15 Pro and newer, including a Visual Intelligence mode that can scan nutrition labels and log calories and macros directly into the Health app.

CarPlay Gets Video Apps and More

Apple confirmed a meaningful CarPlay upgrade at WWDC 2026: developers can now build CarPlay apps with video browsing, letting passengers (or drivers who are parked) find something to watch directly from the CarPlay interface — Apple specifically cited waiting at the airport or charging an EV as example use cases. It builds on the AirPlay video-to-car feature Apple previewed back at WWDC 2025 but didn't detail until now. Apple also briefly showed four smaller CarPlay refinements during the keynote, including audio scrubbing within the Now Playing interface. Separately — and unrelated to iOS 27 specifically — Apple has said CarPlay Ultra, its deeper dashboard-integrated version of CarPlay, is expanding beyond Aston Martin to at least one major Hyundai or Kia model in the second half of 2026.

macOS 27: Liquid Glass Tuning and Siri on the Mac

Apple has said less publicly about macOS 27 specifically than iOS 27, but the confirmed points are consistent: a "slight redesign" of Liquid Glass tailored to the Mac, where the effect's transparency and shadows historically haven't translated as cleanly as they do on iPhone. The new Siri app and its Extensions system also lands on macOS 27, a notable change for a platform where Siri has historically seen limited use.

watchOS 27: Heart Rate and a Simplified Modular Face

watchOS 27 picked up comparatively little stage time at WWDC, but two confirmed changes stand out. First, the Modular watch face from Apple Watch Ultra is being simplified and brought to non-Ultra models, with some complications removed to better suit smaller, lower-resolution screens. Second, Apple has confirmed meaningful improvements to heart-rate tracking accuracy. Separately, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has reported that Apple's long-rumoured AI health coach — internally known as Project Mulberry — remains on track for the iOS 27 generation, though possibly not until later in the update cycle via a point release, after earlier reports suggested the feature had been scaled back.

Release Timeline

Developer betas for all four operating systems have been available since the WWDC keynote in June. Public betas followed in July. Apple has not announced an exact date, but based on its established pattern, the final public releases of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and watchOS 27 are expected in September 2026, timed to coincide with the iPhone 18 Pro launch.

Unlike other articles in our Apple coverage, the features described above were confirmed by Apple at WWDC 2026 and are available in public beta. Exact release dates and any additional features Apple has not yet detailed remain subject to change before the final release.