What's New in iOS 27: Write with Siri, Wallet Insights, and More

Apple released the second developer beta of iOS 27 today, along with matching beta 2 updates for iPadOS 27, macOS Golden Gate, tvOS 27, visionOS 27, and HomePod Software 27. watchOS 27 beta 2 has not arrived yet, so Apple Watch testers are still sitting on beta 1 for now.

Beta 2 lands two weeks after the first developer seed that followed WWDC, and it's less about flashy new features and more about Apple sanding down the rough edges from beta 1. The biggest visible change is on the Siri front: Write with Siri has fully replaced the old Writing Tools panel across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, and Apple Wallet's new Insights feature is now rolling out to US users for the first time. There's also a noticeably more reliable iPhone Mirroring experience and a fix for AirPods Max owners who got stuck on outdated firmware in beta 1.

This is a living article that we'll keep updating as Apple ships new betas throughout the summer. Here's everything confirmed so far.

iOS 27 Beta 2 (Build 24A5370h)

Write with Siri Replaces Writing Tools

Apple has removed the standalone Writing Tools panel, the one with dedicated buttons like "Friendly" and "Professional," in favor of a new system called Write with Siri. It's a much deeper integration with Siri than the old tools ever were.

Open any app that uses the standard system text fields, like Notes, and you'll see it in action. Before you start typing, the keyboard's suggestion bar shows a prominent Write with Siri button. If you start typing first instead, a smaller Siri icon appears next to your usual three predictive word suggestions.

Tap the Write with Siri button and a text field expands out of the Dynamic Island, asking what you want to do with the document you're working on. You can ask Siri to draft something from scratch, proofread what's already there, or rewrite the whole thing in a different tone. Because it's tied into the rest of Siri rather than running as a separate tool, it can also pull in your personal context to make smarter suggestions.

If you ask Siri to rewrite text that's already on the page, it makes the edit and then shows a panel at the bottom of the screen with a before-and-after comparison, quick undo controls, and an "Edit with Siri" button so you can keep refining the result with follow-up requests.

You don't need to touch the keyboard at all to use this, either. With Siri's on-screen awareness, you can just speak your request out loud and Siri will know you want to edit whatever text field is currently focused.

Write with Siri isn't iOS-only. The same system is rolling out on iPadOS 27 and macOS Golden Gate as well.

Apple Wallet Insights Now Available in the US

Apple Wallet's new Insights feature debuted in select regions with beta 1, and beta 2 brings it to US users for the first time. You'll find it by tapping the three-dot icon in the top-right corner of Wallet.

Insights connects the various payment accounts you've saved in Wallet to surface spending trends, recurring transactions, and account balances in one place. The visual style will look familiar if you've used the trend charts in the Health app. Apple's own description inside the app reads: "Connect accounts to Wallet to see spending insights, recurring transactions, account balances, and more."

If you're in the US and don't see your Insights data yet, you're not alone. Some testers report the feature isn't fully functional yet, tapping Continue on the introductory splash screen just drops you into the standard Add to Wallet flow with no new options to connect an account. Apple's own fine print on that splash screen explains that a subsidiary of Apple handles fetching and standardizing your account data for on-device display, and that the data itself isn't stored.

Insights looks like a likely successor to Wallet's older Connected Cards feature, which let a small number of supported cards show balances and transaction history directly in Wallet. Adoption never really took off. Discover was one of the few US issuers to support it, and pulled that support entirely in early June. If Insights works the way its description suggests, it would let Wallet pull in spending data without needing individual banks and card issuers to build out their own integrations first.

Siri AI Feels Faster, Expressive Voice Still Coming Soon

Early testers are reporting that Siri AI feels noticeably snappier in beta 2 compared to beta 1. There's no official word from Apple on what changed under the hood, but the responsiveness improvement is one of the more consistently mentioned changes among beta testers so far.

Siri's Expressive Voice Preview, which lets you customize how Siri sounds when it talks back to you, now explicitly labels its Pace and Expressivity controls as "coming soon" inside the beta. Those options were visible but non-functional in beta 1; beta 2 makes clear they're still in progress rather than broken.

iPhone Mirroring Is More Reliable

iPhone Mirroring between iOS 27 and macOS 27 Golden Gate was prone to crashing in beta 1, particularly when resizing the mirrored window. Beta 2 addresses this directly. Resizing app windows during a mirroring session and the app automatically snapping back to iPhone-sized dimensions both behave more reliably now.

If you ran into mirroring crashes on beta 1 and gave up on the feature, beta 2 is worth giving another shot.

AirPods Max Firmware Update Fixed

Beta 1 shipped with a bug that prevented AirPods Max from updating their firmware while paired with a device running the new OS. That issue is resolved in beta 2, so AirPods Max owners testing the beta can now update firmware normally.

Apple TV Can Now Be Updated Remotely from the Home App

Beta 2 adds Apple TV to the Updates section of the Home app's settings. Once it's listed there, tapping the update button installs the latest tvOS build without needing to turn the Apple TV on first.

This brings Apple TV in line with how HomePod and HomePod mini have worked for a while now, since both run a variant of tvOS and have long supported remote updates through Home. To check it, open the Home app, tap the settings gear, and look under Software Updates for your Apple TV.

It's a small change on its own, but it lines up with Apple's long-rumored home hub device, which is expected to run a version of tvOS as well. If that device also gets managed through the Home app the way HomePod and now Apple TV are, this beta 2 tweak may be one of the first visible building blocks for it.

RCS Chats with Android Get Real Reactions and Inline Replies

Beta 2 adds two meaningful RCS upgrades for conversations with Android users. First, inline replies now work the same way they do in iMessage. Long press a specific message in an RCS thread and you can reply directly to it instead of just sending a new message at the bottom.

Second, and arguably the bigger fix, reactions finally display properly on the Android side. Previously, tapping a heart or thumbs up on an RCS message just sent the recipient an awkward text notification like someone loved an image. Now the reaction shows up as an actual reaction instead of a clunky workaround message.

Both upgrades are part of the RCS 2.7 standard, which also includes support for editing and unsending messages after they're sent. Apple hasn't enabled those yet, but the fact that reactions and replies landed in this beta suggests more RCS 2.7 features could show up in a future beta. Apple has been steadily filling out its RCS feature set since adding initial support back in iOS 18, and end-to-end encryption for RCS messages between iPhone and Android arrived in iOS 26.5. Keep in mind both sides of the conversation still need an RCS-capable phone and carrier for any of this to work.

AirPort Utility Is Being Discontinued

Buried in the beta 2 release notes, Apple confirmed that AirPort Utility is going away. Once iOS 27 ships, the app will no longer be available for new downloads from the App Store. If you've already downloaded it on an older device, you'll still be able to redownload it, but Apple isn't promising it'll keep working properly on iOS 27 and later.

Apple stopped selling AirPort routers back in 2018, so this is more of a long-overdue cleanup than a surprise. If you're still holding onto an old AirPort base station for some reason, it's worth backing up its settings before you update.

A Handful of Small Interface Tweaks

Beta 2 also includes a batch of minor polish across the system. The Type to Siri cursor is dimmer and its background more transparent than it was in beta 1. The advanced settings menu in Camera now highlights itself whenever one of its options is toggled on. A screenshot cropping bug introduced in beta 1 appears to be fixed. And on the Lock Screen, media controls are now persistent: even if you swipe them away and tap Clear, they'll pop back up the next time something starts playing.

iPadOS 27 Beta 2 (Build 24A5370h)

iPadOS 27 picks up the same Write with Siri system described above. The keyboard prompts, Dynamic Island text entry, and voice-triggered editing all work the same way on iPad as they do on iPhone.

Beta 2 also turns on AirPods Custom EQ for the first time. If you're using AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, AirPods Pro 4, or either generation of AirPods Max, you can now tune a personalized sound profile rather than relying on Apple's presets. Look for the option inside the redesigned AirPods settings menu, which has also been simplified for easier navigation.

macOS Golden Gate Beta 2 (Build 26A5368g)

Golden Gate's second beta arrived alongside the rest of the lineup, two weeks after the post-WWDC beta 1 seed. Like iOS and iPadOS, it gains Write with Siri, replacing the old Writing Tools panel system-wide in any app using standard macOS text fields.

Beyond that, beta 2 continues refining the Liquid Glass changes Apple introduced at WWDC, including the slider in System Settings that lets you control how transparent or opaque interface elements appear. Siri AI on the Mac also benefits from an under-the-hood indexing update that's meant to more precisely surface relevant information when generating answers, the same foundation powering Siri AI's quicker-feeling responses on iOS.

We're continuing to dig through this beta for additional Mac-specific changes and will update this section as we find them.

tvOS 27, visionOS 27, and HomePod Software 27 Beta 2

Apple shipped beta 2 for tvOS 27 (Build 24J5305f), visionOS 27 (Build 24M5306i), and HomePod Software 27 (Build 24J5305f) alongside the rest of the lineup. We haven't found significant new user-facing changes in these betas yet beyond general stability work, but we'll update this article as testers and Apple's release notes reveal more.

No watchOS 27 Beta 2 Yet

Unlike every other platform, watchOS 27 has not received its second beta. Apple's developer betas for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, and HomePod software all moved to beta 2 today, but Apple Watch testers remain on watchOS 27 beta 1 for now. There's no indication of why the update is running behind the rest of the lineup, and Apple hasn't given a timeline for when beta 2 will arrive.

iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS Golden Gate, tvOS 27, visionOS 27, and HomePod Software 27 betas are available now to registered Apple developers. You can install any of them by going to Settings (or System Settings on Mac) → General → Software Update, then selecting the relevant Developer Beta under Beta Updates.

Apple plans to open public betas for every platform except visionOS in July, with the official public release expected this fall alongside the new iPhone lineup. As always, we don't recommend installing developer betas on your primary device. Stick to a secondary iPhone, iPad, or Mac until Apple gets closer to the stable release.

Which iOS 27 beta 2 change are you most interested in testing: Write with Siri, the Wallet Insights rollout, or the iPhone Mirroring fixes? Let us know in the comments below.