Apple has released iOS 27.2 and iPadOS 27.2, and it’s a meaty one. Siri AI gets a memory and a much wider view of your personal information, Messages starts suggesting quick actions based on your chats, and there’s a scattering of improvements across Photos, Podcasts, Apple TV and more. iPad owners get a couple of extras of their own, too.
Siri remembers
Siri AI can now recall your past conversations with it. That means you can ask about something it told you before – Apple’s example is the restaurants it recommended last week – rather than starting from scratch every time.
Siri AI requires an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max or any iPhone 16 model or later. On iPad, you’ll need an iPad mini (A17 Pro) or an iPad with an M1 chip or later.
Siri knows more about you
Siri AI can also draw on a wider range of sources to answer your questions. These include photos attached in Messages, the attendees of your Calendar events and your voicemails, along with better results from your Safari history and Reading List.
More control over what Siri sees
If that sounds like a lot of access, a new Excluded Apps setting lets you choose which apps Siri, Search and suggestions can dip into, all from one place. Handy if there are apps you’d rather keep to yourself.
There’s also granular text selection, so you can select and copy just the part of a Siri response you need, rather than the whole lot.
Siri learns new languages
Siri AI now supports French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. Siri AI remains unavailable in the EU and mainland China.
Suggestions in Messages
Messages can now spot when a conversation calls for action and offer to help. Arrange dinner with a friend, for example, and it can suggest adding a Calendar invite. Apple says it works with apps like Calendar and Reminders, saving you a trip out of the chat to do it yourself.
Shared Albums get a tidy-up
Shared Albums in Photos now let you edit captions and comments, and help you avoid adding duplicate photos. They can also display a reminder before an album expires, giving everyone a chance to save the photos and videos they care about before they vanish.
Spotting AI images
Photos and Image Playground now support SynthID watermarking. This is an invisible marker that helps identify whether an image was generated or modified with generative AI tools – useful at a time when it’s increasingly hard to tell.
iPad extras
iPadOS 27.2 brings two changes you won’t find on iPhone. Write with Siri now appears in more places, including when you hover over a text selection or an empty line with a trackpad, and when you select handwritten text in Notes.
Side-by-side multitasking is also easier to set up. When you tile an app to the left or right using the window controls or menu bar, you can now choose a second app to fill the other half straight away.
Podcasts, Games, Apple TV and FaceTime
The Home tab in Podcasts now has separate sections for New Episodes and Continue Playing, so you can catch up on the latest from your shows and then pick up where you left off.
In the Games app, the Friends tab explains why it’s suggesting particular friends and shows recent games played on friends’ player pages.
The Apple TV app gains Simple Profiles, letting everyone in your household have their own profile with recommendations to match their tastes – so your viewing history is no longer at the mercy of the kids.
Finally, FaceTime now supports adding a third-party sign language interpreter or live captioner to a call.
Security updates
Apple says this release includes bug fixes and security updates, but it hasn’t yet published the details on its security releases page. That’s normal: Apple holds back the specifics until people have had a chance to update, so bad actors can’t use the information to exploit the flaws. Either way, it’s a good reason not to put this one off.
How to update
To install the update, open Settings > General > Software Update and follow the prompts to download and restart your iPhone or iPad. If you have automatic updates enabled, it may update on its own when the conditions are right – but it’s quicker to trigger the update yourself.
