Apple used its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday to unveil a sweeping set of AI-powered updates to its software platforms, headlined by a ground-up rebuild of Siri. The new assistant, branded Siri AI, is the centerpiece of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and visionOS 27 — and represents Apple's most ambitious push yet to make artificial intelligence central to how people use its devices every day.

SEE ALSO: Everything we learned about iOS 27 at WWDC 2026

But the announcement came with a significant caveat: Users in the European Union won't get the full experience on iPhone or iPad, at least not yet (or ever), thanks to an ongoing standoff with European Union regulators over the Digital Markets Act.

You'll have to wait until the fall for Siri AI, iOS 27, and new Apple Intelligence features to make their public debut, but here's everything we learned at WWDC 2026.

Siri's AI rebuild is finally here

Credit: Apple

Apple has completely reimagined Siri from the ground up. Now called Siri AI and powered by Apple Intelligence, the assistant is designed to be more conversational, more context-aware, and far more capable than its predecessor. According to Apple, it can draw on a user's personal messages, emails, and photos to surface relevant information — finding a restaurant a friend mentioned in a text, for instance, or pulling a hotel confirmation number out of an old email.

The rebuilt assistant also taps into broad web knowledge to answer questions on virtually any topic, and users can extend any response into a back-and-forth conversation with follow-up questions.

Siri AI gets a dedicated app for the first time, which syncs conversation history across devices via iCloud — so a conversation started on a Mac can be picked up on iPhone or Apple Watch. It also gains deeper Visual Intelligence capabilities, with the feature expanding beyond iPhone to iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro. On iPhone, a new Siri mode built directly into the Camera app lets users point their phone at something and get information or take action on it — including splitting a bill via Apple Cash or getting nutritional info about food. On Mac, a keyboard shortcut lets users select anything on screen and query Siri about it directly.

You can change the expressiveness and pace of Siri AI. Credit: Apple

Voice customization gets an upgrade, too, with new pace and expressivity sliders that let users tune how Siri sounds. The assistant is also expanding to CarPlay and AirPods, and Apple Watch users can initiate conversations from their wrist.

Siri AI will enter developer beta today and roll out to users later this year, initially in English, on devices running Apple's latest software across iPhone 16 and later, iPhone 15 Pro, M1-and-later iPads and Macs, and Apple Vision Pro.

New parental controls and child safety tools

Credit: Apple

Apple also used the keynote to preview a significant expansion of its parental control features, framing the updates as tools to help families build healthier digital habits rather than simply restrict access.

At the center of the update is a revamped child account setup experience. According to Apple's press release, parents can now choose exactly which apps a child can access from the start, beginning with just a few essentials and expanding over time. A new Ask to Browse feature extends the existing Ask to Buy system into Safari, requiring kids to get parental approval before visiting any new website across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Communication controls are getting an upgrade, too. Parents can now require approval before their child connects with any new contact over Messages, FaceTime, or Phone. The existing Communication Safety feature, which detects and blurs nudity in messages, will now also flag and block gore or violent content in shared images and videos.

SEE ALSO: Amid protest, Apple announces 'Ask to browse,' other child safety tools

Screen Time has been redesigned with a cleaner dashboard, giving parents an at-a-glance view of their child's device usage and most-used apps, with the ability to make adjustments on the fly — extending time in an app, or locking things down during dinner. New Time Allowances let parents set category-level limits, with age-based guidance informed by expert research built in as a starting point.

Apple also launched a dedicated child safety website at apple.com/child-safety to help parents navigate the tools.

The announcements come as the broader debate over how to protect minors online continues to intensify across the industry. Age verification laws are proliferating at the state level, and a broader fight is playing out in Washington over who should bear responsibility for keeping kids safe — app stores (Apple and Google), developers (Meta, Spotify, X, etc.), or both. Apple's move to deepen its own parental infrastructure adds another layer to that conversation, even as the legal and regulatory landscape remains unsettled.

A design refresh and under-the-hood speed bumps

Credit: Apple

Apple also spent time on the fit-and-finish improvements coming to its software platforms this fall.

Liquid Glass, the translucent design language Apple introduced last year, is getting a readability-focused tune-up. The material now diffuses light more effectively, and a new slider in Settings lets users dial the effect anywhere from fully clear to ultra-tinted. Toolbars have been unified across apps, sidebars now stretch edge-to-edge on Mac, and icons have been sharpened with a new refracted look throughout the system.

On the performance side, Apple says the numbers are significant. According to the company's press release, apps on iPhone and iPad launch up to 30 percent faster, photos load up to 70 percent faster after being taken, and AirDrop transfers are up to 80 percent quicker. Browsing and transferring files between external drives and iPad is now up to five times faster — on par with Finder on Mac. Search in Spotlight, Photos, and Mail has also been rebuilt for better stability and more relevant results, with Mail getting a new ranking system to surface better Top Hits.

Apple Intelligence spreads across core apps

Apple Intelligence is no longer a standalone feature set — it's woven into nearly every major app in the iOS 27 ecosystem. From browsing to messaging to home security, the throughline is the same: describe what you want, and the system figures out the rest.

Safari

Safari is getting new AI tools. Credit: Apple

Safari gets some of the most practical upgrades in the bunch. The browser can now automatically group open tabs by topic — if you've been researching a weekend trip, for instance, it'll pull those tabs together without being asked.

A new Notify Me feature lets users set Safari to monitor a specific webpage for changes, such as a product restock or price drop, and send a notification when something shifts. The Passwords app gains a related capability — it can now automatically navigate to websites and update compromised or weak passwords on a user's behalf. And with Describe an Extension, users can generate a custom Safari extension just by explaining what they want it to do.

Messages, Mail, and Phone

Contextual suggestions are getting smarter across Apple's communication apps. Messages can now surface one-tap actions based on conversation context — if someone mentions needing photos, it can help find the right ones from your library. Mail's suggestions can now trigger actions in third-party apps, and Smart Reply in both apps can now match a user's personal writing style. A new Phone app feature called Call Context automatically surfaces relevant information — like a confirmation number from an old email — when you call a business, and does so entirely on-device.

Calendar and Shortcuts

Calendar can now create and modify events through natural language input, automatically identifying contacts, locations, and generating a title as you type. Shortcuts gets a similar treatment with Describe a Shortcut — users can explain what they want to automate in plain language, and the app assembles the required steps on their behalf.

Home

The Home app gets a pair of meaningful AI upgrades for HomeKit Secure Video users. Related notifications from cameras are now batched into a single updating alert rather than a flood of individual pings. The app can also generate text descriptions of video sequences and let users search through camera footage by describing what they're looking for.

Photos gets a powerful editing overhaul

Apple Intelligence is also making significant inroads in the Photos app, with a new suite of editing tools that Apple says are designed to enhance images while preserving the integrity of the original moment. Photos edited with AI will automatically carry a hidden SynthID watermark identifying them as altered.

Credit: Apple

The most technically ambitious of the new tools is Spatial Reframing, which lets users recompose a photo after the fact by dragging to shift perspective — as if they had moved the camera before taking the shot. Apple says the feature draws on spatial modeling work developed through Apple Vision Pro, and it will only generate new content in areas where the perspective has actually changed.

The Extend tool lets users expand the borders of an image to add breathing room around a subject, fix a crooked horizon, or adjust aspect ratio — with Apple Intelligence filling in whatever's missing at the edges. The existing Clean Up tool, which removes unwanted objects from photos, gets a significant quality upgrade with more realistic results even in complex scenes.

Image Playground, Apple's AI image generation tool, is adding photorealistic output for the first time, powered by a new generative model running on Private Cloud Compute. The app also gains more flexible editing — users can describe changes or use touch to select and modify objects directly. Generated images now include a hidden SynthID watermark, and the tool has expanded beyond Messages to support Lock Screen wallpapers and Contact Posters.

When can you try the new tools?

The developer beta of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27 Golden Gate, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27 are available now to users with an Apple Developer account, to be followed by a public beta in July. You can look for the public launch of the new generation of operating systems in the fall, following the annual iPhone launch event in September.

Keep in mind that not all iPhones and MacBooks will support iOS 27, macOS 27, and the new Siri AI.

SEE ALSO: These 29 iPhones are getting iOS 27: Is yours on the list?

For more WWDC 2026 news, follow our live blog to see all of the latest announcements and surprises from the annual Apple event.