Apple announces iPadOS 27

Today at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, the company announced new features coming to the iPad with iPadOS 27 including optimizations such as apps launching up to 30 percent faster by intelligently preloading needed info, and more responsive switching between multiple apps.

As with the new versions of Apple’s other operating systems launching this year including iOS 27, iPadOS 27’s biggest updates will come courtesy of the new Siri AI. Siri will be accessible through iPadOS’ Spotlight search, which will automatically know when you’re prompting the assistant or just searching for apps and documents. Siri AI will also be available through a new dedicated Siri app that can be used like ChatGPT’s app to have conversations with the smart assistant and access and revisit past chats.

Screen Time is getting a major overhaul under iPadOS 27, giving parents and caregivers the ability to schedule when and for how long kids have access to specific apps and services. Apple will also introduce new APIs for parental controls and a new Declared Age Range API so individual apps can offer a customized or limited experience based on who is actually using them. Updates to child accounts will allow caregivers to limit access to specific apps, as well as who kids can talk to in iMessage. Kids can also be made to ask for approval to view websites, with that safety feature automatically being turned on for kids under 13.

Keeping your browsing organized will get a little easier in Safari. iPadOS 27 will introduce an Organize Tabs feature that automatically sorts open tabs into multiple groups based on each site’s content.

When it launched last September, iPadOS 26 debuted with more than just a new name based on its annual major updates. Along with iOS 26, the iPad received a major facelift with Apple’s Liquid Glass design language that introduced a mix of glossy and translucent UI elements the company later refined to improve legibility.

With iPadOS 26, Apple also pushed its tablets closer to being more capable laptop alternatives with a new resizable windowing system that mirrored how multiple apps are managed on macOS, including a menu bar accessible from the top of the screen tailored to the current app. Last year’s iPad update introduced a mobile version of Apple’s Preview app for viewing, annotating, and editing PDFs, plus an improved version of the Files app with a Mac-like list view.

New Apple Intelligence features also debuted in iPadOS 26, but the revamped AI-powered Siri that Apple announced at WWDC 2024 was still nowhere to be seen following delays announced in March 2025.

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Andrew Liszewski