Since there are so many features in this update, my intention is to just mention them. It will take some exploring and experimenting on your part to get to know them. I have listed, at the end of the article, some of my favorite tech gurus which can provide the details.
Not all features are available on all iPads. One important caveat: Apple Intelligence requires an iPad mini (A17 Pro) or an iPad with M1 or later, and some of the newer Siri capabilities have additional hardware, language and regional requirements. Siri AI is currently rolling out in beta in English.
Siri AI is here. Maybe not all the features that people wanted in the fall release but it has come a long way. The Siri app will enable you to have a conversation and thing will take on a more contextual flow as Siri learns about you and pull information from across apps. Siri can help with writing and editing. Siri can draft documents and personalize writing based previous communications.
Visual intelligence lets you ask questions about what is on your screen. Highlight something with the Apple Pencil and ask Siri about it. You can also write naturally with Apple Pencil and have handwriting converted into interactive, searchable text.
Siri can help with writing and editing. Siri can draft documents and personalize writing based previous communications.
Apple Intelligence will be part of your Apple apps rather than a stand alone application. Rather than simply answering commands, Siri can have a continuing conversation, understand personal context, see what’s on your screen, draw on information across your apps, and perform actions. For example, you could ask Siri to find information in an old email, summarize something you’re looking at, or help compose a message.
Shortcuts which is a powerful but intimidating app can now understand natural language to create workflows. Describe what you want and let Apple Intelligence build it. Apple specifically lists natural-language Shortcut creation as one of the new Apple Intelligence capabilities
Liquid Glass has more adjustments to improve its look from almost not there to a fully liquid look.
Safari gets several AI-powered improvements.
It can:
- Automatically organize tabs by topic
- Notify you when information on a webpage changes
- Detect things such as price changes
- Let you create certain Safari extensions by describing what you want
Photos AI editing tools:
iPadOS 27 adds several particularly interesting photo capabilities:
Spatial Reframing lets you alter the apparent camera position/composition after the photograph was taken.
Extend intelligently expands the edges of a photograph, filling in the additional area.
Clean Up has been enhanced to remove larger unwanted objects.
For someone creating blog graphics, these could reduce the number of times you need to move a photograph into another editing application.
External transfers to hard drives is improved. File handling is more like the Finder on a Mac
Spotlight search gets better
Spotlight Search has been improved across Spotlight, Photos and Mail, with more relevant and comprehensive results. The bigger story here is that Apple is trying to make the iPad’s information architecture less dependent on remembering where something is stored.
That’s important when you have years of Notes, Mail, photographs and documents.
iPhone apps can be resized on iPad
Messages syncing improves to a more consistent experience across devices
Accessibility gets a significant AI boost. This is a fascinating—and somewhat under-the-radar—part of iPadOS 27.
Apple Intelligence now assists accessibility features including:
- More contextual VoiceOver image descriptions
- Questions about things seen through the camera
- Natural-language Voice Control
- Accessibility Reader with summaries and translations
Apple is essentially using AI to make the iPad better at understanding visual and textual information for people with different accessibility needs.
One important caveat: Apple Intelligence requires an iPad mini (A17 Pro) or an iPad with M1 or later, and some of the newer Siri capabilities have additional hardware, language and regional requirements. Siri AI is currently rolling out in beta in English.
To see these features in more detail with how-to’s, do a search in Safari or YouTube. Some of my favorite YouTube authors are: Rich Bowlin (@RichBowlin), Aaron Zollo (@zollotech), Marquess Brownlee (@mkbhd), Brooke Tierney (@brooketierney), Tom Wells (@properhonesttech), Craig Neidel (@craigneidel) and Brandon Butch (@brandonbutch) to name a few. Gary at Macmost has a very good list of Siri commands with examples at https://youtu.be/KVZgPqMsbt4?is=XAP7bghFLLNLDbRH Gary is a prolific producer of tech videos. He keeps it short and to the point.