Most of what iOS 27 adds turns on the moment installation finishes Monday, with nothing to configure. A smaller group needs one setting changed first, and two features Apple announced back in June are not arriving Monday at all, by Apple’s own dating.
Automatic on Monday, nothing to set up
Apple’s iOS 27 page lists a long run of features with no setup instructions attached: sharper app icons, the new Liquid Glass slider, Safari’s automatic tab grouping, Mail’s re-ranked Top Hits search, faster Messages sync, and Photos tools including Spatial Reframing, the Extend tool and an enhanced Clean Up. Genmoji and Image Playground also work immediately, subject to the daily usage limits Apple applies to any Apple Intelligence feature that relies on server-side models.
| Feature | What’s required Monday |
|---|---|
| Sharper icons, Liquid Glass slider | Nothing; installing iOS 27 is enough |
| Safari tab grouping, Mail re-ranking, faster Messages sync | Nothing; installing iOS 27 is enough |
| Siri AI | Device language set to a supported one (English at launch) |
| 4K HomeKit Secure Video descriptions and search | A home hub, iCloud+, and an Apple Intelligence iPhone |
| New Child Safety and Screen Time tools | Apple names them as arriving with “the Screen Time update in iOS 27” specifically |
| Password weak/compromised alerts | Not on Monday; “a future software update,” per Apple |
Needs one setting first: Siri AI
Siri AI ships as a beta “in English to start,” with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish arriving in October. Apple’s own wording ties it to the device’s language setting, and separately states it “will not be initially available in the EU on iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS.” An iPhone 18 Pro set to a language outside that October list will not show the same Siri AI experience Monday as one set to English, regardless of which iPhone it is.
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Needs a hub and a subscription: Home camera features
The Home app’s new AI-written activity descriptions and natural-language clip search apply only with a home hub, meaning a HomePod (2nd generation or mini) or an Apple TV 4K, plus an iCloud+ plan and an Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone. Someone with a compatible camera but no hub and no iCloud+ gets the same Home app they had on iOS 26.
Automatic changes to Wallet and Apple Pay
A second group of changes needs no setup either, because it lives in apps rather than in a settings toggle. Apple Pay’s checkout gains a swipe gesture to switch cards and shows rewards or debit balances during a purchase, with no enrollment step described. Wallet can turn a scanned loyalty or membership card into a digital pass, and hotel keys added to Wallet gain trip details and service updates automatically. Apple Cash bill splitting, by contrast, is U.S. only and explicitly “requires Siri AI on an Apple Intelligence-enabled device,” which folds it back into the language-and-hardware requirement above rather than the automatic group.
Two features that are not turning on Monday
Apple’s own iOS 27 page dates two features later than launch, in its own words. Messages Suggestions, which offers quick actions like adding a calendar event, is listed as “coming in a future software update.” Password’s new alerts for weak or compromised passwords carry the identical phrase. Neither has a stated date beyond that; both were announced in June alongside everything else in iOS 27, and neither ships with it.
| Feature | Apple’s own dating language |
|---|---|
| Image Wand in Notes | “Available now” |
| Siri AI | Beta, rolling out with iOS 27 |
| Messages Suggestions | “Coming in a future software update” |
| Password weak/compromised alerts | “Coming in a future software update” |
What Apple has not said
Apple has not given a date for either “future software update,” has not said whether either lands in iOS 27.1 or later, and has not published a country list for where the Screen Time update behaves differently. It also has not stated a device requirement for Safari’s tab grouping or Mail’s re-ranking beyond running iOS 27 itself.
On Monday, the one setting worth checking before assuming a feature is missing is Settings, then Siri, then the device language, since that single field decides whether Siri AI appears at all, separate from whichever iPhone 18 Pro or Pro Max or older model is running it, and separate from AirPods 5 arriving in stores the same week.
