Apple Rolls Out iOS 27 Public Beta 2 Update for Eligible iPhone Models: See What’s New

Apple released the second public betas of iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 on Thursday. Building upon the release of the first public beta earlier this month, it provides Apple users with another opportunity to test its upcoming operating systems ahead of their stable release later this year. Among the most notable features on iPhone is the new Siri AI experience, which is smarter and has contextual awareness and multi-step task execution capabilities. Other smaller additions include new photo editing tools, Safari improvements, password management features, and an equaliser for compatible AirPods.

iOS 27 Public Beta 2 Released

Users who are already enrolled in the public beta programme can download the iOS 27 Public Beta 2 update by navigating to Settings > General > Software Update > Beta Updates on their iPhone and selecting the appropriate iOS 27 public beta channel. As always, such beta software can contain bugs and stability issues, so installing it on a primary device may not be advisable.

The second public beta doesn't introduce any major new features compared with the first release. Instead, Apple is expected to use subsequent beta builds to address bugs, improve stability, and polish the experience ahead of the stable rollout. iOS 27 itself, however, is a fairly significant update. The long-awaited Siri AI experience is one of its biggest additions. It is designed to be more conversational and contextually aware, while gaining the ability to understand better information available across supported apps and on the screen.

Apple has also expanded Visual Intelligence, allowing users to interact with and gather information about content displayed on their iPhone.

There are plenty of smaller quality-of-life changes as well. For example, the Photos app gets new editing capabilities, while Safari introduces a Notify Me option that can keep track of changes on webpages. Safari, Apple's browser, now supports creation of custom extensions using natural-language commands.

The iOS 27 public beta is available on the iPhone 11 series and newer models, along with the iPhone SE (2nd generation). However, some of the Apple Intelligence-powered capabilities require newer hardware (iPhone 15 Pro and above) and won't be available across every device that can install the OS.