iPadOS 27 pushes the iPad further toward feeling like a real computer, and most of what changed lives a settings toggle or an app update deep. The main changes include a reworked Menu Bar, Siri AI, and updated Safari and Photos apps as the core changes in this release, though the update touches far more than that once you dig into individual apps.
Make the Menu Bar Permanent and Track Your Active App
iPadOS 26 introduced a Mac-style menu bar to iPad, but it only appeared when summoned. IPadOS 27 lets it stay on screen all the time instead.
- Go to Settings, then Multitasking & Gestures, and turn off Automatically Show and Hide Menu Bar
- This only works in Windowed Apps or Stage Manager, not in full-screen apps
- Menu items are now left-aligned and use fewer icons, closer to how menus look on a Mac
- The active app’s name stays visible in the status bar even if you keep the menu bar itself hidden, and tapping or hovering over that name shows the full menu bar without changing the toggle
Meet Siri AI on iPad, From Text Help to Handwritten Notes
Siri AI is the tentpole addition in iPadOS 27, and it works differently enough from the old Siri that it is worth learning on purpose.
- Open it through the dedicated Siri app, by swiping down on the screen, by saying “Hey Siri,” or by holding the Side button
- Select text or an image anywhere on screen and ask Siri questions about it directly
- Write with Siri can generate text, correct grammar, and give feedback on your writing, and it can match your own style, including inside handwritten notes
- Spotlight search is now integrated with Siri, so a single search can pull in AI-generated answers alongside app and file results
- Visual Intelligence is now available on iPad as well
Siri AI is rolling out in English first, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish arriving in October, and it is not available in the EU or China at launch. Basic Siri AI needs an iPad mini with the A17 Pro chip or an iPad with an M1 chip or later, while the more expressive voice option that lets you adjust Siri’s pace and tone needs an iPad with an M4 chip or later and at least 12GB of unified memory.
iPhone Apps Finally Resize Like Native iPad Apps
Multitasking got a real functional upgrade this year, not a visual refresh.
- Drag the corner of an iPhone app’s window on iPad the same way you would with a native iPad app, instead of being stuck at a fixed size
- Extra-large widgets are now available for the home screen, useful for a full week’s calendar or a detailed weather forecast at a glance
- External display support is noticeably more reliable, with better window management once a monitor is connected
Apple also says it optimized the CPU scheduler in iPadOS 27 to more efficiently handle performance-intensive tasks, which should make heavier multitasking feel smoother even without a setting to turn on.
Photos Adds Real Editing Tools and Easier Sharing
The Photos app picked up more new capability than almost anything else in this release.
- Reframe changes a photo’s perspective and composition after it was taken
- Extend generatively grows the borders of a photo to change its size or aspect ratio
- Clean Up got better at removing objects and filling in the gaps left behind
- iCloud Shared Albums now support full-resolution sharing, a 30-day expiration option, and contributions from people on Android and Windows, not just other Apple devices
- A new Captured By Me collection, plus support for keywords and star ratings, makes a large photo library easier to search
- You can now save any frame from a video directly as a photo
Safari, Mail, and Spotlight All Search Smarter
Search across the system got a real overhaul this year, not just inside one app.
- Safari now uses Apple Intelligence to automatically organize open tabs, bookmarks, and your Reading List into related topics
- Mail has a new ranking system that surfaces up to five relevant Top Results for a search instead of listing everything by date
- Spotlight itself was rebuilt with a more complete index that stays updated throughout the day across Photos, Mail, and other apps
- You can create your own Safari extensions using Apple Intelligence
- You can setup Notify Me in Safari to be alerted when a webpage of your choice is updated
- Check out our coverage to find out if your favorite App Store app has been updated for Apple Intelligence and Siri AI support
Smaller Changes Worth Knowing About
Several changes are easy to miss because they live inside individual apps rather than a headline feature list.
- AirPods settings got a redesign with a custom equalizer for adjusting lows, mids, and highs
- VoiceOver gained richer image descriptions, and a new captioning feature can generate synced subtitles for any video and translate existing captions into other languages
- Magnifier added tools built specifically for low vision
- Calendar lets you add or edit an event by typing a plain description, so changing a lunch meeting into a coffee chat is a text edit rather than a form
- Maps’ Flyover now combines aerial imagery with Visual Intelligence models to render architectural details and even individual trees more sharply, and a new Local Lists feature surfaces trending nearby locations in the US
- Call Context can proactively surface relevant information during a call, like a confirmation code from Mail when you call an airline
- Screen Time has a redesigned interface alongside new child safety features for parents
Five Older iPads Lose Support This Year
iPadOS 27 raises the compatibility floor higher than usual, dropping the iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation), iPad (8th generation), iPad mini (5th generation), and iPad Air (3rd generation), five models that could all still run iPadOS 26.
That list splits into two groups, three of them, the iPad (8th generation), iPad mini (5th generation), and iPad Air (3rd generation), were the last iPads left with a home button and a thick white bezel. The other two, the iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) and iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation), were the very first Face ID iPad Pro models, originally released back in 2018.
Read more:
- iPadOS 27: 100+ New Features and Changes
- 8 Common iPadOS 27 Bluetooth Problems and How to Fix Them
- 10 Most Common iPadOS 27 Wi-Fi Problems and How to Fix Them
