iPadOS 27 introduces several new features, aligning closely with iOS 27 by enhancing Siri and incorporating Apple Intelligence across apps. Siri on the iPad now mirrors its iPhone counterpart, offering capabilities such as accessing personal data, web searching, and task completion within apps. For Apple Pencil users, Siri can index handwritten notes, allowing for easy searching and action-taking on both typed and handwritten content. Additionally, Siri can assist with summarizing, rewriting, writing advice, grammar checking, and text generation, thanks to a systemwide “Write with Siri” feature.
A notable addition is the Image Playground app, capable of generating images in various styles, which integrates with the Notes app through the Image Wand feature. Users can transform sketches into photorealistic visuals. Visual Intelligence, previously exclusive to the iPhone, is now available on the iPad, facilitating tasks like identifying nutritional information and recognizing plants and animals from screenshots.
The Shortcuts app benefits from AI enhancements, automatically generating useful shortcuts. For instance, users can describe their preferred windowing setup when attaching or detaching a keyboard, and the app will create a functional shortcut swiftly. Safari now supports automatic tab grouping and offers AI-powered extension creation. Performance improvements are evident across the system, with faster file transfers, app launches, and multitasking.
iPadOS 27 also introduces a Liquid Glass slider for customizable opacity and enhances the readability of Liquid Glass. Users can resize iPhone apps on the iPad. However, Siri AI and Apple Intelligence require an iPad with an M-series chip or the A17 Pro iPad mini, and these features will not be available in the EU or China at launch. Older iPads will benefit from performance enhancements, making them feel faster than on iPadOS 26, though they will not receive the new AI features.
