- More iOS 27 upgrades are rumored
- AI images and AirPods settings could be updated
- There may also be changes in the streaming protocol
Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) takes place on Monday, June 8, and ahead of all the official software we’re expecting, a reliable Apple tipster has leaked three major upgrades that will reportedly come with iOS 27.
These come from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, who has a good track record when it comes to Apple predictions. The first upgrade is related to artificial intelligence, and Gurman says Apple Intelligence’s image generation capabilities are “getting a big boost this year.”
Right now, you’re somewhat limited in terms of what you can do with the AI inside Image Playground on the iPhone: the styles and editing options lag behind what’s possible with the likes of Gemini and ChatGPT. With iOS 27, Apple plans to catch up.
Then there are new features related to AirPods. Gurman says Apple will “revamp” the control and settings pages for its wireless earbuds, even if Apple stops giving AirPods their own app (like the Apple Watch).
We’re not getting too many details on what this revamp might involve, but apparently the settings menus will be “more functional, better organized and more streamlined” — so it sounds like a better AirPods experience all around.
Casting protocols
The third upgrade we have here concerns the EU. Apple has long fought against regulators in Europe who want to see iOS made more open and accessible to third parties – which is why we now have alternative app stores for the iPhone in the EU.
With iOS 27, Gurman reports that Apple will allow other streaming protocols besides AirPlay to be set as the default. This means that you might be able to set Google Cast as the default, built-in option to, for example, cast audio and video to other devices.
There have also been several previous leaks surrounding iOS 27, and it looks very much like AI will be the main focus (surprise surprise). For example, we’ve heard that natural language notifications could come to the Shortcuts app.
It’s also been rumored that the big Siri 2.0 upgrade is coming with iOS 27: it will finally have an interface and capabilities that put it on par with AIs from Google, Claude and OpenAI, we’ve heard (though with a little help from Google with the AI models).
We’ll be covering the entire build-up and reaction to WWDC 2026 here on TechRadar, as well as the event itself, so stay tuned. It will be the last event like this led by Apple CEO Tim Cook before John Ternus takes over in September.
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