Quick Summary
Apple has released iOS 27 public beta 3 with a number of new features to try out ahead of their official launch.
You can change Siri's voice (assuming you have the right iPhone model), and there are new features for AirPods and accessibility too.
During WWDC in June, Apple announced a number of new features coming to iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch later this year, when the new software is released. The software will be iOS 27 for iPhone, iPadOS 27 for iPad, macOS Golden Gate for Mac and watchOS 27 for Apple Watch, and they are expected to arrive in their final form at some point next month.
But if patience is a virtue you don’t possess, you can sign up for Apple’s beta program, which lets you download the public betas of the software for each device and try out the new features before they officially arrive. For iPhone, we’re currently on iOS 27 public beta 3, after it was released at the beginning of this week.
What does iOS 27 public beta 3 add?
The headline addition in public beta 3 is Siri's voice customisation option, which was present but greyed out in earlier beta builds – it's finally been switched on.
You can now tweak how fast and expressive Siri sounds, choosing between two base voices. However, the feature is restricted to the iPhone 17 Pro models and iPhone Air, as it requires on-device processing (and that needs the A19 Pro chip). If you are running the beta on an older iPhone, you won’t see this option appear.
Elsewhere, as detailed by the MacRumors YouTube, Apple has introduced testing of Live Recognition, a new accessibility tool that uses the iPhone’s camera to identify and describe your surroundings in real time.
Photos gets a toggle for star ratings, letting you rate your favourite shots, while Control Centre now shows your cellular signal strength alongside Wi-Fi at the top of your screen.
There’s a neat new trick for AirPods owners too, with a handy Adaptive Audio slider (in the Liquid Glass style, of course) for balancing transparency and noise cancellation.
Reminders also gets a redesigned Liquid Glass icon, while the Lock Screen gets black icons at the bottom of the screen, switching from transparent to help them show up better.
You can sign up for the public beta on Apple’s beta website. However, if you’d rather wait, iOS 27 is expected to launch around the same time as the new iPhone models, usually in early September.
