iOS 27 AI Features Explained (2026) | Siri AI, Apple Intelligence, and the iPhone Duo Foldable's Large Screen

Apple’s “Surprise and Shine” event has come to an end. The biggest change in iOS 27 is that Siri has been rebuilt from the ground up as “Siri AI.” Apple Intelligence now officially supports Traditional Chinese. The iPhone Duo is Apple’s first foldable iPhone, launches on October 23, and is part of Taiwan’s first launch wave.

This article collects all the AI features and iPhone Duo specifications confirmed at the event. Everything here comes from Apple’s official announcements.

Siri AI: A Voice Assistant Rebuilt from the Ground Up

This is not an upgrade. It is a rewrite. Apple used its own Foundation Models together with Google Gemini technology to rebuild Siri as Siri AI. Compared with the old Siri, the difference is substantial.

It Remembers Your Information

Siri AI can search your email, messages, photos, and notes. Ask it, “What was the name of the movie my brother recommended last week?” and it can find the answer in your data. The old Siri knew nothing about what you had discussed or which emails you had received. This version finally fills that gap.

It Understands What’s on Your Screen

Open a photo and ask, “Where was this taken?” Siri AI can recognize what is shown and answer you. If you see a menu in another language, just say, “Translate this.” It can read everything on the screen, including text and images.

It Can Take Action for You

Siri AI can perform tasks across apps: draft an email, add an event to your calendar, or organize your photos. When you are on a call, it can automatically bring up related verification codes and reservation details. Apple and third-party developers can both connect their apps to this system.

This is the key step in Siri’s shift from a question-and-answer machine to an AI assistant. It can start taking action, not just answering questions.

A Standalone App and Synced Conversations

Siri AI now has its own app where you can review what you asked before. Through iCloud sync, conversations from your iPhone are also available on your Mac.

Write with Siri

Write with Siri replaces the original Writing Tools. Call on Siri in any text field to draft, revise, or adjust the tone of your writing. It learns your writing style and becomes more like you over time. It can even adapt separately to the way you write to each contact.

Customizable Voice

You can adjust Siri’s speaking speed and how lively its tone sounds. There are seven American English voices and four British English voices. This feature requires on-device AI model processing, so it is limited to iPhone 17 Pro and later, or iPad and Mac models with an M4 chip or later.

When It Will Be Available

Siri AI will not launch with iOS 27. It will arrive later in 2026 as a public beta, and you will need to join a waitlist. It currently supports English only, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish coming in October.

Chinese? Apple has not said.

Siri AI is blocked on iPhone and iPad in the European Union because of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), but it is available on Mac and Vision Pro. It is also temporarily unavailable in China because of regulatory restrictions.

Apple Intelligence: What’s New This Year

Here is the good news first: Apple Intelligence’s core features officially support Traditional Chinese. You no longer need to switch your system to English. Supported languages also include Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, and more, for a total of 16 languages.

Image Playground Adds Realistic Images

Apple’s image generation tool can finally create photorealistic images instead of offering only cartoon styles. Simple images are processed on the phone, while realistic images are handled by Private Cloud Compute. Every AI-generated image includes an invisible SynthID watermark to prevent it from being circulated as a real photograph.

There is a daily usage limit. Paid iCloud+ plans include more uses.

Three New AI Editing Tools in Photos

• Extend: Expand a photo outward. If you took a close-up that is too tight, AI fills in the surrounding environment.
• Spatial Reframe: Drag with your finger to simulate changing the camera angle. This is not cropping. AI generates a new perspective, and it works with any photo.
• Cleanup upgrades: Object removal looks more natural, and you can choose between Quick and High Quality modes.

Visual Intelligence Moves into the Camera

Visual Intelligence has moved from the standalone Camera Control button into the main Camera app as “Siri mode.” Take a photo of food and it can analyze the nutritional content. Photograph a business card and it automatically creates a contact. Capture a product you are interested in and it searches for places where you can buy it. After taking a photo, you can continue the conversation with Siri AI and ask follow-up questions.

Smart Features in Safari

• Automatic tab grouping: Organize the many tabs you have open by topic.
• Webpage change notifications (Notify Me): Track a product page and get notified when the price drops or the item is back in stock.
• Natural-language extensions: Describe what you want in plain language, and Safari automatically generates an extension.

Create Shortcuts with Natural Language

Don’t know how to build an automation? Just describe it. Tell Shortcuts, “Open Notes automatically when my iPad connects to a keyboard,” or “Turn on the porch light when the delivery is almost here,” and Apple Intelligence assembles the workflow for you. To learn more about AI automation, see this comparison of AI automation tools.

Automatic Password Upgrades

The Passwords app scans all your accounts to find weak and compromised passwords. Tap once to fix one, and Safari automatically opens the website, signs in, finds the password-change page, generates a strong password, and saves it. Websites that support passkeys can switch directly to a passkey. The entire process runs on the device’s Neural Engine and does not send data to the cloud.

Audio Intelligence: New AI Features for Apple Watch

This year, Apple Watch gets two standalone AI features, supported only on Series 12 and Ultra 4.

Siri Recap: After a meeting, parent-teacher conference, or conversation with a doctor, Apple Watch automatically summarizes the key points and action items. It does not create a transcript or keep the original recording. It extracts the important information and then deletes the audio file.

Live Rewind: Quickly double-press the Digital Crown during a conversation to see the previous 15 seconds of dialogue as text on the screen. It is useful when you missed something.

How Privacy Works: Private Cloud Compute

Apple Intelligence processing happens in two layers:

1. On-device processing: Anything that can run on the phone runs there, so the data never leaves the device.
2. Private Cloud Compute (PCC): Tasks that need more processing power are sent to Apple’s cloud servers. They use Google TPU hardware, while Apple controls the security architecture and privacy protections.

Unlike the cloud models behind ChatGPT and Claude, Apple makes privacy protection part of the infrastructure itself. This year it also opened a developer framework that lets third parties run their own models on PCC, with free usage allowances for small businesses.

The real-world effectiveness of these privacy protections still needs to be verified by independent security researchers.

iPhone Duo: Apple’s First Foldable iPhone

Design

The iPhone Duo uses a book-style foldable design with a polished Grade 5 titanium body. The hinge contains more than 100 parts and has a 3D-printed titanium cover. When unfolded, it is just 4.5 mm thick, making it Apple’s thinnest device ever. Folded, it is 9.5 mm thick. It has IP68 water resistance, rated for up to 6 meters for 30 minutes. The front glass uses Ceramic Shield 2, with three times the scratch resistance of the previous generation.

It comes in two colors: Star White and Night Sky.

Display

The inner display uses a nano-texture matte finish that reduces both reflections and the visibility of the crease. A front-facing camera is hidden beneath the display. The outer display is about 90% the size of the iPhone 18 Pro’s display, which is more than enough for everyday use.

Performance

The iPhone Duo uses the A20 Pro chip, built on TSMC’s 2nm process and shared with the iPhone 18 Pro. Its 6-core CPU is 20% faster than the A19 Pro, while its 7-core GPU is 40% faster. Its dual 16-core Neural Engine delivers twice the AI processing performance of the previous generation. It has 12GB of memory, with 50% more bandwidth.

Cameras

• Main camera: 48MP Fusion, zero shutter lag, optical image stabilization, and built-in 2x optical zoom.
• Ultra wide: 48MP Fusion with macro support, using the same module as the iPhone 18 Pro.
• Video: 4K 120fps Dolby Vision and Cinematic at 60fps.

There is no dedicated telephoto lens. Compared with the iPhone 18 Pro’s triple-camera system, the iPhone Duo has one fewer camera.

Foldable-exclusive features:

• Smart Take: AI detects the moment when everyone is looking at the camera and automatically takes the photo.
• Duo Preview: When taking a selfie with the rear camera, the outer display shows a live preview so the person being photographed can see the composition.
• Kid Cue: Plays Peanuts animations on the outer display to attract a child’s attention toward the camera.

Battery

The dual-battery design places one battery in each half of the foldable. Video playback lasts 44 hours using only the outer display, 31 hours using only the inner display, and 24 hours with mixed use. Wired charging reaches 50% in 20 minutes, while MagSafe wireless charging reaches 50% in 30 minutes.

Other Specifications

• Touch ID in the side button, with no Face ID.
• eSIM only worldwide.
• C2, Apple’s in-house communications chip, plus Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.
• iPhone Handoff: Two iPhones can share the same phone number, initially supported by T-Mobile in the US and Telekom in Germany.

Pricing

Accessories: Duo Folio case with stand for $129, and Duo Case for $79.

Release

Preorders open October 16, with sales beginning October 23. Taiwan is among the more than 70 countries in the first launch wave. A second wave will add 28 countries on October 30. It ships with iOS 27.1. Apple Pencil (USB-C) support will be added later in 2026.

How a Large Foldable Display Makes AI More Useful

The iPhone Duo’s 7.6-inch display is more than a phone that is simply “bigger.” Several iOS 27 features work in a completely different way on a large screen.

Split View: The iPhone Gets Split-Screen Multitasking

For the first time, the iPhone can run two apps side by side. Open your inbox on the left and ask Siri AI to draft a reply on the right. Read a report on the left and ask Siri, “What are the key points?” on the right. You can even open two windows of the same app, such as two Safari tabs side by side.

You can save frequently used app combinations and open them with one tap next time.

Siri AI on the Other Half of the Screen

Siri AI’s screen-understanding feature can read more content on a large display. The 7.6-inch screen shows more at once, giving Siri more complete context. You can view content on one half while talking with Siri on the other, without switching back and forth.

A Larger Canvas for Visual Intelligence

After photographing a menu in another language, you can see the entire translation at once on the 7.6-inch display without scrolling. Nutrition analysis and business-card scanning are also easier to use because of the larger screen.

StandBy and Apple Pencil

StandBy mode can activate without being plugged in, and it works on both the inner and outer displays. Apple Pencil support will arrive later, allowing you to write notes and annotate documents directly on the 7.6-inch screen.

Should You Buy the Duo or the 18 Pro?

The Duo is right for you if:

• You often handle documents or read long-form content on your phone and always feel short on screen space.
• You want a device that can replace an iPad mini.
• Running two apps at once would be useful to you.
• A budget of over TWD 60,000 is acceptable.

The 18 Pro is a better fit if:

• Photography comes first. The triple-camera system and variable f/1.48 to f/4 aperture are a powerful combination.
• You want the iOS 27 AI features, which work just as well on the 18 Pro.
• You are used to Face ID.
• You do not want to spend nearly twice as much.

iOS 27’s AI upgrades are software features, and iPhone 15 Pro and later models can use most of them. The iPhone Duo is not selling AI. It is selling a large screen and a different way of using the phone enabled by Split View.

iOS 27 AI Feature Compatibility

When Can You Buy It?

Language support:

• Apple Intelligence (Writing Tools, image generation, and more): Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, English, and 13 other languages, available with iOS 27.
• Siri AI: English first. French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish will be added in October 2026. Chinese timing is undecided.

Taiwan users no longer need to switch to English to use Apple Intelligence’s core features. Siri AI still requires setting Siri’s language to English before it can be enabled.

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The iPhone Duo’s 7.6-inch display combined with Split View is currently the best setup for an AI experience on an iPhone. But whether an initial-generation foldable is worth TWD 63,000 depends on how much you need that large screen. This article will be updated with hands-on observations after the iPhone Duo launches in Taiwan on October 23.