What’s new in iOS 27 for app teams

The five things to know

1. AI got cheaper and more open. Eligible apps can use Apple’s models on Private Cloud Compute at no cloud API cost, and the Foundation Models framework now works with other providers too.
2. iPhone Duo is here. A two-display iPhone, on sale from 23 October 2026, that rewards apps built to resize.
3. The App Store has new marketing surfaces: product page headers and search result assets.
4. Subscriptions can be sold to groups and bundled across apps.
5. April 2027 is the next deadline: the iOS 27 SDK, a deployment target of iOS 15 or later, and iPhone Duo screenshots.

Apple Intelligence and AI

From Apple’s What’s new in iOS 27:

• Foundation Models framework: multimodal prompts, Vision tools such as OCR the model can call on the device, Dynamic Profiles, and support for any language model provider, including Claude and Gemini.
• Private Cloud Compute: Apple’s next-generation models at no cloud API cost for Small Business Program members with fewer than 2 million first-time downloads.
• Evaluations framework: testing AI features under changing conditions, beyond unit tests.
• Core AI: a new framework for running your own models on the device, with no server and no token costs.
• Image Playground: a new generative model on Private Cloud Compute, available to apps through the Image Playground API.

More in on-device AI on iPhone.

Siri and App Intents

• App Intents schemas connect your app’s content and actions to Siri through natural language, with no specific phrases to define.
• Entity schemas add your content to the Spotlight semantic index, with attribution back to your app.
• View Annotations API: people can refer to what is on screen and act on it conversationally.
• App Intents Testing framework: checks the integration through real system pathways, without UI automation.

iPhone Duo and resizable apps

Apps built with the iOS 27 SDK resize on iPhone Duo, and apps built with the iOS 27.1 SDK are fully optimised, with toolbars and tab bars on the side. UIKit adds layouts that adapt for iPhone Mirroring, which can now be resized freely on the Mac. The details and a checklist are in getting ready for iPhone Duo.

SwiftUI and UIKit

From Apple’s What’s new in SwiftUI:

• Toolbar control: visibilityPriority, toolbarOverflowMenu, topBarPinnedTrailing and toolbarMinimizeBehavior decide what stays visible as the app resizes.
• Document API: asynchronous, incremental reading and writing with progress reporting.
• Reordering anywhere: drag to rearrange items in any container, not just List, and swipe actions in any ScrollView.
• Performance: AsyncImage respects HTTP caching by default, classes in @State are created lazily once per view, and build times improve with changes to ViewBuilder, now exposed as ContentBuilder.
• Design: refreshed materials, typography and tab and navigation bars across platforms; widgets can be customised through App Intents.

Xcode 27

From Apple’s What’s new in Xcode:

• Coding agents in the coding assistant, powered by the model of your choice, plus agent skills for adopting new SwiftUI APIs and preparing for iPhone Duo.
• Device Hub, which brings devices and simulators into one place, including a resizable simulator.
• Instruments: a Swift Concurrency instrument and run comparisons to confirm a fix before shipping.
• Localisation with agents: adding languages, updating string catalogs and translating strings.

The App Store

From Apple’s What’s new in App Store:

• Creative assets: images and videos for product page headers and search results. See creative assets.
• Asset Library and product page preview in App Store Connect.
• Review summaries generated from user reviews, in eight more storefronts beyond the United States.
• Personalized Collections on the Apps, Games and Search tabs, in selected regions.

Subscriptions and purchases

• Bundles and Suites: several subscriptions as one purchase, across your apps or other developers’; by request.
• Multiseat purchases: Volume Purchasing from 22 October 2026 and Group Purchases in the winter, on by default.
• Retention Messaging: a message or offer at the moment someone cancels, coming in autumn 2026.
• One submission for several in-app purchases, events, custom product pages and tests.

All of these build on StoreKit 2; see our StoreKit 2 guide.

Policy and requirements

• Time Allowances let parents limit time in Entertainment, Games and Social Media apps. The age rating questionnaire asks about social media capabilities, and answers are required from September 2026.
• On-Demand Resources are deprecated; Apple suggests Apple-Hosted Background Assets instead.
• macOS 27 is Apple silicon only, for teams that also ship Mac apps.
• From April 2027, uploads need the iOS 27 SDK and a deployment target of iOS 15 or later (Apple).

What to do this quarter

• Build with Xcode 27.1 and test in the iPhone Duo simulator.
• Answer the new age rating questions before your next update.
• Check whether your app qualifies for Private Cloud Compute before renewing an AI API budget.
• Move any remaining original StoreKit code to StoreKit 2.
• Plan a product page header and a search result asset.
• Read the latest App Review Guidelines changes.

Related: Getting ready for iPhone Duo · On-device AI on iPhone · App Review Guidelines changes