iOS 27 Has 3 Major Features Apple Hasn’t Announced Yet

Apple’s WWDC 2026 keynote wrapped up this week with the usual parade of software announcements — and the iOS 27 features that made the cut were, by most accounts, a solid showing. Siri AI improvements took centre stage, and Apple leaned hard into platform stability as a selling point. But if Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is to be believed, the keynote wasn’t the full picture. Three meaningful iOS 27 features are reportedly still in development — and all three are expected to surface by September.

• Three iOS 27 features were absent from WWDC 2026 but are expected to arrive by September, per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
• iOS 27 features include a Siri Extensions API that would let ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude integrate directly with Siri.
• A fully customizable Camera app is also coming, likely timed to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro this autumn.
• A simplified Modular Ultra watch face for non-Ultra Apple Watch models rounds out the trio of unrevealed updates.

What Apple Didn’t Show at WWDC

It’s become something of an Apple tradition at this point. WWDC sets the table, and the September iPhone event fills in the gaps. This year that dynamic is particularly pronounced. The three unrevealed iOS 27 features span Apple Watch, the Camera app, and Siri’s AI ecosystem — meaning the omissions aren’t trivial. These aren’t minor UI tweaks being quietly polished in the background. They’re the kinds of additions that would have generated real buzz on stage in Cupertino.

So why hold them back? In some cases the answer is strategic. In others, it looks more like the features simply aren’t ready. Either way, here’s what Apple is reportedly sitting on when it comes to iOS 27 features.

A Simplified Modular Ultra Watch Face

The Modular Ultra watch face has been one of the most compelling reasons to spend the extra money on an Apple Watch Ultra. Its oversized clock and dense complication layout suit the Ultra’s larger canvas perfectly — but it’s always felt like a missed opportunity that Apple never offered a scaled-back version for the standard Series lineup.

That’s apparently about to change. According to Gurman, Apple has developed a simplified take on Modular Ultra that keeps the large clock display but drops the second row of complications. It won’t be a like-for-like port — the reduction in complications is a real trade-off — but for Series 10 users who’ve always envied the Ultra face, it’s a welcome development. Apple is expected to unveil this alongside the next Apple Watch hardware in September, which makes obvious sense: new watch faces and new watch hardware have historically been announced together.

This one’s been a long time coming. Apple Watch has accumulated a substantial face library over the years, but genuinely new options that feel premium rather than decorative have been rarer than they should be. A simplified Modular Ultra suggests Apple is at least paying attention to that criticism. Among the broader set of iOS 27 features, this may be the most straightforward to ship on time.

iOS 27 Features: The Siri Extensions API Is the Big One

The most consequential of the three unrevealed iOS 27 features is unquestionably the Siri Extensions API — and it’s also the most complicated to untangle. The short version: Apple wants to let third-party AI companies integrate with Siri directly through a standardised API, rather than through one-off deals like the existing OpenAI arrangement.

Right now, Siri’s ChatGPT integration is the product of a bespoke partnership Apple struck with OpenAI back in 2024. It comes with specific privacy commitments — Apple made a point of emphasising at the time that ChatGPT queries wouldn’t be logged by OpenAI by default. The proposed Extensions API would work differently. Any qualifying company — OpenAI, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini — could apply for an entitlement, integrate into their app, and become accessible through Siri. No individual deal required. But also, presumably, no individual privacy guarantee.

That’s a meaningful distinction, and Apple will need to communicate it clearly to users. The existing ChatGPT setup benefits from Apple’s explicit endorsement and the guardrails that came with it. A more open ecosystem trades some of that assurance for flexibility and breadth.

Gurman reports that Apple has already held substantive discussions with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google about the new system — including details about the entitlement process companies would need to go through. So the framework exists. What doesn’t exist yet is a launch date, and Gurman lays out four reasons why these iOS 27 features haven’t shipped:

• The feature could complicate Apple’s ongoing legal fight against the EU’s Digital Markets Act enforcement, where Apple has been arguing against forced third-party integration requirements.
• Shipping stronger AI models on day one of Siri AI’s rollout might have overshadowed Apple’s own work — keeping ChatGPT as a single, controlled partner let Siri stay in the spotlight.
• OpenAI has reportedly threatened litigation with Apple, making any moves that expand or restructure their relationship legally sensitive right now.
• Announcing broad third-party AI support at the same time as a specific Gemini partnership risks confusing users about what, exactly, is being integrated and why.

These aren’t trivial obstacles, and they explain why one of the most anticipated iOS 27 features didn’t make it into the first developer beta. The good news is that the infrastructure is apparently close to ready. September seems like a realistic target — though ‘realistic’ and ‘certain’ aren’t the same thing in Apple’s world.

A Customizable Camera App, Finally

The third missing piece is arguably the most straightforward: a Camera app redesign that lets users rearrange controls to wherever they prefer on screen. For a company that has sold iPhones partly on camera quality for the better part of a decade, Apple’s Camera UI has remained surprisingly rigid. The controls are where Apple put them. You use them there.

iOS 27 features were supposed to include this change from launch. The idea of a modular, user-configurable Camera interface showed up in pre-WWDC reports and made intuitive sense — particularly as iPhones have evolved into serious tools for photographers and videographers who have very specific workflow preferences. The feature didn’t appear in the initial developer beta, though Siri’s integration into the Camera app did make the cut.

The timing here is almost certainly deliberate. Apple will launch the iPhone 18 Pro in September, and a customizable Camera app is exactly the kind of feature you pair with a new flagship camera system. It gives reviewers something fresh to write about and gives buyers a tangible reason to upgrade. Don’t expect Apple to spend that card before it needs to.

Reading Between the Lines on Apple’s September Plans

Taken together, these three unrevealed iOS 27 features form an interesting picture of how Apple is managing its 2026 release cadence. The simplified watch face is almost certainly a hardware-launch companion — it’ll arrive with new Apple Watch hardware in September, full stop. The customizable Camera app follows the same logic relative to iPhone 18. The Siri Extensions API is the wildcard; it’s the feature with the most external dependencies and the most legal sensitivity, and it’s the one where ‘by September’ feels like the most optimistic reading.

What’s notable is that none of these are experimental or speculative. Apple has apparently developed all three to some degree — the question is timing and readiness, not whether they exist. That’s a different situation from features that get quietly cancelled after a WWDC tease.

For users, it means the iOS 27 story isn’t finished yet. The developer beta cycle will tell us more over the coming weeks, and Gurman’s track record on Apple pipeline reporting is strong enough to take this seriously. The broader implication for the industry is worth watching too — if Apple does open Siri to a standardised extensions ecosystem, it reframes how the company positions itself in the AI assistant race. Right now Apple is essentially a single-partner shop. A genuine API-based ecosystem, with Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT all available through Siri, would make iOS the most AI-connected mobile platform on the market. That’s a significant shift in competitive positioning — and it may be exactly why Apple is being so careful about how and when it pulls the trigger on these iOS 27 features.

Source: 9to5Mac

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