Apple released the first developer beta of iOS 27.3 yesterday, and it isn’t a minor update: it’s the biggest one since iOS 27 arrived in September. It brings back features Apple had promised, like the redesigned Health app, and adds new ones in Safari, Siri AI, Apple Music, and on the iPhone Duo. The final version is expected in December. Here’s everything that’s new.
The redesigned Health app is back… and in more languages
This is the headline feature. Apple already tested it in the iOS 27.2 beta, but pulled it before the final release. Now it’s back with an important change: besides English, it’s coming in Spanish, along with Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Turkish, and Vietnamese. Until now, it was only planned for US English.
- Insights: a new tab that summarizes your heart, sleep, readiness, activity, vitals, and cycle data throughout the day, with personalized recommendations generated with Apple Intelligence.
- Longevity: analyzes your long-term data across seven areas (heart, sleep, mental wellbeing, mobility, metabolic health, hearing, and nutrition) and includes health age, which compares how your metrics are doing against your actual age.
- At-home movement assessments: using the iPhone camera and Apple Watch, it measures flexibility, strength, balance, and VO2 max. According to Apple, everything is processed on device and no video is recorded.
The fine print: the new Health app requires an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence, health age requires an Apple Watch, and Apple warns that some features may not be available in every region. In the US, you can also order blood tests from the app ($119), done at Quest Diagnostics locations; that option is US-only.
Safari: vertical tabs and dark mode for any website
- Vertical tabs: a sidebar on the left instead of the usual horizontal tab bar. By default it shows only icons, but you can widen it to see each site’s title. You turn it on in Safari settings, and it’s coming to iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
- Adaptive dark mode: if you use Dark Mode and visit a website that doesn’t support it, Safari offers to try a dark version that darkens the background and adjusts text and images. You can turn it on for all websites or just some.
- Global Privacy Control: a new option in Safari’s advanced settings.
Siri AI does more inside apps
Siri AI gains actions in Calendar, Files, Journal, Mail, Maps, Messages, Music, Notes, Photos, Reminders, Safari, Shortcuts, and Weather. Some examples: unsubscribing from mailing lists, undoing an email you just sent, closing duplicate tabs, clearing a website’s history, or deleting files you haven’t opened in a while. It also adds four more languages (Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, Turkish, and Norwegian), and Apple is opening a preview so that any developer can integrate their app with Siri AI. I covered that in detail in Siri AI opens up to all developers.
In the US, all of these actions will work as soon as the update ships. The catch is in Europe: in the European Union, Siri AI still isn’t available on iPhone, so users there will have to keep waiting.
What’s new for the iPhone Duo (and other iPhones)
- Reachability on the iPhone Duo: with the phone closed, a short swipe from the left or right edge of the outer display brings content closer to your thumb. It’s on by default and controlled in Settings > Accessibility > Touch.
- A tweaked keyboard on the Duo’s outer display: the emoji and numbers keys swap places, as do the microphone and return keys, with slightly taller keys and a wider space bar.
- StandBy for everyone: the StandBy improvements that debuted on the Duo are coming to any iPhone that supports iOS 27, going back to iPhone 11: more customizable clock faces, new Calendar and Weather faces, shared albums in the Photos face, and several versions of each face.
If you’re still waiting for your Duo, here’s where the wait stands and what’s going on with the cracks.
More new features
- Apple Music, “Selfie Sing”: record a video of yourself singing with the lyrics on screen, add voice effects (megaphone, echo, concert hall, studio), and share it. For now, it only works with songs from a specific playlist.
- Apple Fitness+, “Gym Strength”: creates a four-week strength plan based on your goals, experience, schedule, and equipment, and adapts it each week to your progress.
- Apple Watch: watchOS 27.3 brings Live Rewind (a transcript of the last 15 seconds of a conversation) and Siri Recap (summaries of your conversations for the day). For now, they’re English-only, on Series 12 and Ultra 4, and require Siri AI.
- Control Center: the VPN button lets you switch between multiple VPNs.
- Freeform: creates editable shapes from a description (Apple Creator Studio subscribers only) and lets you choose the board’s background color.
- China: the beta turns on the first Apple Intelligence features there, powered by Alibaba’s Qwen.
When does it arrive, and is the beta worth installing?
Right now it’s a developer-only beta. Typically, a public beta follows within a few days, and Apple plans to release the final version of iOS 27.3 in December. My advice: if you use your iPhone every day, don’t install a first beta. They tend to have bugs and drain more battery, and you’re only a few weeks away from getting everything in a stable release.
My take
iOS 27.3 is almost a “major” update dressed up as a point-three release. What I like most is that the new Health app is expanding beyond US English so soon: in September it looked like that would take a long time. Safari’s vertical tabs, especially on iPad and the Duo, also seem like a good call. But the contrast is clear: a big chunk of the flashiest features depends on Siri AI, and while US users get all of it, Europe is still watching from the sidelines. With every update, the gap between what an iPhone can do in New York and what it can do in Madrid gets bigger.
Which of these features will you use most? Let me know in the comments or on social media.
Sources: Apple (Health app, Nov. 3, 2026), Apple (health and Apple Intelligence), MacRumors (iOS 27.3 features), MacRumors (Safari), MacRumors (Siri AI), MacRumors (watchOS 27.3), MacRumors (StandBy). Based on the first beta, as of November 4, 2026: features may change before the final release.
