iOS 27 Feels Like an Empty Update on Older iPhones

Source Domain: www.cnet.com

Apple announced the upcoming iOS 27 update at its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, June 9. While the company announced that the next iOS version will be compatible with devices reaching back to the iPhone 11, the move feels extremely underwhelming for people with older devices thanks to one wrinkle.

WWDC was focused on the integration of AI into Apple’s digital assistant Siri. The company spent about 25 minutes on platform improvements and privacy combined, then almost double that on Siri and Apple Intelligence. And while Apple said the digital assistant can help you in more areas on your iPhone, it didn’t expand on which iPhones can use AI features.

Apple Intelligence still only works with iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max and all versions of newer iPhones, like the iPhone 17E. So if you have an iPhone 11 — or an iPhone 14 Pro like I do — and were happy to hear your device could run iOS 27, most of the announced features from WWDC won’t come to your phone.

And that’s the issue. Yes, compatibility with older devices is a good thing because not everyone can upgrade to the latest iPhone every year or two, and supporting older phones can help protect those devices from exploits. But at the same time, Apple’s extreme focus on AI features feels like it leaves those older phone owners in the past.

After WWDC, I downloaded the iOS 27 developer beta onto my old iPhone 14 Pro and was almost immediately disappointed. Because my device doesn’t support Apple Intelligence, nothing changed meaningfully on my device. I found the new Liquid Glass slider, but after that I didn’t know what else to do with the update.

I guess a few of the app icons, like Maps, look a little different if you squint, but the update didn’t bring anything to my iPhone 14 Pro for me to get excited about. If someone secretly updated my device without me knowing, I probably wouldn’t have noticed.

Even when Apple releases iOS 27 this fall, if I don’t want to use the new Siri AI features on my

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