Apple Drops iOS 27 Beta 5: Expanded Siri Voices, Icon Tweaks, and More
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After a longer-than-usual span of time, Apple pushed out the fifth betas of iOS 27 and the rest of its operating systems today. The new betas come three weeks after iOS 27 developer beta 4 landed on July 20, diverging from the more typical two-week cycle.
While today’s beta is only for those who are part of the Apple Developer Program, a new public beta is almost certain to follow within the next 24 to 48 hours. The next public beta will likely be bit-for-bit identical to iOS 27 DB5; Apple typically delays it only to ensure there aren’t any show-stopping bugs before distributing it to a wider audience.
With likely less than six weeks to go before the final public release of iOS 27, it’s fair to say we’re past the point of any groundbreaking changes. Still, Apple continues to polish things up, and today’s iOS 27 beta delivers a couple of interesting tweaks worthy of note. Here’s what’s new.
Siri AI Crosses the Pond
Last month’s fourth beta brought Siri’s new immersive voices to five more English dialects — Australian, British, Indian, Irish, and South African. However, none of the voices were yet customizable beyond the same two American ones that were unlocked in the third beta, which had become numbers 6 and 7 on the right end of the scale.
With iOS 27 DB5, customization has now expanded to all seven American voices and the four British voices. Further, all voices now play the same extended voice sample — even those in the other four dialects that can’t yet be customized for Expressivity or Pace.
Hi, let’s find the right voice for you. I’ll practice some things I like to say while you listen. Let me try this one out: You have one new message. Here’s another one: your timer is set for one minute. Now for some directions: at the next stop sign, turn right. How about some facts: otters have been known to hold hands while sleeping so they don’t drift apart. Let’s go around again, let me try this one out: You have one new message [repeats]
This has also been slightly shortened from the original, removing the final section: “I’ll give a recipe a go: add one tablespoon of something to three ounces of something else. There’s probably some sort of dicing involved, and then you add a pinch of… another thing. Delicious!”
With the same sample used across all voices, beta 5 also now continues the phrase even as you switch voices, rather than starting over entirely. This lets you seamlessly move through the various voices for comparison as the sample continues to play in a loop.
Note that the customizable voices require an Apple Intelligence-capable device with at least 12 GB of RAM. For the iPhone, that’s the iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air.
Before Searching
A new section has been added under Settings > Search that lets you customize how many app icons appear when pulling down to open the Search from the Home Screen, with options for 4 Apps, 8 Apps, or Don’t Suggest.
There are also toggles to decide whether to Suggest App Shortcuts or Show Recent Searches.
New App Icons
In an interesting twist, Apple has also tweaked a few app icons this time around. While some of the changes are subtle — Safari just gets more detail — others like Preview are wholesale redesigns.
Meanwhile, the icons for the new Siri app and the Remote app get a more detailed, photorealistic look.
These latest adjustments follow the Maps, Photos, and Weather icons, which received some polish in the very first iOS 27 beta in June. Apple has said it plans to give all of its icons a more layered look to match the Liquid Glass aesthetic it introduced in iOS 26 last year, so we may see some more adjustments as we move closer to the final iOS 27 release next month.
