A Modular Camera? iOS 27 May Unlock More Customization and a Pro-Grade Siri

With less than a month left until this year’s 2026 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote, in which Apple is all but guaranteed to unveil iOS 27 and the rest of this year’s major software updates, we’re starting to get a clearer picture from the rumor mill as to what we can expect in the new iPhone release.

To recap the story so far, the most significant part of the new release is expected to be the arrival of long-overdue Siri improvements. Apple promised us a more personalized Siri during WWDC 2024. That was expected to arrive during the iOS 18 lifecycle, but needed some more time in the oven — and some housecleaning inside the walls of Apple Park. In January, Apple brought Google into the tent to provide some outside help with the Apple Foundation Models, and by all reports it’s finally prepared to deliver on its two-year-old promise in iOS 27.

However, Apple is also expected to go beyond simply giving us the more personally-aware voice assistant that it showed off back then, which is a good thing considering how long we’ve been waiting. Over the past few months, reports have indicated that Siri is growing up into a full-fledged chatbot — complete with a standalone app.

As sources, mostly speaking to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, have zoomed in on the new Siri, we’ve also heard that Apple will let users swap out — or at least enhance — Siri’s brains with third-party chatbots, and that Siri may even find a place in the Camera app as part of expanded visual intelligence features.

Build Your Own Camera App?

Now, Gurman is adding to his previous reports with news that the Camera app in iOS 27 is expected to be “fully customizable,” giving users much more control over what buttons they want to have showing up — and where they want to put them.

The controls will effectively become “widgets” within the Camera app. Insiders told Gurman that it will launch with the same default set we see in iOS 26 today, more or less, but users will be able to more easily switch to an “advanced” array of options for things like depth-of-field and exposure, or choose their own items from an “Add Widgets” tray that slides up from the bottom of the app. Widgets will be grouped by categories such as “basic,” “manual,” “and “settings.” These will be joined by the new Siri mode that Gurman reported on last month, although it’s not clear if that particular control can be customized.

Gurman adds that this is “part of a broader set of user interface changes” coming in iOS 27, which suggests the Camera may not be the only first-party app that can be tailored this way. However, it’s arguably one of the most important, as Apple also reportedly believes the changes will appeal to professional users, who often turn to third-party apps that offer more refined control over the photography experience.

Other apps that are expected to see design changes include the system search, Safari, Image Playground, and Weather. While some of these, like Weather, will see modest changes to improve navigation, others, like Image Playground, are getting wholesale redesigns. Apple has also reportedly been testing upgraded AI models for Image Playground that will generate more lifelike images.

There are also expected to be some broader design changes such as “new animations and redesigned tab bars” that will apply throughout iOS 27, such as animating the keyboard when it slides into view, and adding an “undo” button for customizing the Home Screen.

Siri’s Second Act

While Gurman has had a lot to say about Siri in iOS 27 over the past several weeks, he pulls it all together in his latest report to outline just how big of an overhaul this is going to be.

In what sounds like a foundational shift, Apple’s 15-year-old voice assistant will be coming out from behind the scenes and morphing into a full-fledged chatbot.

It’s such a significant change that many have pondered if Apple might give Siri a new name. While we can’t rule that out as there are pros and cons on both sides — and Apple has a habit of pulling some occasional eleventh-hour twists — there’s been absolutely nothing from the rumor mill that would suggest a name change is in the cards. Siri may have gotten a bad rap, but there are indications that Apple believes it can rise above that, and the company’s executives probably prefer to show Siri reborn than to imply that they’ve kicked the old voice assistant to the curb.

In addition to Siri getting a standalone chatbot interface, Gurman says it’s moving into the Dynamic Island, which will show “a large, roughly pill-shaped Siri animation that appears at the top center of the iPhone’s interface” when the voice assistant mode is activated. Calling up the system search will also display a “Search or Ask” bar in the Dynamic Island, and users can switch from a voice chat directly into chatbot conversation mode by swiping the results card down.

The Siri app itself is expected to mirror the aesthetic of the Messages app, but in terms of features it will likely be very similar to ChatGPT or Gemini, providing options for entering text, uploading images and documents, and searching or browsing through previous conversations.

Of course, while all of this sounds cool on the surface, Apple’s biggest challenge over the next few months will be addressing the real elephant in the room: how well will Siri actually work? Flashy UI elements are nice, but Siri is facing an uphill battle to prove itself competent — especially after the initial Apple Intelligence rollout actually made it even dumber. Still, Apple isn’t oblivious to these problems, and it knows it has to hit one out of the park here. That’s likely why it’s taken so long to get things right. The bases are now loaded, so here’s hoping that iOS 27 delivers the grand slam everyone has been waiting for.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]