iOS 27 / iPadOS 27 Beta 2 Megathread

Downloading it right now.

I really hope they finally fixed that black screen issue when trying to force restart the 15 Pro/Pro Max. I fell into this trap twice over the last few weeks.

I just wanted to test out the new Recovery mode with VoiceOver, but I ended up stuck in an infinite bootloop with a completely black screen no matter what I did. Even my computer wouldn't recognize the iPhone unless I threw it into DFU mode just so I could restore it.

Thank god I still had some iCloud backups from iOS 26.

I haven't taken a plunge yet, but I hear braille screen input is broken in this beta!

Not working at all for me, be careful when updating.

Same here. Fortunately I keep betas on non essential devices, iPhone SE 2022 and iPad 10th Generation in my case. So I cannot really check out the improvements; see what's new in VoiceOver for details, such as improved Braille Screen Input suggestions. Any ideas how we can show this to Apple visually, for example screenshots/screen recordings for feedback purposes? Thanks!

Of all the issues that I and most other people wrote about, only two were fixed: the voiceover of the name of the WiFi network to which the iPhone is connected, and the time in 24-hour format is now voiced correctly. Other errors, such as slow voiceover response, the lack of low frequencies in the voiceover voice, and the inaccessibility of the status bar from the control center, were not fixed in this beta version.

You can now flick around the screen when in the recovery assistant. It is no longer necessary to use Explore by touch unless you want to.

Sorry, I posted in the wrong field. I will do it again just to clarify. My continuous conversation is now working properly after hitting the microphone once also indexing has disappeared from within my settings. I don’t do Braille screen input, so this is not an issue for me so far all is working well.

Sounds like normal again on my iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Hey everyone,

Just got beta 2 up and running and wanted to share a few quick observations, especially regarding VO.

Still acting up:

• VO audio: The voice still sounds incredibly flat. There is practically zero bass to it right now, which is pretty annoying to listen to.
• Keyboard focus bug: That bug where the keyboard drops out of VO focus is still happening occasionally. If you use Direct Touch typing, you can still type normally, but you just can't swipe or move your focus to a specific character. I'm mostly seeing this happen in Spotlight and a few other random spots.

The good news (Fixed):

• Force Restart/Recovery: That black screen bug when trying to force restart the 15 Pro Max (which I mentioned in my last post) is finally fixed! Recovery mode is back to working exactly as it should.
• AirPods Max 2 Update: The bug that was hiding the AirPods Max 2 firmware update is also gone.

Speaking of the AirPods Max 2, I'm updating mine right now to finally play around with the long-awaited custom EQ. I tested it out on my Pro 2 and liked it, but I really want to hear how it sounds on the actual headphones. Pretty sure I'm going to be happy with it.

That's all I've spotted for now. Let me know if you guys notice any other changes or if VO is acting up anywhere else for you!

The Eloquence community dictionary is there.

Both modes are now fully accessible with voiceover. In beta 1, the cards in grid view did nothing when double-tapped.

Have they fixed the Community dictionary? In the previous beta it was broken.

Has anyone got their AirPods Max 2 to update? I tried a couple of times but no go for me. Siri says that Apple has not released the beta update for it yet. Just curious if anyone else has got theirs to update?

1. There is a button just below the "dictation" button and just above the "notifications" button. This button was not labeled in the first beta and is still not labeled in the second beta.

2. When I double tap on this button to open the settings for my faces, nothing happens.

3. I was able to double tap on this button and open the my faces dialog in beta 1. Unfortunately, only one of my two watch complications showed up in the dialog and there was no way to switch complications or add another complication to my watch.

As a side note, as pointed out by a previous post, I now do see the name of my connected WiFi.
--Pete

It is fixed. I did state this earlier :)

still debating on upgrading from beta 1, especially with BSI broken, but can anyone test whether the sluggishness in the Files app when browsing files has been fixed?

Made the huge mistake of updating to beta two before reading this topic. They broke Braille screen input big time. you can’t type well with it for what it’s worth, and you can’t even recalibrate your dot positions. Unless there’s a setting, I’m missing, it’s pretty much a no go on beta two.

Yeah, I was lucky enough to see this on one of the whatsapp beta update group. I've decided to wait beta 2 out. I can't, for the life of me, function without Braille Screen Input.

As the title says, I ended up doing some testing.
It seems that the bug is simple: braille screen input currently doesn't know the definition of its other half, meaning it knows dots 1 through 3, but not 4 through 6. This seems to apply to any commands you would use with all of these dots (e.g. dot calibration). A lot of what you might attempt to do will result in VoiceOver saying you should place your fingers on each side of the screen.

Mine only has 4 5 and 6

hey all, I just downloaded the second developer beta of iOS 27 a few hours ago, and I dont know if any of you guys notice this, when in the notification center, when you attempt to double tap on a notification of interest, such as a youtube notification, or any notification, for that matter, that it won't open it at all. all it does is repeat the notification that you want to click on to open. I've already sent a bug report to apple about this. i'm using my iPhone 16 plus to run the beta if anything has to do with it. Also, I even tried flicking down and choosing the activate button, wich is the default, and no dice. it won't open it either. anyhow, the beta is otherwise is neat!

I'm not having this issue. Braille Screen Input seems to work fine for me.

Feedback assistant says that more than 10 reports have been made and it is slated to be fixed in a future release.

Since Braille Screen Input doesn't work, do Braille displays still work or are there any problems with typing in Braille? I probably wouldn't update if the update broke Braille displays too because I almost always control my iPhone with my Braille display.

Displays are fine. I use an orbit writer which is basically a display without the braille no issues.

Okay, thanks!

I am enjoying the dictation so much. It has improved tenfold. I'm also really enjoying testing out the capabilities of the new Siri AI.

The continued conversation only works for me about three or four volleys back and forth, and then it seems to randomly just not listen to me, but still be on screen somehow.. but man, the accuracy of the dictation just blows me away. I have dictated all of this with absolutely no errors.

Yes, it seems like Siri sometimes just stops listening after two or three turns.

The funny thing is that the word Siri most often gets wrong is Siri! I'm guessing that is because I have a person in my contacts with a very similar last name and Siri is picking that up from my contacts!

Oh well. Otherwise the new Siri is amazing. I've asksed questions like "What would (so and so) like for their birthday?", or "Tell me about (so and so)". Siri digs back into your long stored history of mesages, e-mails, etc. and often paints a good picture.

I can also ask things like "What did (so and so) tell me about the instructions for (so and so)" and Siri just comes up with the anser without me having to search through e-mails and mesages.

My only frustration is that the Siri response usually covers up any app I'm working with. Although I can usually dismiss this, that is difficult when, for example, exercising on my treadmill and I'm holding onto the treadmill. If I then ask Siri a question some minutes later like "what is my pulse rate?", it sees the old anser in the siri dialog and gives me that instead of the updated info. I wish there was a setting to not have that Siri dialog ppop up if one has Siri to give voice feedback.

--Pete

When Siri pops up on the screen with a response to a question or prompt, there is an "Open app" button. I've neverr been able to activate this to do anything by using a single finger double tap. What is this button for?

--Pete

Is this new Siri AI, powered by Google Gemini? Or is this something new altogether?

I have never activated it either, but I assume it's to open your current chat in the Siri app because each chat you have saved in the Siri app, so when you are talking to her on the fly, you are also creating a permanent dialogue saved in the Siri app.

I love all the comments hearing what people have done with her, explore her capabilities. I'm so, so excited to see where she goes because all of this means a lot for my productivity.

Next is for me to do some lengthy experimenting with voice Control because if it is as accurate as dictation, it could be huge. If they have fixed the problem with VoiceOver echoing characters instead of echoing the completed text,, that is

In short, Google did "help" along getting Apple with powering the new Siri, though it is not simply just a Google Gemini reskinned for Apple products.

Please see the following articles for a deep dive:

https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/this-is-how-apple-built-a-siri-thats-profoundly-more-capable-and-yes-it-was-done-with-google-and-nvidias-help

https://www.macworld.com/article/3162330/how-much-gemini-is-really-in-the-new-siri-ai.html

@By SSWFTW on Thursday, June 25, 2026 - 14:59
Ah, that sounds reasonable that the Open App button in the Siri dialog that pops up would open up the Siri app with your logged interactions. Unfortunately, activating that button does nothing for me on my iPhone 15 Pro. Have you actually gotten that button to do anything? If not, maybe I should report it as a bug.

--pete

Thank you for the links. As always, your kung fu is.. strong. 🙇

Hey guys. I wanted to wait a bit before writing, as I wanted to gather my best thoughts about the beta, and run it on my 15 pro max a few days before really giving an opinion. this way, I could give you a fair assessment.

First off, yeah. BSI, forget it! I, too, found that it's totally busted for the time being. I did report this, as well as all the other things I'm gonna mention below, don't worry.

The most annoying issue I have is the audio engine. Now let me say this: I'm not really noticing the issue some of you are, where the frequency response is really tinny with no low end. Maybe I'm just lucky. I will tell you, I'm using Eloquence with the Reed voice. I wonder if that matters. The thing I notice however which is stupid annoying is ducking. So, let's say for example, this is a little hard to explain, but I'll try. Let's say you start playing audio, doesn't really matter where. It could be Apple Music, Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Pandora, whatever. Doesn't matter. The point is, you get an audio source of anything playing. Now, while playing, you get Voiceover to say something. A long chunk of speech, or short, doesn't matter. Now, notice what happens both if you 2 finger single tap to shut it up, or if you wait and let it finnish... Either way... If you have the same issue I have, you'll find that the audio underneath stays ducked. It won't let go. The only way to do so is either turn off Voiceover entirely, magic tap to stop playback then wait about 5 secondes, then magic tap again to start playing, making darn sure you do not make Voiceover say anything between the 2 magic taps, or locking your screen. Those seem to be the only 3 ways I've found to get the audio to snap back to regular volume. Before you inform me, I'm aware of the setting to control the amount of ducking, and I also know about the setting of never, while speaking, or always. Those don't help. I mean if you turn ducking off completely, then, yeah, duh, but then you risk not being able to hear Voiceover over the other audio, so, yeah, meh...

I do find that the magic tap sometimes for playback won't start/stop media as it should. I'd say 90 percent of the time it works, but once in a while it doesn't. What I found fixes it is, play something from a completely different app. Then magic tap. It'll work. Then go back to what you were listening to initially, and try again. It'll then unbreak itself. Of corase the ducking issue is still there, but yeah, whatever...

I did notice the bug with not being able to get to the status bar when control center is opened.

I don't see the issue with notifications where double tapping won't open them. I think maybe once I had it not work, but 99.99 percent of the time, it's working fine for me.

One extremely annoying thing is, in any app, if you tap the share icon, then you do anything needing the keyboard like message, or mail, you can't use the keyboard reliably. If you flick, you eventually will get to the top row of keys: q, w, e, r, t, y, etcetera, but as soon as you double tap any of the letters, the keyboard goes bye bye. Touch exploration at this point on the keyboard? Forget it! Ain't happening.

Thank God, yes, on the 15 pro max series at least, the imfamous boot loop bug when restarting, force restarting, or shutting totally down then powering back on seems to be fixed in seed 2.

Has any one noticed in a lot of the native apple apps, the search bar is now back at the top of the screen where it used to be? Damn am I glad for this! At the bottom? That to me was just totally confusing! I'm picky though. LOL!

Finally, some things that I know the samantics AI things should be able to get once fully optimized, it's not getting. And yes, I'm fully indexed, which by the way, for those thinking it's stuck, it's not. I promise you. It'll finnish eventually. Mine took about literally speaking at face value, about a day and a half, no cap! Totally Ohio, but it's what it is, so for about a day or so, you may be at a total L. W though once it works. The things I've tried that did work have blown me away... absolute fire!

The final thing I've observed that I'll mention is, I have Airpod Pro 3's. I do not have them updated to the beta nor am I going to.

I have scanned my ears, and I also took the hearing test. Both done before updating to 27. This was both done in 26. It seems now like even though enabled, my hearing test modifications no longer are working... Not even if I turn the toggle on/off. I deleted the hearing test results from my health app, and redid it, but even that didn't fix it. Not sure if I updated to the beta on my airpods if that would fix it, but I quite frankly don't wanna do that, as God forbid something goes ape crud, and now I have no way to downgrade the things. I'm not chancing it.

Anyway, for what it's worth, so far, those are my thoughts. If I see any advancements or find anything else broken, I'll let the community know. I'm following this thread very closely.

I Notice that when using Voiceover, if I ask Siri a question by either holding the side button or saying "Hey Siri", I hear a small chime to indicate that Siri is listening before I ask my question.

After the chime sounds and I start asking my question, Voiceover starts echoing what is on my screen at the same time.

I find this a bit distruptive, sort of like when you are talking and then someone talks over you. Also, I keep thinking that the listening Siri is now hearing both my voice and Voiceover and might get confused as to what the prompt is.

Is this a bug or expected behavior? Is there a way of avoiding having Voiceover speak while you ask your question ? I don't seem to recall having this frustration in earlier versions of iOS.

--Pete

yeah, I also notice that bug that voiceover speaks while you hold down the side button to talk to Siri. to get around that bug, I just do one of the following, 1. turn off voiceover then talk to siri, or 2. double tap with 3 fingers to turn off voiceover speech, then talk to siri, if you do that second option, just remember to enable speech afterwords. hope it helps.

By BratBird on Sunday, June 28, 2026 - 07:35
thanks for confirming. I'll submit this as a bug a bit later today. Although your solutions certtainly get around the problem, that is a bit awkward and not very efficient to do each time we want to talk to Siri. There should be a more less frustrating and seamless way of doing this for people who use Voiceover!

--Pete

Do multi-line Braille and graphics still work on the DotPad and DotPad X? I am developing a DotPad emulator for the Monarch, and it is working with the SDK, but iOS is only showing the 20 cell text line and not setting the graphics area. I am not sure whether it is an error in my emulator or if its the developer beta, and I do not have a DotPad to test.

Hi emassey.
Sadly, I can confirm that this is happening to me with the actua Dot Pad X. I tried changing to the different reading modes with the rotor as well. Nothing. How's the Monarch itself working out for you with this beta?