Following significant overhauls to their three communications apps in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26—FaceTime, Messages, and Phone—Apple has relaxed a bit with changes in the 27 series of releases. Here’s what you should pay attention to.
To recap: in the 26 series of releases, Apple revamped how favorites appear in FaceTime and Phone, making both apps more consistent with each other, and extended the Phone app to the iPad and Mac.
I’m including cellular and Wi-Fi improvements in this roundup, since they are an obviously necessary part of our ability to use real-time (and semi-asynchronous) communications apps.
FaceTime
After many, many years of FaceTime supporting a single camera view on iPhone, you can now use the front and back cameras simultaneously. The proviso? You need an iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, or iPhone Air and iOS 27. The other person or people can see your dual-camera feed only if they have iOS 27, iPadOS 27, or macOS 27. (This builds off the dual-capture mode in the Camera app on those models introduced in iOS 26.)
To use the dual-camera mode, in an active FaceTime session (or before someone has joined), tap the Flip Camera button in the inset selfie view. This shows both cameras by default.
Messages
Messages received a tune-up, not an overhaul. Most changes are related to RCS, the industry-supported messaging protocol that Google uses in Android. The changes are:
- Outgoing messages show a send indicator so you can see progress on slower networks or with larger files.
- When you’re sending large photos or videos in a conversation that uses RCS (with Android users), this no longer slows down the typing part of the conversation.
- Reply threading now works with RCS messages.
- RCS messages also support a wider range of tapbacks and reactions.
Apple added support for end-to-end encryption over RCS between their ecosystem and Google’s as a beta release in iOS 26.5.
The only update related to Apple Intelligence so far is that Messages makes a suggestion when it thinks inserting a photo, adding something to Reminders, creating a note, sharing your location, or other actions are contextually appropriate. I haven’t been able to get it to trigger such an alert in testing.
Phone
Apple Intelligence brings Call Context to the Phone app: during a call, Phone offers information from other apps that seems contextually appropriate, like a reservation number or a flight number when you’re calling an airline.
Wi-Fi improvements
Apple tried to tune up a key issue years ago with a feature they called Wi-Fi Assist: when you had a weak signal, there might be a better, higher-speed cellular connection available instead. Your device would then tap into the cell signal while the Wi-Fi signal was poor.
While Wi-Fi Assist helped, it didn’t solve the common problem you are certainly familiar with, when your iPhone won’t unclasp its Wi-Fi grasp as you walk out of one space—like your home or office—and there’s still a tendril of signal left.
Apple rebranded the feature as Connectivity Assist, and if you had Wi-Fi Assist enabled—it was by default—you’ll find the new feature already turned on in Settings > Wi-Fi.
I know how aggravating it is, because my house Wi-Fi barely reaches where we park our cars out front on the street. Whenever I try to pull up Maps for directions, I have to turn off Wi-Fi most days. Connectivity Assist promises to solve that precise issue.
Also in both iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 is an AirDrop speed up. Apple says AirDrop transfers could be as much as five times faster.
