Updated

Updated · 9to5Mac · Jul 16

Apple Rolls Out iOS 27 Public Beta With Siri AI CarPlay Upgrades and 2 Reliability Fixes

Updated

Updated · 9to5Mac · Jul 16

Apple Rolls Out iOS 27 Public Beta With Siri AI CarPlay Upgrades and 2 Reliability Fixes

Q: Apple's controversial 'Liquid Glass' design was widely disliked. Does the new control slider in iOS 27 finally fix it?

Yes—based on Apple’s WWDC announcements and reporting around the beta, iOS 27 appears to substantially fix the biggest complaint about Liquid Glass: lack of control over readability and transparency. The key change is a new systemwide slider in Settings that lets users adjust the effect from very clear to fully tinted. In practice, that means Liquid Glass is no longer a rigid, one-look design. Users who found the 2025 version too translucent, distracting, or hard to read can now push the interface toward a more opaque, frosted appearance that reportedly comes close to turning the effect off. That matters because the backlash to Liquid Glass was less about the idea itself than about legibility. Critics said menus, icons, and controls could blend into busy backgrounds, especially in dark mode or on complex wallpapers. Apple’s answer in iOS 27 is not just the slider: it has also refined the design with better diffusion of background content, darker edges, brighter highlights, and sharper icon treatment to improve contrast. It is still too early to say the issue is fully solved for everyone. Early testers suggest the default look may still be fairly transparent, and some interface elements can remain harder to read at the clearest setting. But the broad verdict from reports so far is that iOS 27 turns Liquid Glass from a controversial one-size-fits-all design into a customizable one, which is a meaningful fix.

3 articles · Updated · 9to5Mac · Jul 16

iOS 27 public beta brings CarPlay a more capable Siri AI that can pull addresses from emails or texts and start navigation entirely by voice.
CarPlay also adds a persistent Now Playing MiniPlayer and an audio scrubber, giving drivers quicker playback control without reaching for an iPhone.
Apple paired the interface changes with new CarPlay wallpapers and two stability fixes—better navigation heading and GPS accuracy, plus improved wireless CarPlay reliability.
Video apps are now supported in CarPlay at the developer level, but the feature still depends on automaker support and may take time to reach vehicles.
The update extends Apple’s broader iOS 27 public beta push, which is expected to lead to a full release in September or October.