All the New Features Coming to the Messages App in IOS 27.
While iOS 27 is primarily focused on Siri AI, there are plenty of other improvements lurking beneath the surface. For example, the new update adds a number of new features to the Messages app. The app gets a truly useful AI feature, improved notifications, and performance updates that ensure faster loading and syncing across devices. Here’s everything coming to Messages in iOS 27. Note that the update won’t be released until this fall, and while you can try these features in the iOS 27 beta now, be aware of the risks before you do. For more details, see Lifehacker’s article here .
You can now remove the voice message button.
I occasionally send voice messages, but not often enough to justify having a voice message button in chat. More often than not, I accidentally press the button and send a garbled audio message from my pocket. In iOS 27, this button is now customizable. After updating to iOS 27 , go to Settings > Apps > Messages and select “Show in Text Field.” Here you have three options: Record Audio , Start Dictation , and None . I chose None, but you can also replace voice messages with dictation.
Drawing is a new app for iMessage.
It’s easy to forget that iMessage has “apps,” but it seems Apple hasn’t abandoned the category just yet. In iOS 27, Apple added a new app called “Draw,” which lets you quickly draw something and send it to your contacts. Even if your contacts don’t have iOS 27, they’ll still be able to view the drawings you send. To access it, tap the “+” button next to the chat window, and you’ll see all available iMessage apps.
Apple is adding one-tap suggestions to the Messages app.
iOS 27 also adds one-tap suggestions for messages on iPhones that support Apple Intelligence. I haven’t tested this feature yet, but Apple shared a few examples of how it might work. When someone asks you to send photos, Apple says Siri AI can suggest matching suggestions by recognizing keywords, locations, and people in your photo library. In another scenario, if a friend asks you to bring something to their next meeting, you’ll see buttons to add that message to Notes or Reminders.
iOS will automatically try to resend messages that fail to send.
If a message fails to send, it typically remains in the Messages app with a large red exclamation mark next to it. In iOS 27, your iPhone will attempt to resend these messages. Other reliability improvements include faster message loading and faster syncing between devices.
Each message gets its own sending indicator.
Sending large attachments, such as high-resolution photos or videos, can confuse your chat messages, as text messages sent after a photo or video may appear to be waiting for the media file to be sent. Apple is fixing this in iOS 27 by displaying a sending indicator for each individual message. This way, you can see that while the video may still be sending, the message you sent after it has already been sent.
You can search messages by phone number or nickname.
In the Messages app, you can use the search field to search for a conversation by phone number, and you’ll see all messages involving the person with that number. You can also search by a person’s username in Messages to display all messages with that person—provided you’ve added their username to your contacts.
Summary notifications of message reactions
When you’re in a large group chat and 15 people react to your joke, your iPhone notifications become very active. Apple is changing this in iOS 27, and now only one notification will appear when multiple people react.