(Image credit: Rik Henderson / Future)

Apple’s software updates this year all came with a big design overhaul. The Liquid Glass interface was applied across everything, from iPhone to Apple Watch, with more transparent menus and features seen across the board.

For iPhone, iOS 26 saw probably the biggest changes to the appearance of the interface since iOS 7 – but it might be the last for a while, too.

An often reliable source, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, suggests that iOS 27 will focus on improving the underlying performance rather than introducing new features.

What can we expect from iOS 27?

Gurman says in his weekly Power On newsletter, (via 9to5Mac) that the step back will not only apply to iOS 27, but also the latest versions of macOS, watchOS, and iPadOS, as well as smaller updates, like tvOS.

Gurman said: “Aiming to improve the software, engineering teams are now combing through Apple’s operating systems, hunting for bloat to cut, bugs to eliminate, and any opportunity to meaningfully boost performance and overall quality.

“Like Snow Leopard set the groundwork for future overhauls and new types of Macs, iOS 27 will lay the foundation for foldable iPhones and other new hardware.”

He also revealed that Apple still plans to release a few new AI features with the software, so it won’t be a case of better performance only. But it does sound like WWDC26 might have a little less to shout about than previous years.

It’s previously been rumoured that Apple will introduce an AI health agent with iOS 27 and there’s been talk of an Apple Health+ subscription too, along with AI-powered web search.

For now, we are several months out from learning what Apple might do with its next major software builds so it’s a bit of a wait and see.

We still have a more contextualised Siri to look forward to beforehand though, so one step at a time.