iOS 27 / iPadOS 27 Beta 3 Megathread

testing for about 15 minutes so far, but BSI seems fixed!

Working fine for me as well, and the autocorrect and predictive text features are actually really good as well

In this beta, I have an issue where dictation will cut off the last part of my speech, if I don't wait 5 seconds, or sometimes it will play the dictation sound again and start a new session, sometimes it just plays the sound. I already submitted to Apple: At least I can work around it in the meantime.

Volume randomly fades out, its weird, and if you turn VoiceOver on and off it randomly crashes sometimes.

Are they still having the issue where if you play audio, then while playing, you get Voiceover to start speaking, it ducks as you'd expect, but then when Voiceover quits speaking, for some reason, the audio playing doesn't go back to regular volume and remains ducked unless you 3 finger double tap to mute speech, or unless you magic tap to stop playback, then without Voiceover saying anything else, you wait a few seconds, then magic tap again to resume playing. The only other way is totally disable and turn off Voiceover, or, lock your screen. Anyway, have these things been fixed? Also I noticed in beta seed 2 that all the alert sounds, even if your volume was turned way down still would blasdt at 100 percent volume regardless. Before anyone says check if volume effects ringer or whatever that setting is exactly, don't remember verbatim the wording, I've already checked that, and toggling that either way makes absolutely no difference for me whatsoever. If I'm on vibrate only or silent mode/DND/Focus, it's fine, those sounds won't play, it's just otherwise, if I have it turned down late at night not to wake people up, then I get a notification or something, youch! Ouchy, ouchy! Just about gives me a heart attack! LOL!

Yeah, I noticed exactly the same thing with the audio fade out. I wonder if it's just certain voices that do it. I somehow tend to doubt it. Truthfully, Apple really dropped the bomb botch on this 27 update with the update to the audio subsystem. I honestly don't know why they always think it's a good idea to change such deeply integraded things like this. I get updating things for newer features or improvements, but for the love of god, some things that honestly don't make any sense to update like the sound subsystem, just leave them the hell alone! I don't wanna start up here an unproductive war flame about how bad Apple is, or turn this into a B****fest, but come on! If it ain't broke, for Christ sake, don't fix it! This ain't exactly rocket science!

I feel like I have the audio ducking issues even with the latest iOS 26.5.2. I am not running the developer beta on my device, since I do not want to have bad battery life or performance issues. Since this is the only device I have, I will keep it on a stable version, but I might upgrade to a very stable public beta, for example public beta 3 or even the release candidate version.

I just updated from iOS 26 to this beta today. Audio ducking is definitely glitchy, but not to the degree described in the beta 2 megathread. Sometimes it stays ducked but making VO speak again causes the ducking to stop when it finishes speaking. Weirdly sometimes the volume of the VO voice will drop sharply for about half a second before returning to normal which is odd. Also if you haven't touched your screen for about 5 seconds when you do again the first audio cue VO makes will be delayed for about half a second.

I think the strangest thing about this beta is I've got an iPhone 17 pro and it feels newer after installing the beta than it did when I bought it. Like I knew it was going to be faster, but the latency between when you touch the screen and when you get audible feedback from VO has been massively reduced. I wasn't expecting anything like that to happen but as I'm typing this message I'm having to backtrack and delete whole words to make spelling corrections much less frequently because I catch my mistakes in time to just backspace out which ever letter I got wrong. Also there are a lot more unnecessary pauses in Voiceover's speech. I don't know how else to describe it. Like for example , when you would go to a back button on iOS 26 you'd hear: "Back, Button." And on iOS 27 it just reads: "Back Button." It just makes everything feel snappier because it's speaking more efficiently.

Yes, that is the first thing I noticed when installing this beta.

Voiceover will be reading along and suddenly the volume will dip for about half a second. After that volume is normal.

I am using the Eloquence Reed voice.

I did not notice this behavior in the previous betas.

This issue particulalrly shows up in the Apple News ap when reading through the article titles.

Unfortunately, it isn't 100% reproducible.

--Pete

In this beta, when I open a text field VoiceOver always makes the quick navigation sound we normally get when connected to an external keyboard, however that isn't the case. And it shows no keyboard sometimes and I need to restart.

About time too. I don't mind using my eReader to type, since I do that anyway when I have it in front of me. But Beta 2 was me relying heavily on dictation and Touch Typing. Not fun.
I can confirm that I am having this audio ducking issue as well. Usually I use South African Siri (Voice 2) but this issue doesn't seem to be happening with Alex. But then again, I haven't encountered anything that makes speech fade out after switching voices. I'll provide an update if I find out otherwise, as the issue could be spread across multiple voices, or perhaps even VoiceOver as a whole.

I noticed this bug when I was responding to someone in Messages. It'd either stop dictation when I paused, or I'd Magic Tap, dictation would end, then start back up almost instantly.

Hurray to fixing the Braille screen Input. Guys, you don't know how miserable my life was for the past two weeks. I hate talking into my phone with all passion.

Any time you are in a text field where you type something then hit the send or go/submit icon on the keyboard, you will find that if you dictate, then 2 finger magic tap to stop, the submit key whether it says go, send, next, etcetera, basically for those with low vision, the blue colored key near the bottom right edge of the keyboard, anyway, it's dimmed. The only way to get it back is to backspace the last character, then try again. A fantastic example where you can see this is in the youtube app. Try to search for something by double tap top right corner on the search button, then magic tap to dictate. Just say something like, oh, I dunno, what the heck... "The Beatles". Then, magic tap to stop dictation. Now, try hitting the search key on the keyboard. Ain't gonna work. Youtube's just one example, but, it's the easiest I can think of right now, as I'm sure a ton of you probably have it installed most likely.

We now have a much more improved version of Live Recognition, which, at least for me, wasn't very useful before.

In Accessibility Settings, just below Read & Speak, there's a new Live Recognition section. It includes many useful options, such as choosing whether information is delivered through speech, Braille, sounds, or haptics when using Scene Description and the other Live Recognition features.

My favorite new feature is the ability to take a photo with the camera and automatically apply a default question, such as "What is this?" Apple Intelligence then provides a detailed description, and afterwards it keeps the conversation open so you can ask follow-up questions about the same image. It works really well, and for many situations I no longer need to use other AI apps.

You can also access this feature directly from the Live Recognition rotor, alongside options like Scene Description, Door Detection, and the other Live Recognition tools. Just activate the Ask Image option from the rotor, the same way you would start Scene Description.

The new Scene Description is also incredibly detailed and surprisingly accurate. I was genuinely impressed.

Everyone should give these new features a try and share their experience in the comments.

Interesting. I wonder why the live recognition settings are now in the main accessibility settings instead of in VO settings like the current options are. Does this mean live recognition can be used with other accessibility features and not just VoiceOver or magnifier?

With all the native description features that use Apple Intelligence, I wonder what devs of current AI apps like Be My AI, PiccyBot, Seeing AI etc, think about being sherlocked by Apple. It'll be interesting to see comparisons of the native AI features and the third party apps.

I doubt those other apps will be going anywhere anytime soon. At least, not until the older models slowly get phased out, and that won’t be happening for a few years.

I’m still on an iPhone 12. It works perfectly well, so there’s no need for me to upgrade. The only reason I upgraded last time was because my battery was completely useless. It got down to 84% capacity, and they say it’s best to replace it when it reaches 80%. I didn’t even get that far.

But when your phone is fully charged, then you watch a half-hour TV show on a streaming service and the battery drops to 60% in that half hour, that tells you something.

So Apple can Sherlock all the apps they want. Developers of those apps won’t really have to worry until all the older iPhones get phased out, and that won’t be happening for a few years yet.

Will install the beta when it gets to the letter C or B, you all are brave people. PS, is the VO and notification issue fixed for sure and the emoji in messages? Thanks all and keep the good job going. you know what.

I ramble a bit so here's a TL:DR. Braille screen input now uses iOS's autocorrect, and if it autocorrects your word you cannot select the original text you typed by flicking up and down with one finger. It only gives you other "corrected" options. This is frustrating as it will try and correct acronyms into actual words if the acronym is unfamiliar.
My literal nightmare. BSI now has auto correct! What's worse, there seems to be absolutely no way to tell it to stick with the text you initially entered. For example, I was talking about a video game and I abbreviated one of the words in it title to Xv and it insisted on autocorrecting to XBox or XCode. I was not given any ability to tell it to stick with Xv. It seems also that the only way to disable it is to disable Autocorrect system-wide.
As I type this, I was able to force the Xv abbreviation past the autocorrect by typing it on the regular keyboard and then dismissing the keyboard. Ever since then it has allowed me to type it without autocorrecting. I don't know if it has learned that just for this text field or if the AI in general learns as you type, but still you should be able to pick your initial text in BSI.

I'm a heavy BSI user. This sounds annoying! There are plenty of threads in the mainstream about people's frustration with autocorrect, so this will be interesting to see.

Yeah, I doubt all the AI apps will go away because of people who have older devices, and some people might just prefer them. Do things like M-Braille still exist even though Braille screen input is native now? That's the same idea.

I've decided to just have Apple replace the battery in my 15 Pro instead of upgrading since my phone will support all the native AI features I care about. It's a lot cheaper too. lol But I totally feel you on battery life tanking after your capacity drops below a certain point. Mine is at 81% right now. Weirdly, Safari absolutely kills my battery life and even the genius bar can't figure out why. Their theory was that it's caused by VO, but I don't buy that at all.

Hopefully public beta this or next week!

Poor VO needs a lawyer, get blame for everything.

Some of you have described issues with trying to redo an entire word that autocorrect changed back to the same unwanted autocorrect word again.

I do not use braille input, but I have noticed similar issues when typing in Office products like Word.

For example, I sometimes communicate with a person whose last name is Teh. As soon as I hit the space after typing the name, autocorrect changes it to "the". There is no way to change the entire word without autocorrect making the unwanted change again.

I have found that the way to get around this is to delete and change individual letters while keeping the space after the end of the name. I think it is the process of hitting the space that makes autocorrect fire.

Anyway, perhaps that is worth a shot. Sighted users might have the same frustration while typing, so this may not necessarily be a braille only issue and might be by design.

I'd be curious to see what people find and if this stratewgy works.

--Pete

I really hope that's not the answer because that's a giant pain to do in BSI.

Not sure how you're enjoying the update? It's a total mess for me, constantly crashing, having to switch VoiceOver on and off and on again. Freezing, not responding, lagging. Anyone else? Yes, I know, before anyone feels the need to say it, that its a beta, but that's been my experience so far, and you can do with that whatever you want to.

I'd absolutely file a feedback if you haven't already. Unfortunately I'm not seeing this.

Just a suggestion if you haven't tried this already. Reboot the phone.

I have been experiencing a problem with this beta when trying to WAKE the phone and unlock it. When I press the side button, I can feel the phone vibrate as if it had woken up, but I don't hear Voiceover. I have to hit the side button several times, or hold down the side button (presumably initiating Siri from the phone that woke up silently) before I hear any speech. Then I hear the login screen and can swipe up to unlock the phone.

this has been very frustrating since installing the 3rd beta.

However, I just rebooted the phone and all works normally now. so maybe you can give that a try and see if it helps you too.

BTW, I am using an iPhone 15 Pro.

--Pete

I was having the same issue with auto correct in BSI I have turned auto correct off in the keyboard settings.

I ended up having to reset my VoiceOver settings and it fixed the issue I was having which was me having to swipe left to go down and swipe right to go up. Try that. Yeah,, it's a pain in the ass having to set it the way you want again, but that's the life of a beta tester.

I know right off the path that people are going to suggest that I turn off audio ducking. Yes I could but I like to have both features. Is there any way to rectify this? Also having an issue with the speed of voiceover it seems to set its own pace to probably 50% I like 55 to 60 for speaking rake and I can’t get it to change either with the rotor setting or inside voiceover anybody else having issues with these two thingsI know people might suggest turning off audio ducking right away. While that is an option, I really prefer to use both features. Is there any way to resolve this? 

I am also experiencing an issue with the VoiceOver speaking rate. It seems to default to about 50%, but I prefer it between 55% and 60%. I cannot get it to adjust using either the rotor or the VoiceOver settings. Is anyone else having trouble with these two issues?

Thanks for the advice, I rebooted first of all yesterday to no result
The voiceover reset worked for all of about 5 minutes and stopped, but it’s all good. I shall push through

Since I reset voiceover I can no longer use Braille screen input. Can’t activate it automatically in texts fields, can’t manually activate it. This updates a weird one 😂

Have you tried going to Settings, Accessibility, VoiceOver, Braille.. and re-enabling BSI?

The sound quality of the voice voice is still garbage. It still sounds like coming through a phone call. I hope this is not one of the issues we get with the official release.

seems when I updated to iOS 27 third beta, that the notification bug still persists, if I opened the notification center and tried to double tap on one of the notification, such as a youtube notification, or any notification, for that matter, it will not open, I find it odd that I seem to be the only one having that issue, as I mentioned this on the previous beta thread, and haven't gotten any responses that people also had that bug. I even tried upgrading my iPhone 17 pro to the beta to see if that also occurs there, and it does. so I just ended up downgrading my iPhone 16 plus back to the iOS 26.6 beta, as that one works just fine. however, I do really enjoy the new siri voice using the betas using my iPhone 17 pro.

So it's been over 24 hours since I've had Beta 3. I believe Magic Tap is fully fixed now, it worked every time I resumed Audible or Spotify so I think we're good on that aspect.
Like I said earlier, Braille Screen Input is fixed.
What still annoys me at the moment is, like several have said, the VoiceOver quality. The difference between betas 1 and 2 are noticeable, as if the quality is slowly returning to its original state, but it is not there yet. Let's hope beta 4 is the beta that fixes it.
I also believe the audio ducking issue is per voice. Alex doesn't have the sudden duck out, then come back in in like the South African Siri Voice 2 does. Maybe it's only Siri voices?
Will do more testing.

I installed this beta version of iOS 27.
The quiet voice issue wasn't fixed, nor was the lagging VoiceOver issue, but the issue where you couldn't access the status bar from Control Center was fixed.
Also, I found a very annoying bug with VoiceOver languages. If I have language detection disabled, VoiceOver doesn't read text in other languages ​​anywhere. It simply says that pronunciation in that language isn't supported, even though it should have simply spoken the text in the other language using my default voice.

Can someone else look into this and see if it's just me? I can't edit my home screen, but it's broken in a way I don't know how to describe. Basically I'll start dragging something and then when I tell VO to drop with the rotor, it doesn't actually drop but it takes me back to the first page of my Home Screen and keeps jumping back to that page no matter what I do until I cancel editing. It doesn't actually drop the item I'm moving. Then I become unable to activate anything on my Home Screen until I turn VO off and back on.
Specifically I am trying to move an app that's inside of a folder outside of, and directly next to, that folder.

I'm having that issue with opening notifications in notification center. I am using a Braille display and not double tapping though, but otherwise it sounds like the exact same behaviour. However, when I try again it usually works the second or third time. I am on beta 2 and have not yet upgraded to beta 3. I've also had this same issue with the Focus button in notification center to change focus modes, and its been there since before iOS 27.

I keep forgetting to post this. I've experienced the notifications thing too. Just flick up with three fingers to make sure the notifications are actually visually on screen. VO should interact with them then. Apple should still fix this bug but that should work as a workaround.

Someone told me that if I update to this beta the advance dictation option is no longer available Under general and keyboards is this true?

It's still happening sometimes for me but has improved in this beta.

My understanding is that advanced dictation is the default for compatible devices in beta 3, but not having such a device, I can't personally test this or explore what, if anything, changed in Settings.

My understanding is you have to have an iPhone 17 or higher because of the advanced chip in these phones same with the voice option in Siri to enhance the voice or to speed it up

Hi,

the iPhone 17 pro and pro max will get advance dictation and siri voices. I have an iPhone 16 pro, so I'll get the standard siri.

The 17 Pro and Pro Max will get the advanced dictation. So will the iPhone Air.

glad its not just me then, I also reported it to apple again after I updated my iPhone 17 pro to the third beta. other than that, I'm very happy with the beta updates, just that annoying notifications bug that got me. when I was briefly running the second dev beta on my iPhone 16 plus, that issue first was found. so I then decided to downgrade my 16 back to iOS 26 betas, since that one is more stable.

Correct. Those of us who have anything below the 17 pro are second class citizen regarding dictation.

Another issue I am seeing with notifications is that, after deleting a notification, it continues to appear on screen for some time. This makes it look like the notification was not deleted. But if one tried to delete it again by swiping up and activating the delete option, if one swipes up, the only option is "More". If one waits, eventually the notification will disappear.

This does not seem to happen with all notifications. Some delete immediately as they should. So it is a hard issue to reproduce and report.

--Pete,

If you mean clearing them, it is in iOS 26.5.2. VO keeps saying them or is a ghost.

Thanks very much, guys. I appreciate the help. Yes, you are correct. Advanced dictation is now a default. No longer toggle that you can turn off and on. I am so surprised how great dictation is on my 17 Pro Max because of how poor it was before. It's definitely not 100% accurate, but it has to be nearing 90%.