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iOS 27 beta 5 expands Siri voice controls

iOS 27 beta 5 expands Siri voice controls to 11 voices and refreshes six Liquid Glass app icons, with support limited to newer Apple hardware.

· 4 min read

Image: MacRumors

Apple’s fifth iOS 27 beta expands Siri’s voice controls beyond the two American voices that previously supported them, while also refreshing a group of app icons for its Liquid Glass design system.

Siri voice customization reaches more voices

The beta now lets users adjust Pace and Expressivity across all of Apple’s available Siri AI voices:

Pace controls how quickly Siri speaks. Expressivity changes the emphasis in its delivery, giving users a second control over how animated or restrained the assistant sounds.

The control is processed on-device, which is why Apple limits it to relatively recent hardware. On iPhone, voice customization requires an iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, or iPhone Air. On Mac, it requires an M3 chip or newer and at least 12GB of RAM. On iPad, the requirement is an M4 iPad Pro or newer with at least 12GB of RAM.

The hardware list makes this more than a cosmetic setting hidden behind a universal software update. Apple is tying the feature to local processing capacity, although the company has not explained which specific on-device workload requires those chips and memory thresholds.

MacRumors' report on Siri focuses on the expanded voice controls. The same outlet separately reported that Apple is testing a hidden Siri interface in the macOS 27 Golden Gate beta: selecting text can produce a floating control that expands into Writing Tools and contextual actions. That interface is not described as part of the iOS 27 beta 5 changes, so its release status remains separate and unconfirmed.

iOS 27 beta 5 updates six app icons

The second report puts the emphasis elsewhere: Apple is continuing to revise the Liquid Glass visual language introduced across iOS 27. Beta 5 updates the icons for:

The changes are not uniform. Safari gets a brighter blue treatment, with more detailed compass lines and arrows. The Siri icon now more closely resembles the Siri bubble shown when the assistant is active. App Store uses additional translucency to make the lines forming its “A” more visible, while Settings also becomes more translucent.

Preview receives the largest departure from its earlier appearance, using a loupe over a colorful background. Remote gains additional detail and switches from a black background to gray.

Apple had already changed the Maps, Photos, and Weather icons in the first iOS 27 beta, but other icons retained their iOS 26 designs. According to MacRumors, Apple has said it plans to give icons a more layered appearance to fit Liquid Glass, leaving open the possibility of further revisions in later betas.

The two reports therefore describe different sides of the same beta cycle: one is a functional expansion for Siri on supported hardware, while the other is a continuing visual cleanup across Apple’s core apps. Neither report indicates that the underlying Siri capabilities themselves have changed in beta 5.

Release timing and what remains unknown

Apple is expected to release iOS 27 in about a month, according to the icons report, but it has not provided an exact release date in the supplied reporting. Apple also has not said whether every icon will receive a Liquid Glass redesign before launch, or whether the beta 5 artwork represents the final designs.

The Siri feature’s device restrictions are clearer than its technical explanation: the supported models and memory requirements are specified, but Apple has not published a benchmark or methodology showing why older hardware is excluded. That leaves the practical benefit of the voice controls difficult to measure beyond the added customization itself.

We read beta 5 as a refinement release rather than a major Siri expansion. The voice controls are a meaningful usability improvement for owners of Apple’s newest devices, but the tight hardware gate limits their immediate reach; the icon changes are more visible, yet largely cosmetic. Until Apple confirms the final icon set and exact launch date, the strongest concrete change in this beta is that Siri’s adjustable voice behavior is becoming broader—but only for users already on Apple’s latest hardware.