Apple’s Mail app is getting some useful updates in iOS 27, with Apple making big improvements to search and introducing new AI features.
Search
iOS 27 has an overhauled search system that extends to the Mail app. Instead of surfacing results based on keywords and recency, Mail app search ranks results by relevance and intent. Search results that come up in Mail are more relevant than before, so you find exactly what you’re looking for.
If you search for “Sprouts” because you want to find a recent order, it’ll show your order before it shows marketing emails you might have from the same retailer.
Siri AI
The Mail app has a built-in “Ask Siri” feature. Long press on any email and you can ask Siri to summarize, find an item in the email, track a package, get a flight number, save a photo, and more.
Once you get a response, you can swipe down to enter the Siri interface for asking follow-up questions. Conversations are logged in the Siri app.
Siri can complete tasks in the Mail app too, like deleting all emails from a specified sender or adding information from an email to your Reminders list.
The Mail app has a Write with Siri interface above the keyboard, which you can tap to get writing help. Siri can draft an email for you, check over an email you’ve written, help you reword an email, change the style of the email, or give you writing tips.
Write with Siri is able to match your standard writing style, punctuation, and tone, so emails sound more like you and less like AI.
Your iPhone also now flags both typos and grammar errors while you write.
Smart Reply
Smart Replies that your iPhone suggests to you are now tuned to your writing style, which means the one-tap suggestions sound like things you might actually type.
Contextual Suggestions
The contextual suggestions that you see at the top of the Mail app are now available to third-party apps, plus Apple has revamped the design.
An email that includes a flight time or a restaurant reservation has a one-tap button for adding it to the Calendar app. An email with directions may let you see the route in Maps, and emails with tracking information can be tracked with the Wallet app.
Call Context
Call Context is a feature that works between the Mail app and the Phone app. When you call a business like an airline or a retailer where you have a relevant email, the Phone app will show information pulled from that email.
You might see it bring up a reservation number for a flight, or an order number for a call with a retailer. Call Context works on-device, looking at who you’re calling and not call audio.
Performance Improvements
Messages in Mail load faster, search indexing is more reliable, and unread badges between platforms like iOS and macOS sync more reliably. Apple also updated list formatting.
Requirements
The Mail app search improvements are available on all iPhones that run iOS 27, but AI features like Siri AI integration, Write with Siri, Call Context, and Contextual Suggestions require an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence.
Siri AI is not available in the European Union or China, and Contextual Suggestions are English-only at launch.
