It is that point of the yr once more. Apple executives took to the stage to announce some new options and additions coming to the iPhone with the upcoming iOS 27 replace. Whereas Apple largely centered on refining the fundamentals (learn: fixing what it broke), the corporate additionally launched a handful of helpful additions that make iOS 27 really feel like greater than only a upkeep replace.
Positive, Google mounted a number of of our annoyances with the Android 17 replace by including options like up to date emojis and the flexibility to create widgets simply by describing them. However Apple nonetheless got here up with a number of nice concepts this yr, together with some AI options (an space the place Google normally loves reminding everybody it is forward).
And after watching the iOS 27 bulletins, there are a number of options that I genuinely want Google would steal and convey to Android.
Android must take parental controls extra critically
Apple spent a giant chunk of the WWDC keynote specializing in the brand new and improved parental controls coming with iOS 27. And as somebody who’s quickly going to enter the parenting stage myself, I can completely see why Android customers would need a few of these options on their telephones as effectively.
Apple has added plenty of considerate parental management enhancements in iOS 27. It is not nearly limiting app downloads primarily based on age rankings, however the firm goes a lot additional this time.
One of many largest additions is Time Allowances, which lets dad and mom set limits for particular app classes quite than particular person apps. For instance, you’ll be able to resolve how a lot time your little one can spend on leisure apps versus academic apps.
There are additionally extra granular controls all through the system. If a baby visits a web site they’ve by no means accessed earlier than, dad and mom can approve it immediately from their very own machine earlier than entry is granted. Apple has additionally expanded its communication security instruments.
Along with mechanically blurring nudity, iOS 27 can now detect and blur graphic or violent content material in shared pictures and movies as effectively.
Google Household Hyperlink lacks most of those capabilities, and it feels prefer it’s time for Google to offer its parental controls a much-needed improve.
It is time to carry Shortcuts-like automation to Android
As superior as Android has turn out to be on the subject of AI and automation, it nonetheless does not have a real equal to Apple’s Shortcuts app. Google gives Pixel Guidelines, but it surely’s pretty restricted in what it will possibly do.
Samsung is absolutely the one Android model providing one thing near it with its Modes and Routines characteristic, however that is Samsung-exclusive and never obtainable throughout Android as a complete.
Google actually must carry a local automation app like this to Android. With iOS 27, Apple has made creating shortcuts and automations even simpler. For creating Shortcuts, customers not have to dig by means of complicated menus. As a substitute, they’ll merely describe what they need utilizing pure language, and the system builds the automation utilizing AI.
With Google pushing Gemini so aggressively throughout Android, it seems like the right time for the corporate to construct the same app. Android already has the AI capabilities; it simply wants a correct, system-level automation app to tie every little thing collectively.
Siri mode within the Digicam app
That is one thing I have been asking for on Android for years. We’re in 2026, and there are nonetheless Android telephones that do not even help basic items like native QR code recognition immediately by means of the digicam app. In the meantime, Apple has gone a lot additional by integrating Siri Mode immediately into the digicam expertise.
With Siri Mode, you’ll be able to merely level your iPhone at one thing and take motion instantly. Level it at a plate of meals, and it will possibly establish dietary data. Level it at a restaurant invoice, and it will possibly assist cut up it. You’ll be able to even level it at a flyer or poster and have it mechanically create a calendar occasion with the related particulars.
What I actually like is that each one of that is constructed immediately into the digicam app. It is not that Android lacks these capabilities. In truth, most of them exist already, and Google Lens is obtainable within the digicam app on many Android telephones. The issue is that these options stay fragmented throughout apps and companies.
Google can already acknowledge objects and knowledge by means of AI, however you typically have to launch Gemini Stay, which is definitely tucked into Google Lens. Equally, Google Lens can establish all types of issues, however that always requires opening the app. If Google forces Gemini mode immediately into the digicam app throughout all Android gadgets, it could make the general expertise really feel far more cohesive and helpful. Maybe which means evolving Google Lens.
Spatial reframing
Google already gives Auto Reframe on Pixel telephones, which will help change the body of the shot you’ve got already taken. However Apple is taking issues a step additional with a brand new characteristic known as Spatial Reframing in iOS 27.
What makes Spatial Reframing fascinating is that it does not simply allow you to prolong the body utilizing generative AI. It might probably really change the attitude of a photograph after it has been captured. Along with altering the body in 2D, you’ll be able to shift the entire digicam angle after which have AI generate and fill within the lacking elements of the picture to match the brand new framing.
It is a way more formidable tackle photograph modifying than merely increasing the perimeters of an image, and one thing, I believe, plenty of Android customers and particularly Google Images customers would profit from.
Google killed Pixel Studio on the worst doable time
The timing could not be extra ironic for this one. It is solely been a number of days since Google formally killed off the Pixel Studio app on Pixel gadgets, whereas Apple has gone in the wrong way by introducing a considerably upgraded Picture Playground app in iOS 27.
The earlier model of Picture Playground was largely restricted to producing emojis and cartoon-style pictures, however the brand new model goes a lot additional. Apple now permits customers to generate extra practical and genuinely helpful pictures by means of its Non-public Cloud Compute infrastructure.
Like most trendy AI picture mills, you’ll be able to select the type you need, whether or not that is practical, cartoon-like, creative, or one thing else totally. However what I actually like is that Apple is considering past simply picture era itself.
You’ll be able to inform the app precisely the place the picture can be used. For instance, whether or not you need a panorama picture, a portrait picture, or perhaps a wallpaper, it’ll optimize the output accordingly.
That may sound like a small factor, but it surely’s precisely the type of element that turns AI picture era from a gimmick right into a genuinely great tool.
