Apple is giving its Mail app one of the biggest upgrades in years with iOS 27, adding artificial intelligence features that overhaul search, introduce Siri integration, and bring smart writing tools directly into your inbox.
The update transforms the Mail app from a basic email client into a productivity powerhouse. Here is how each new feature works and what it means for your daily workflow.
What You Need to Know
- Mail search now ranks results by relevance and intent, not just keywords and recency
- Long-press any email to ask Siri to summarize, find information, or track packages
- Write with Siri can draft full emails and adapt to your personal writing style
- Smart Reply suggests one-tap responses tailored to how you actually write
- Call Context shows relevant email info when you call a business
AI-Powered Search
The biggest change is an overhauled search experience. Instead of displaying results primarily based on keywords and recency, the Mail app now ranks emails according to relevance and user intent. Searching for a retailer like Amazon to find a recent order will prioritize order confirmations over promotional emails from the same company.
The improved search works on all iPhones running iOS 27, making it the most widely available feature in the update. Apple says search indexing is also more reliable, and unread message badges sync more consistently between iPhone and Mac.
Siri Inside Mail
By long-pressing an email, users can now ask Siri to summarize messages, locate specific information, track packages, retrieve flight details, or save photos. Follow-up questions can be asked through the Siri interface, with conversations stored in the Siri app for later reference.
Siri can also perform actions inside the Mail app. You can instruct it to delete emails from a specific sender or add information from an email directly to the Reminders app without leaving Mail. This level of context-aware assistance is powered by Apple Intelligence and requires a supported iPhone model.
Write with Siri
A new writing assistant called Write with Siri appears above the keyboard. The feature can draft entire emails from scratch, rewrite existing messages, suggest different writing styles, and offer writing advice.
Apple says the tool adapts to a user's punctuation, tone, and writing habits so that AI-generated emails sound natural and personal rather than robotic. The Mail app also automatically highlights spelling and grammar mistakes while you type.
Smart Reply and Contextual Suggestions
Apple's Smart Reply feature now tailors suggested one-tap responses to individual writing styles, making automated replies resemble what users would likely type themselves rather than generic templates.
Contextual Suggestions provide quick actions based on email content. Flight confirmations and restaurant reservations can be added directly to the Calendar app with a single tap. Map links open routes in Maps. Package tracking information appears in Wallet. Apple says these suggestions are now available to third-party apps as well.
Call Context
A feature called Call Context links the Mail and Phone apps. When users call a business such as an airline or retailer, the Phone app can display relevant information from associated emails, including reservation numbers and order details. Apple emphasizes that the feature works entirely on-device and does not analyze call audio.
Availability
The improved search experience is available on all iPhones running iOS 27. However, features powered by Apple Intelligence including Siri AI integration, Write with Siri, and Call Context require supported iPhone models with the necessary hardware. Apple also notes that Siri AI will not initially be available in the European Union or China, while Contextual Suggestions will launch in English only.
Bottom Line
iOS 27 turns the Mail app into a genuinely intelligent email client. The combination of relevance-based search, Siri integration, and personalized writing tools makes it one of the most significant updates to the iPhone's default email experience in years.
