Six years after Apple removed the dedicated Apple TV remote app from the Home screen, iOS 27 brings it back as a built-in app icon. The virtual remote started as a standalone App Store download before Apple folded it into Control Center as a tile in 2020. Since then, anyone who wanted Home screen access had to build a manual Shortcut to bypass the extra swipe.
iOS 27 eliminates that workaround entirely. Users can find the remote by searching for "Remote" in the App Library and dragging it to the Home screen, or locating it directly in the App Library grid. The change applies to both iPhone and iPad under iPadOS 27. The remote Home screen revival is one of several quality-of-life refinements
Apple announced at WWDC 2026 on Monday. iOS 27 introduces a Liquid Glass opacity slider that lets users dial down the glassy effect on tab bars and other UI elements, addressing legibility complaints that surfaced when the design language debuted with iOS 26 last year. The bigger story this cycle is Siri AI, Apple's overhauled assistant that now understands on-screen content, maintains conversation context across apps, and syncs chat history through iCloud. A dedicated Siri app lets users type requests instead of speaking, and responses appear from the Dynamic Island.
Apple is calling this the "next generation of Apple Intelligence" with a "bold new architecture."
Apple confirmed iOS 27 will support the iPhone 11 series from 2019, giving those devices seven years of major platform updates. By contrast, the Pixel 4 and Galaxy S10 from the same year received just three years of OS upgrades before being retired. The developer beta is available now. Apple plans to release public beta versions in July, with the stable release arriving this fall.
