iOS 27 turns iPhone into a telehealth ally with Health+ AI and a redesigned Siri

iOS 27 could turn your iPhone into a serious telehealth ally – and it starts with a smarter Siri and a Health app built around an AI coach

Apple’s next major iPhone software, iOS 27, is shaping up to be more than another yearly polish. If the current reporting holds, it’s a strategic push into telehealth – tying together a redesigned Siri, an AI-first Health experience dubbed Health+, and a new approach to on-screen intelligence and web search. The endgame: make the iPhone the most useful everyday health companion many people have ever owned.

The move doesn’t come out of nowhere. Apple has been laying the groundwork with the Spring 2026 iOS 26.4 update, which introduces three building blocks for agent-like assistance. First, In-app Actions: Siri can trigger context-based tasks inside apps – think adding milk to your grocery list, sending a quick message, or starting a playlist – without you tapping around. Second, Personal Context Awareness: Siri can lean on your own data (such as scanning Messages to surface a podcast a friend mentioned) to give answers that feel personal, not generic. Third, On-Screen Awareness: Siri understands what’s currently on your display so it can act on it, rather than making you translate screen content into a voice command.

According to Power On reporting by Mark Gurman, iOS 27 layers on a trio of headline changes: a visual redesign of Siri (with a Finder-like avatar), an AI-powered web search tool, and – most notably – a revamped Health app that debuts Health+. That service is described as a health-management assistant: an AI agent that helps you understand patterns, build better habits, and navigate basic wellness questions. Expect personalized coaching, curated expert videos that explain conditions in plain language, and built-in nutrition tracking so logging what you eat doesn’t feel like homework.

What would that look like in real life? Imagine telling Siri, “I’ve been sleeping badly; what’s going on?” Health+ could synthesize your recent sleep duration, your typical workout intensity, and late-night screen time to offer a gentle, immediately actionable plan – then surface short, vetted videos on sleep hygiene. Or picture scanning your lunch and asking for a quick nutritional breakdown, then having Siri schedule a 10-minute walk and add a hydration reminder, all triggered from the screen you’re already on.

Behind the scenes, Apple is reportedly pairing on-device intelligence with a tailored cloud model. The company plans to tap a customized version of Google’s Gemini – described at a 1.2-trillion-parameter scale – for heavy lifting, which would dwarf the 1.5-billion-parameter custom model currently used for Siri in the cloud. Apple is said to be paying roughly $1 billion annually to license that technology. The takeaway isn’t just raw model size; it’s about enabling agentic tasks that feel fluid, helpful, and safe enough for health-adjacent use.

For developers and clinicians, that could be pivotal. A Health+ coaching layer that understands user context may unlock richer integrations with third-party fitness, nutrition, and therapy apps. For consumers, the value is simplicity: fewer frictions between intent (“I want to eat better”) and the next step (a grocery list, a recipe suggestion, a reminder to prep).

Of course, privacy and safety will be front and center. Expect Apple to stress data minimization, on-device processing where possible, and clear disclosures whenever cloud processing is involved. Health+ will likely position itself as guidance rather than diagnosis. That framing matters: the service can coach, nudge, and explain – but it isn’t a clinician and shouldn’t replace one.

There are still open questions. Will Health+ be a paid subscription or bundled with existing services? How will the AI web search integrate with results you can trust for health topics? And how quickly will features roll out globally given local regulations? Even with unknowns, the direction is unmistakable: iOS 27 reframes Siri as a proactive guide and the Health app as a daily companion – one that speaks your language, understands your context, and sits in the app you already open the most.

If Apple executes, the iPhone won’t just track steps and heart rate – it could coach, explain, and organize your next healthy decision. That is what a telehealth powerhouse looks like.