You've been begging for this change... 5 iOS 27 updates that make family life easier

SALT LAKE CITY — Every time Apple rolls out a big update, there's plenty of tech-talk to sort through. The latest iPhone update is packed with new changes, but a few standout for a very practical reason: they make parenting and family life a little easier.

Sarah Kimmel with Family Tech Zone walked us through five changes that will improve everyday life. First, you need to make sure everyone has updated their phones.

"Everybody has to be on iOS 27 in order for the parental controls to work across the entire family," she said.

Time Allowances

Time Allowances changes how screen time limits work. Parents used to set separate restrictions for individual apps.

"Before you would set a time limit for Instagram. You'd set a time limit for Facebook," Kimmel explained. "I can say 30 minutes for all of social media."

If your limit is 30 minutes and your child spends 20 minutes on one app, they'll only have 10 minutes on other apps in that category.

Ask to Browse

Before when a child went to a blocked website that might be needed for school or another legitimate reason, parents would have to go to the website and manually approve the exact URL. Now, kids can just send a direct request.

"If you have a blocked website, you can ask to browse that website," Kimmel explained. "If they're in school or something and the teacher wants them to go to a specific website and it's blocked ... they can just ask to browse and then you get the alert. You can approve that right away."

The Pause Button

Android users have had a pause feature for years. Now iPhone users finally have a similar feature.

"Let's say you ground your child," Kimmel said. "You can do a pause device, and it will block out all of the other apps."

You can still allow messages and calls so you can still get ahold of them, but everything else is blocked. Kimmel said you could also use it to set boundaries around meals or homework.

"Pause the device, and then suddenly everyone's coming down for dinner," she noted.

Opt in for the Siri Update

The new Siri experience is still in beta, so you have to opt in, but it doesn't require specific commands and exact phrases anymore. Siri is becoming more conversational.

"With the new Siri, it's gonna act a little more like ChatGPT or Gemini," Kimmel explained. "It's really understanding the entire context of what you're saying."

Alarms Get Their Own Volume

Kimmel also shared a smaller change that could be helpful. For years, alarm sounds were tied to the phone's ringtone volume. If the volume was lowered for calls and notifications, alarms would also be at a lower volume.

"Now you can uncouple the alarm sounds from the ringtone sounds," she explained.

Find more tech advice from Sarah Kimmel on Instagram, @familytech.

This story was adapted from a TV broadcast script using artificial intelligence. Every story, including those adapted with AI, is reviewed by a human editor before publication to ensure that KSL's editorial standards are upheld.