iOS 27 Replaces a 15-Year-Old iPhone Swipe Gesture

Apple is changing a familiar iPhone and iPad gesture with iOS 27, and many users will notice it as soon as they enable the new Siri AI experience. For the first time since Notification Center arrived in iOS 5 back in 2011, the swipe gesture for opening notifications no longer works the same way across most of the top edge of the display.



By default, Notification Center still opens as usual. However, once you turn on Siri AI, swiping down from the center of the top edge launches Siri instead of showing your notifications. To access Notification Center, you now need to swipe down from the top left corner of the screen. Apple has also updated the animation, with notifications now sliding in from the left to match the new gesture.



Apple made this change because it wants to give Siri AI a much larger activation area across the top of the display. On iPhone and iPad, most of the top edge now responds to the new Siri experience, while Notification Center occupies a smaller section on the left and Control Center remains on the right.



The same approach applies to iPadOS 27, although Apple refined the layout in the second beta. The Notification Center and Control Center regions now have a more balanced size, making the gestures easier to understand and use.



Users have spent nearly 15 years opening Notification Center with the same swipe, so adjusting to this new layout will take some time. Even so, early reactions suggest that many people already use the top left corner for notifications, while positive feedback around the new Siri AI experience has made the change easier for many beta testers to accept.