Apple's Secret Siri Interface Buried in macOS 27 Beta: How to Enable

[MacRumors]

Apple appears to be testing a hidden popover interface for Siri AI in the macOS 27 Golden Gate beta that surfaces Writing Tools and contextual actions whenever the user selects some text.

Spotted by a member of Reddit's r/MacOSBeta community, the floating icon appears at the top-left of the selected text, expanding when the pointer hovers over it to a compact popover of the tools and actions.

Currently, the popover offers the tools Rewrite, Proofread, "How does this sound?" and "Edit with Siri," plus options for creating key points and summarizing text. The contextual actions are based on the content selected, including things like adding contact details, composing a message or email, creating a calendar event, showing a location in Maps, and tracking flights or packages.

The Siri popover is disabled by default in macOS 27 developer beta 3 and public beta 1. Beta testers found it can be switched on through a private feature flag, but the feature is clearly unfinished. Some of the actions don't respond, suggesting Apple is still building out the underlying functionality.

Adventurous beta users can try it with the following Terminal command, followed by a restart:
sudo mkdir -p /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain && sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/WritingTools LightweightUI_macOS -dict Enabled -bool true

And to disable the interface, use this command followed by a restart:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/WritingTools LightweightUI_macOS -dict Enabled -bool false

Note that the UI's behavior is inconsistent, and there's no guarantee the interface will make it to the final release of macOS 27 Golden Gate this fall.

Article Link: Apple's Secret Siri Interface Buried in macOS 27 Beta: How to Enable

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Looks like an improvement over the current feature. Good stuff.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

For a test, I scanned in 6 months of checking statements and generated jpeg files for each page.

Siri wouldn’t recognize the text directly, so I told Siri to open each file in Preview and recognize the text.

This worked (the first time), and after the text was recognized, I told Siri to generate a table, which I then copy/pasted into Numbers.

Oddly enough, the second time I told Siri to open the files in Preview and recognize the text, Siri said it couldn’t do that which was kind of a headscratcher.

Still, the new Siri is much more capable than existing Siri. I’ve been surprised multiple times at what Siri can do now.


Oh yeah, almost forgot. Was watching some DOOM: The Dark Ages gameplay video and was talking about garbage trucks for some reason. Siri activated and heard me talking about garbage trucks and responded to the effect “I can find no references to garbage trucks in DOOM: The Dark Ages”. So it was able to figure out the gameplay was from DOOM and somehow looked online for garbage truck references related to the game.

 

[nt5672]

For a test, I scanned in 6 months of checking statements and generated jpeg files for each page.

Siri wouldn’t recognize the text directly, so I told Siri to open each file in Preview and recognize the text.

This worked (the first time), and after the text was recognized, I told Siri to generate a table, which I then copy/pasted into Numbers.

Oddly enough, the second time I told Siri to open the files in Preview and recognize the text, Siri said it couldn’t do that which was kind of a headscratcher.

Still, the new Siri is much more capable than existing Siri. I’ve been surprised multiple times at what Siri can do now.


Oh yeah, almost forgot. Was watching some DOOM: The Dark Ages gameplay video and was talking about garbage trucks for some reason. Siri activated and heard me talking about garbage trucks and responded to the effect “I can find no references to garbage trucks in DOOM: The Dark Ages”. So it was able to figure out the gameplay was from DOOM and somehow looked online for garbage truck references related to the game.

The fact that anybody is ok with this level of intrusion and opportunity for abuse, no matter how amazing, is simply a signpost at how far humanity has fallen.

 

[WilliApple]

Bro why did they get rid of this???
I hope it comes back in the beta coming today

 

[MrWeenus]

I was wondering where the "Writing Tools" feature has disappeared from the context menu. Guess this is it.

 

[IIGS User]

Dunno about the Mac OS version of the new Siri, but I have lots of trouble with it on my iPhone. The other day trying to send a text message while driving became and exercise in futility. Siri just kept getting it wrong. So I pulled over to a safe location and sent my message.

It was just as, if not more useless that the "current" Siri. Telling me it had connectivity issues when I was in an area where I had a full signal, I know the connectivity is good, and all my other connected features were working just fine.

It did not instill a lot of confidence in the future. Kinda like the Apple watch Ultra. 😉

 

[MacMan988]

Dunno about the Mac OS version of the new Siri, but I have lots of trouble with it on my iPhone. The other day trying to send a text message while driving became and exercise in futility. Siri just kept getting it wrong. So I pulled over to a safe location and sent my message.

It was just as, if not more useless that the "current" Siri. Telling me it had connectivity issues when I was in an area where I had a full signal, I know the connectivity is good, and all my other connected features were working just fine.

It did not instill a lot of confidence in the future. Kinda like the Apple watch Ultra. 😉

We settle for less in exchange of privacy protection

 

[somethingelsefl]

The fact that anybody is ok with this level of intrusion and opportunity for abuse, no matter how amazing, is simply a signpost at how far humanity has fallen.

“How far humanity has fallen” Dramatic much? I’m sure you just use pencil and paper for everything and have zero reliance on any form networking risk. The fact that you are so overdramatic to emphasize a belabored talking point hypocritically in an online social forum is simply a signpost of how far humanity fallen.

 

[marblesbarkley]

Clippy. People are upset that they hid Clippy.

 

[svish]

Interesting to see this. Think it will be released as a part of future version of Golden Gate, maybe around few months after the public launch.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Clippy. People are upset that they hid Clippy.

 

[nt5672]

“How far humanity has fallen” Dramatic much? I’m sure you just use pencil and paper for everything and have zero reliance on any form networking risk. The fact that you are so overdramatic to emphasize a belabored talking point hypocritically in an online social forum is simply a signpost of how far humanity fallen.

Nope, don't use pencil and paper at all. Why? because the devices I do use, don't send everything to some corporate entity and does NOT have my best interest at heart.

It seems that forward thinking is a trait of previous generations. The new generations seem to believe in anything they are told without question. This is exactly why previous world wars were fostered and previous empires were destroyed.

They say, "But look, I have the newest and greatest thingy that thinks for me and it will make civilization wonderful. How superior am I."

 

[lains]

Forward thinking is healthy until you assume "da gubmint/corpo iz out ta get ya" level. That's where it becomes an obsession. 🙄

 

[Haiku_Oezu]

As long as this can be disabled I think it’s an improvement

I don’t use AI’s writing tools so I wouldn’t want a constant floating Siri icon every time I select text but for anyone who does this looks pretty helpful

 

[MrWeenus]

Seems to be enabled by default in Beta 4.

 

[bxs]

Looks like an improvement over the current feature. Good stuff.

I agree.

 

[LanaDelDeathRay]

I dont think this is secret. The interface pictured seems related to the two Siri keyboard shortcuts that are configurable in system settings. for me, shift-command-space was preconfigured for Ask Siri about active window. there's also one for selected area. the selected item is used to inform relevant actions that then appear alongside the area. would love this to be extensible.