macOS 27: All The Little Things

[KoolAid-Drink]

As per tradition: all the little things and changes here and there in macOS 27 Golden Gate - post them (and pics) here! Let's keep this fun and positive! This is not a thread for bugs and troubleshooting, please keep it to new discoveries only.

Cheers.

 

[mardymarvin]

using hot corner and mission control has changed. before you were presented with the desktops in one go but now it just shows text, you then have to move mouse up again for the desktops to show.

 

[Merkie]

using hot corner and mission control has changed. before you were presented with the desktops in one go but now it just shows text, you then have to move mouse up again for the desktops to show.

It's already like that in Tahoe for me.

 

[ClaraStahlbaum]

I notice the liquid glass looks slightly different, but thats the only difference I have noticed since I upgraded to MacOS 27.

 

[tomtad]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2064071994442743959

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2064071994442743959

Wow. I honestly didn't realize it had gone away, and I notice the little things (hence me creating this thread every year!). When did it go away?

 

[applCore]

The benchmarks... The benchmarks are what really matter here. Tahoe has been so horrible in performance aside from SO many bugs. Let's start sticking to two quality assurance releases for every new feature release OS. Let's get back to slower cycles and higher reliability now that we're finally getting rid of idiot Cook.

 

[KALLT]

Wow. I honestly didn't realize it had gone away, and I notice the little things (hence me creating this thread every year!). When did it go away?

macOS 26. IIRC in the first beta.

 

[OptimusGrime]

Good to see people can’t manage a single page of keeping to the topic.

 

[flowrider]

I have Tahoe installed on a couple of BackUp disks for use in case I don't like Golden Gate - HOWEVER, neither Tahoe SSD is available as bootable in General> Startup Disk or on restart.

Edit - Seems like a system bug - I cloned the Golden Gate StartUp SSD, and the clone doesn't appear as a Startup Disk❗️

Lou

 

[reycat]

Thaw (Ice alternative) doesn't seem to work on Beta 1.

However, there is a native alternative now: those left pointing arrows, when clicked, show the missing items to the left of the notch.

Disclaimer: That is not the actual notch, it doesn't show in screencaps, that's just an ugly black rectangle 🙂

 

[judgeFire]

"More distinct active windows"

A screenshot would be nice.

 

[TehFalcon]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2064071994442743959

sadly I don't have that on mine

 

[TehFalcon]

"More distinct active windows"

A screenshot would be nice.

inactive window traffic lights are greyed out, and the window itself is dimmed

 

[hieubui]

using hot corner and mission control has changed. before you were presented with the desktops in one go but now it just shows text, you then have to move mouse up again for the desktops to show.

How are the animations in Mission Control? Smoother animation in Mission Control and Spaces were touted as new features 🤣

 

[OptimusGrime]

Screen recordings now allow the capture of system audio. Finally.

 

[me22]

Looks a bit better overall than Tahoe so far, but these toolbar buttons are even worse IMO. Can someone post some screenshots of the overall UI with the glass effect slider at different settings?

 

[ErikGrim]

Finder, Files & Window Management​

• More consistent window position persistence across external displays
• Faster browsing and transfers in Files
• Faster window switching
• More distinct active windows
• Show Borders accessibility feature
• Improved navigation between windows
• Improved external display support
• Faster browser performance
• More responsive app launches
• Better multi-window handling

---

Safari​

• Improved power efficiency
• Faster start page loading
• Faster JavaScript execution
• Faster web application performance
• Smoother animations and graphics
• More efficient tab handling
• Better browsing responsiveness

Apple appears to have spent considerable effort optimising Safari.

---

Mail​

• Improved Top Results
• Faster message loading
• Improved list formatting
• Improved recipient discovery
• Updated unread badge accuracy

Nothing revolutionary, but several usability improvements.

---

Photos​

• Keywords for photos and videos
• Filter photos and videos in Shared Albums
• Captured By Me collection
• Custom slideshows
• Save slideshows as video
• Save video frame as photo
• Full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud Shared Albums
• Album organisation improvements
• Improved people and pets search
• Optional presentation menu bar item

---

Apple Music & Podcasts​

• Refreshed album pages
• Refreshed artist pages
• AutoMix transitions
• Improved streaming reliability
• Faster playback startup
• Search within podcast shows
• Updated video podcast experience

---

Notes​

Probably one of the strongest Mac-specific sections:

• Copy and paste as Markdown
• Section links
• Divider lines
• Improved PDF reading and editing
• Better handwriting support
• Drawing improvements
• Faster PDF saving

Markdown support alone will make a lot of Mac power users happy, even if we still can't WRITE markdown.

---

Freeform​

• Dark-mode adaptive canvas
• Improved board performance
• Better text editing
• Drawing improvements
• Smoother collaboration

---

Spotlight & Search​

• More relevant Spotlight suggestions
• Faster shortcut indexing
• Better search integration across apps

---

Messages & FaceTime​

• Improved syncing across devices
• Consolidated Tapback notifications
• Failed message retry handling
• Poll support
• Improved attachment handling
• Better recipient discovery
• Dual-camera FaceTime support
• Better FaceTime quality on poor connections

---

Accessibility​

• Easier PDF reading with VoiceOver
• Improved Voice Control
• Better text recognition in photos and documents
• Larger text sizes
• Better accessibility borders
• Assistive Access improvements
• Guided Access improvements

---

Apple Intelligence / Smart Features​

• Natural language route searching
• Smarter sharing suggestions
• Better photo search
• Improved typing suggestions
• Automatic punctuation improvements
• Language-aware suggestions
• Improved reminder categorisation

---

iCloud & Continuity​

• Improved iCloud collaboration previews
• Faster access to shared content on iCloud.com
• Better iCloud sync status visibility
• Better Find My sharing
• Improved device handoff
• Improved AirDrop transfers
• Better cross-device syncing

---

Developer / Power User Features​

These stood out to me:

• Copy and paste as Markdown in Notes
• Search returns more pleasing photos of people and pets (machine-learning improvements)
• Improved JavaScript performance in Safari
• Better support for higher refresh rate external displays
• More display mode options for external monitors
• Better Bluetooth power management
• Faster browser-based file operations

---

Most Interesting Mac Changes​

If I were ranking the changes most likely to matter to a Mac user:

1. Copy and Paste as Markdown in Notes
2. External display persistence improvements
3. Higher refresh-rate external display support
4. Safari performance gains
5. Improved PDF editing and saving
6. AutoMix in Apple Music
7. Better FaceTime quality
8. Improved iCloud collaboration
9. More relevant Spotlight suggestions
10. Better Apple Intelligence-powered search and categorisation

This seems to align with the rumours that this is Apple's Snow Leopard year across the board. Very welcome improvements and some welcome walkbacks to the UI to fine-tune Liquid Glass

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

Does Finder still have "The Macintosh Desktop Experience" in its About dialog?

 

[chrash]

Does Finder still have "The Macintosh Desktop Experience" in its About dialog?

Yes.

 

[DoctorFedora]

maybe the biggest thing for me is the fact that most of the superfluous menu bar menu icons have been removed, almost entirely returning to where it should have been in the first place

 

[ErikGrim]

Icons for every item has thankfully been removed. When everything is special, nothing is special. The icons were novel, but ultimately the visual noise just led to information overload.

This also illustrates how much worse the new dark mode liquid glass menus are. This is bound to change during betas.

 

[Aquamite]

As per tradition: all the little things and changes here and there in macOS 27 Golden Gate - post them (and pics) here! Let's keep this fun and positive! This is not a thread for bugs and troubleshooting, please keep it to new discoveries only.

Cheers.

This should be a wiki post so it can be edited

 

[2638se]

View attachment 2636464

Icons for every item has thankfully been removed. When everything is special, nothing is special. The icons were novel, but ultimately the visual noise just led to information overload.

This also illustrates how much worse the new dark mode liquid glass menus are. This is bound to change during betas.

It still looks like water bottle plastic..... There has to be a way for this whole design style to look more elegant right.....? Since this thing as a concept is not going away(

 

[ErikGrim]

It still looks like water bottle plastic..... There has to be a way for this whole design style to look more elegant right.....? Since this thing as a concept is not going away(

Definitely will get tuned during betas as always. It doesn't look like their UI devs live in dark mode like so many of us.