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macOS 27 Golden Gate Hands-On: Every Major New Feature

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macOS 27 Golden Gate is in beta ahead of a fall release, and we thought we'd go over what's new for those who don't want to risk beta software on their Mac. macOS Golden Gate adds Siri AI, Liquid Glass updates, and multiple new Apple Intelligence features.


Siri on the Mac lives in Spotlight. Command + Space brings up a new Search or Ask interface for searching for files on the Mac or asking Siri a question. Siri is able to access data on the Mac, and it can answer the same general questions any chatbot can answer. The combination of personal context and world knowledge lets Siri do some things that are unavailable to other AI services like ChatGPT or Claude.

Siri answers appear in Spotlight with an option to ask follow-up questions, but there's also a standalone Siri app where you can find all of your past Siri interactions. Siri is also integrated into the system for features like Write with Siri. Siri can compose emails and messages for you in your own writing style, check your grammar, or just give you general feedback on what you've written.

Apple brought Visual Intelligence to the Mac, and it's available through the screenshot interface. When activated, you can select an area of your display that has something you want to know more about, and Siri can answer questions you have. In apps like Safari, you can select text or images, then ask Siri about your selection. Many of the same Visual Intelligence features that are on iPhone have carried over to the Mac, so Siri can identify plants and animals or even tell you the nutritional value of food in an image, which is a new feature this year.

Apple Intelligence makes many of the built-in Mac apps better. Safari can group similar tabs together by subject, Passwords can automatically change weak passwords for you, Photos has new AI editing tools for changing framing and perspective, and Image Playground can generate photorealistic images.

Shortcuts uses AI to build shortcuts for you based on natural language requests, Calendar supports natural language event input, Mail search is better than before with quick action suggestions, and the Messages app also supports AI suggestions for actions you might want to take, like inserting a photo to send to a friend.

Apple updated Liquid Glass in macOS Golden Gate. There's a slider for adjusting overall system opacity, refraction and contrast have been improved, sidebars are unified with less wasted space, and Apple has removed many of the unnecessary icons from menu bars.

If you have a Mac that can run Golden Gate, you're going to get Siri AI and the Apple Intelligence features. Apple Intelligence works on all Apple silicon Macs, and Golden Gate doesn't run on devices with an Intel chip.

EU users can't use Siri AI on the iPhone and the iPad because Apple isn't making it available yet, but Siri AI is available on macOS in the European Union.

Article Link: macOS 27 Golden Gate Hands-On: Every Major New Feature
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/06/12/macos-golden-gate-hands-on/
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cannot import photos from IOS27 iPhone into either Golden Gate or Tahoe (iPhone on left Photos column, Mac Photos searches, but reports NO Photos

before IOS27, readily imported into Tahoe and earlier
 
So mostly Siri AI and Apple Intelligence, neither of which are compelling reasons for me to jump on 27 upon release.
I sure hope that the released version will continue to have an on/off butting for Apple Intelligence, I understand that the beta might not as they clearly want/need feedback on the new features.

Edit: missed the "n", added it in bold
 
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Installed it on my 16” M1 Pro on Tuesday and it’s been great. Still on the Siri waitlist (I’m in the EU).
 
Not sure if it's intended behaviour or I'm missing something, but if I select a section of text on a web page, right click and select the 'Ask Siri' option, all I get is a Siri AI prompt and have to type something like 'tell me more about this'. I'd expected 'Ask Siri' to do this automatically without me having to prompt it - why else would I be highlighting text and selected 'Ask Siri'?
 
NightFox said:
Not sure if it's intended behaviour or I'm missing something, but if I select a section of text on a web page, right click and select the 'Ask Siri' option, all I get is a Siri AI prompt and have to type something like 'tell me more about this'. I'd expected 'Ask Siri' to do this automatically without me having to prompt it - why else would I be highlighting text and selected 'Ask Siri'?
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As Siri is mostly Gemini under the skin, this is also exactly what Gemini does. It does it because it doesn't know WHAT you want to ask.

Are you going to ask:
What does X mean?
What IS X?
When was X created?
Who created X?

How do you expect it to KNOW what question you have about what you selected?
 
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Lots of weird jiggly movement in macos these days. Jiggly blob animation ... I guess jiggly blobs are "in" these days? Very strange. The Truffle Shuffle.
 
GustavFH said:
Is anyone on this site against 'AI'?
I understand the fascination but the consequences of its use on the environment (and people's critical thinking) are beyond scary.
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The LLMs can be useful but one must verify anything they state, coz they're so frequently incorrect.

I agree the LLMs are a privacy concern. I do not believe Apple's claims of being privacy-minded. Perhaps they are to a degree.

There are other OSes that do not have LLMs for those so interested.
 
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capamac said:
The LLMs can be useful but one must verify anything they state, coz they're so frequently incorrect.

I agree the LLMs are a privacy concern. I do not believe Apple's claims of being privacy-minded. Perhaps they are to a degree.

There are other OSes that do not have LLMs for those so interested.
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LLMs can be very useful if you can have it decentralised with enough juice.
 
capamac said:
The LLMs can be useful but one must verify anything they state, coz they're so frequently incorrect.

I agree the LLMs are a privacy concern. I do not believe Apple's claims of being privacy-minded. Perhaps they are to a degree.

There are other OSes that do not have LLMs for those so interested.
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I wasn't even focusing on the privacy/ownership concern, but sure, that's horrible too. At least, when people 'choose to share private stuff' with the models, it's "their own issue" in some way. Currently, no one can actually use it completely ethically though, unless they can somehow prove that their use og it is so crucial that it outweighs the catastrophic impacts of data centers. I just fail to see any non-medical scenarios where it can be justified. It just isn't. Not like this, it isn't and probably cannot be. Everyone thinks of it as 'Oh I'll just use it for this small thing here and there', but the way it adds up has serious consequences, and most uses of it are absolutely ridiculously unnecessary. It's a disaster.
 
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