macOS 27 Golden Gate is now available, bringing Siri AI, a dedicated Siri app, Visual Intelligence, new Apple Intelligence capabilities, Liquid Glass design refinements, and performance improvements to Mac.
The update also adds smarter Safari features, better Mail search, new child safety controls, accessibility improvements, natural-language actions in Calendar and Shortcuts, enhanced Maps imagery, improved iCloud Shared Albums, and more.
Here are 60+ macOS 27 features and changes worth knowing about.
macOS 27 Features At A Glance
- Siri AI with personal context and app actions
- Dedicated Siri app
- Synced and pinned Siri conversations
- Visual Intelligence with Siri
- Writing with Siri
- Customizable Siri voice
- Ask Siri from Spotlight
- Automatic Safari tab grouping
- Safari Notify Me
- Password security improvements
- Spatial Reframing
- Extend tool
- Enhanced Clean Up
- Image Playground improvements
- Natural-language Shortcuts
- Ask to Browse
- Communication Safety improvements
- Time Allowances
- App Schedules
- Redesigned parental controls
- Liquid Glass refinements
- Liquid Glass appearance controls
- Updated toolbars and sidebars
- Faster AirDrop
- Faster network file browsing
- Faster Safari loading
- Improved Mail search
- VoiceOver improvements
- Automatic video captions
- Caption translation
- Natural-language Calendar events
- Suggestions in Messages
- Suggestions in Mail
- Call Context
- Enhanced Flyover in Maps
- Swipe to refresh
- Updated video podcasts
- Ultrawide display support
- Improved iCloud Shared Albums
- Full-resolution Shared Albums
- Shared Album filtering
- Shared Album reactions
- Easier Shared Album invitations
Siri AI On Mac
1. Siri AI Comes To Mac
Siri AI is powered by Apple Intelligence and adds more conversational capabilities to macOS. You can ask open-ended questions, brainstorm ideas, research topics, and have natural back-and-forth conversations.
Siri AI is available in beta and is initially rolling out in English. Some server-based Apple Intelligence features are subject to daily usage limits.
2. Siri Understands Personal Context
Siri can use relevant information from your Mac to answer requests. You can ask Siri to find an old photo, locate an email buried in your inbox, or retrieve a note you saved previously.
3. Siri Can Take Actions Across Apps
Siri can perform supported actions across apps such as Messages, Music, and Reminders. It can edit a message, create a reminder, add a song to a playlist, and handle other requests based on what you are doing.
4. Siri Can Use Online Knowledge
Siri AI can reference information online to answer questions requiring current or detailed information. It can help with research, projects, interview preparation, and general questions.
5. Ask Siri From Spotlight
Spotlight can show “Ask Siri” as a top result, giving you another way to send a request to Siri AI directly from search.
6. Dedicated Siri App
macOS 27 introduces a dedicated Siri app that brings conversations together in one place. You can start a new conversation or return to previous ones from your Mac.
7. Siri Conversations Sync Across Devices
Siri conversations can continue across supported Apple devices. You can start a conversation on iPhone and pick it up later on your Mac.
8. Pin Siri Conversations
Important Siri conversations can be pinned inside the Siri app for easier access later.
9. Visual Intelligence Works With Siri
Visual Intelligence lets you ask Siri AI about content on your Mac screen. You can take a screenshot of an image, PDF, or other content and ask questions, search for information, or take supported actions.
10. Write With Siri
Siri AI can generate drafts from scratch or provide feedback on existing writing. In supported apps such as Messages and Mail, it can also match your writing style, punctuation, and tone.
11. Customize Siri’s Voice
On supported devices, you can choose a Siri voice and adjust its expressivity and pace.
Apple Intelligence In Apps
12. Safari Automatically Groups Tabs
Safari can automatically group tabs into topics, making related websites easier to find when you have many tabs open.
13. Safari Notify Me Tracks Page Changes
Safari Notify Me can monitor webpages for changes and alert you when something happens, such as a price change or an item coming back in stock.
14. Passwords Identifies Weak Passwords
The Passwords app can identify weak passwords and alert you when an account needs attention.
15. Passwords Identifies Compromised Credentials
The app can also warn when passwords have been compromised, helping you identify accounts that need to be secured.
16. Passwords Can Update Credentials
For supported accounts, the Passwords app can update credentials on your behalf, reducing the steps needed to replace an insecure password.
17. Spatial Reframing Comes To Photos
Spatial Reframing lets you change the framing of a photo after it has been captured.
18. Extend Expands Photos
The Extend tool can expand an image beyond its original boundaries using Apple Intelligence.
19. Clean Up Removes Larger Objects
The enhanced Clean Up tool can remove larger unwanted objects from photos.
20. Image Playground Supports More Styles
Image Playground can create images in a wider range of styles, including photorealistic results.
21. Image Playground Can Transform Images
You can modify and transform generated images using natural-language descriptions.
22. Describe A Shortcut
Shortcuts can use a simple description of what you want to accomplish to connect actions across multiple apps.
23. Shortcuts Can Automate More Complex Tasks
Instead of manually building every step, you can describe an intended task and let Apple Intelligence connect supported actions to create the shortcut.
Child Safety
24. Ask To Browse Requires Approval
Ask to Browse requires children to request permission before accessing new websites in Safari and other supported WebKit browsers.
25. Parents Can Review Website Requests
Parents can review a child’s request through Messages before deciding whether to approve access.
26. Communication Safety Protects Against Nudity
Communication Safety continues to help protect children from viewing or sharing nude images in supported communication features.
27. Communication Safety Adds Gore Protection
The feature now intervenes before children view gore or violent content in shared images and videos.
28. Protection Extends To FaceTime
Communication Safety also applies to supported FaceTime experiences.
29. Set Time Allowances By Category
Parents can set Time Allowances for categories such as Entertainment, Games, and Social Media.
30. Set Different App Schedules
Schedules let parents decide which apps are available at specific times or days of the week.
31. Parental Controls Get A New Design
System Settings gets a redesigned parental controls interface that makes it easier to see how children are using a Mac.
32. Adjust Access More Quickly
Parents can quickly change access from the parental controls interface, including pausing device use, allowing unlimited use, or changing a schedule.
macOS 27 Design And Performance
33. Liquid Glass Gets Readability Improvements
macOS 27 refines Liquid Glass with improved readability, more uniform refraction, and better contrast throughout the interface.
34. New Liquid Glass Appearance Slider
A new slider lets you adjust the appearance of Liquid Glass between an ultraclear look and a more heavily tinted appearance.
35. Uniform Toolbars
Toolbars receive a more consistent design across macOS, creating a more unified appearance between apps.
36. Edge-To-Edge Sidebars
Sidebars extend closer to the edges of app windows as part of the updated macOS design.
37. Updated Window Shapes
Window shapes have been refined to match the refreshed Liquid Glass interface.
38. Updated Menu Bar Icons
Menu bar icons receive updated designs that fit the new macOS visual language.
39. Faster AirDrop Transfers
macOS 27 improves AirDrop performance, allowing supported transfers to complete more quickly.
40. Faster Network File Browsing
Browsing files over a network is faster in macOS 27, making remote file access more responsive.
41. Faster Safari Start Page Loading
Safari can load start page content more quickly, improving the experience when opening a new browsing session.
Mail, Messages And Calendar
42. More Relevant Mail Search
Mail introduces a new ranking system that puts more relevant results at the top, making it easier to find messages even when they are buried deep in an inbox.
43. Messages Gets Contextual Suggestions
Messages can provide suggestions for quick actions based on the context of a conversation, such as adding a calendar event or searching for a photo.
44. Mail Gets Contextual Suggestions
Mail can also provide suggestions for supported actions based on the content of a message.
45. Add Calendar Events From Descriptions
Calendar can create and edit events from natural-language descriptions. You can describe a lunch meeting, for example, and Calendar can turn the description into an event.
46. Edit Events With Natural Language
You can also describe changes to an existing event. Changing a lunch meeting to a coffee chat can update the relevant event details.
47. Call Context Surfaces Relevant Information
Call Context can proactively surface information from your apps during business calls. For example, it can show an airline confirmation code from Mail when you call the airline.
Accessibility
48. VoiceOver Gets Richer Image Descriptions
VoiceOver gains new capabilities for understanding onscreen content, including richer descriptions of images.
49. Automatic Video Captions
macOS 27 can automatically generate synchronized captions for videos you watch.
50. Captions Can Be Translated
The new captioning experience can translate existing captions into other languages when supported.
51. Accessibility Improvements Reach More Content
The updated accessibility tools provide more ways to understand and interact with onscreen video and visual content.
Maps, Podcasts And More
52. Enhanced Flyover In Maps
Flyover uses aerial imagery combined with Visual Intelligence models to render more detailed scenes, including architectural features and individual trees.
53. Swipe Down To Refresh Apps
You can swipe down in supported apps such as Safari, Mail, News, Podcasts, and Calendar to refresh their content.
54. Updated Video Podcasts Experience
The Podcasts app gets an updated video experience that makes it easier to switch between watching and listening to shows.
55. Higher Resolutions On Ultrawide Displays
macOS 27 adds support for higher resolutions on ultrawide displays, including 5K at 120Hz on supported hardware.
56. Display Arrangements Stay In Place
Your display arrangements remain as configured when you reconnect supported ultrawide displays, reducing the need to rearrange windows and screens.
57. Android Users Can Join Shared Albums
iCloud Shared Albums make it easier for friends and family using Android or Windows to join and contribute photos through iCloud.com.
58. Full-Resolution Shared Album Photos
Shared Albums add support for full-resolution photo sharing.
59. Filter Shared Album Photos
New filtering options make it easier to browse and organize photos in Shared Albums.
60. React To Shared Album Photos
Shared Albums add new ways to react to photos, giving participants more ways to interact with shared content.
61. Easier Shared Album Invitations
It is easier to invite others to contribute to an iCloud Shared Album.
macOS 27 Compatibility
macOS 27 supports Macs with Apple silicon, including the following models:
- MacBook Neo (2026)
- MacBook Air with Apple silicon from 2020 and later
- MacBook Pro with Apple silicon from 2020 and later
- iMac with Apple silicon from 2021 and later
- Mac mini with Apple silicon from 2020 and later
- Mac Studio from 2022 and later
- Mac Pro with Apple silicon from 2023
Apple Intelligence features require compatible Apple silicon hardware, with some features requiring newer Macs and sufficient unified memory.
When Was macOS 27 Released?
Apple released macOS 27 Golden Gate on September 14, 2026, alongside the company’s major software updates for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro.
The update is available as a free software update for compatible Mac models.
