Max Headroom 
Apple released macOS 27 Golden Gate this week, and despite the company’s focus this year on refining its flagship operating system, improving performance, and nixing bugs, there are still plenty of new things to explore. There’s an overhauled Siri experience, changes across Apple’s apps, and much-needed updates across the system interface.
In this article, we’ve selected 50 new features and lesser-known changes that are worth checking out if you’re updating your Mac. Siri AI remains in beta and is initially rolling out in English, and the availability of some features varies by language and region. What do you think of macOS Golden Gate so far? Let us know in the comments.
Siri AI Replaces the Old Siri Experience
In macOS 27, Apple has turned Spotlight into the place to search your Mac or ask Siri AI a question. From the new “Search or Ask” bar, you can hold a conversation with Siri, find relevant information in apps such as Mail and Photos, and take actions in supported apps.
Adjustable Liquid Glass Transparency Slider
System Settings now has a slider that lets users adjust Liquid Glass from ultra-clear to fully tinted (found in Appearance ➝ Liquid Glass). Apple has also improved contrast and window shadows, standardized macOS toolbars, and made sidebars extend to the edges of app windows. The changes aim to make controls easier to read and active windows easier to distinguish.
Safari’s Start Page Can Resume a Browsing Topic
Safari’s Start Page has a new Recently Viewed section that brings back your recently closed browsing topics as well as topics open on any of your other devices. It offers a handy way to pick up a search or research session without trawling through your browser history.
Visual Intelligence Comes to the Mac
Visual Intelligence is now available on the Mac. Simply press Shift-Command-Space to select something onscreen, then ask Siri to explain it, translate text, search for similar images, or find related information. Siri can also use what it recognizes to take an action, such as adding the details from an event flyer to your Calendar.
Photos Can Save a Video Frame as a Still Photo
The Photos app can now save a frame from a video as a separate photo. Pause a clip at the moment you want, right-click (or Control-click) it, then choose “Save Video Frame as Photo,” and it will add the still image to your library without exporting the entire video.
Past Conversations Are Saved in a New Siri App
macOS now has a dedicated Siri app where you can start new conversations or revisit past chats you’ve had with Siri. The app has a card-style interface with details on your most recent chats across all of your devices. You can also use the search button to find conversations, and there’s a pin option for ones you revisit frequently. The Siri app is cross-platform and your content syncs across all of your Apple devices.
Shared Albums Go Full Resolution
Previously in Photos, pictures in a Shared Album were automatically reduced to 2,048 pixels on the long edge (except for panoramic photos, which can be up to 5,400 pixels wide). In macOS 27 though, Shared Albums finally support full-resolution photos and videos. But there comes a major trade-off. For years now, Apple has allowed you to store up to 5,000 photos and videos in Shared Albums without impacting your iCloud storage limit. That’s no longer the case in Golden Gate.
Non-Apple Users Can Add to Shared Albums
People using Android or Windows can now join and contribute to your Shared Albums through iCloud.com. Users can also set an album to expire after 30 days, filter its photos and videos, review recent activity, and react to images with any emoji. Just remember that if you share an album with someone, what they add to it counts against your iCloud storage limit.
Photos Can Reframe Images
Photos has a new advanced editing tool in macOS 27. Reframe uses information captured with a compatible photo to change its apparent camera angle. It works by combining AI and spatial images so you can change the perspective or composition of a picture.
Photos Can Extend Images
Photos has another new editing feature: Extend lets you change the crop of an image, expanding the borders around content to zoom out a bit or change the photo’s composition. It uses generative AI to fill in missing areas, and you can adjust the borders with drag gestures.
Cleaning Up Photos Got a Lot Better
Clean Up now uses new AI models, and it’s better at removing objects. The original version of Clean Up was best for small items with little complexity in the surrounding area, but now it can do more work reconstructing backgrounds with generative AI. It also offers Fast, High Quality, and Auto modes. Apple says usage limits may apply.
Swipe Down to Refresh Comes to Mac Apps
The familiar swipe-down-to-refresh gesture comes to Safari, Mail, News, Podcasts, and Calendar on the Mac. Pulling down on content via your trackpad (or with your finger on iPad via Sidecar) causes the app to load the latest information, meaning you don’t have to reach for a refresh button or keyboard shortcut.
Mail Search Puts More Relevant Results First
In Mail, search actually works properly in macOS 27. It now ranks messages by relevance rather than relying on matching words and recency. A search for a store, for example, can put an order confirmation ahead of promotional emails from the same sender, even if the order is buried in the inbox.
App Icons Gain More Liquid Glass Detail
Apple’s app icons now have more layers of Liquid Glass, which adds detail and sharper edges across light, dark, clear, and tinted appearances. It’s a smaller visual change than the new Appearance slider, but one you’ll see throughout the Dock and app grid.
iPhone Mirroring Windows Become Resizable
Users can now drag a corner of an iPhone Mirroring window to make it larger or wider. Supported apps can show more information as the window expands, and macOS 27 now also supports playback of protected video in the mirrored window. Bear in mind that individual streaming providers may still restrict what can be mirrored, and iPhone Mirroring remains unavailable in the European Union.
Write With Siri Almost Anywhere
Write with Siri can generate a draft from a description, give feedback on existing text, or make a requested edit, such as shortening a paragraph or changing its tone. It works virtually anywhere you can type, and Apple says it can match your writing style in Mail and Messages.
Photos Adds Keywords and Star Ratings
Photos now lets users add keywords and one-to-five-star ratings to both photos and videos. Ratings can also be used as a filter, so it’s easier to narrow down a large library to your best shots. Ratings controls are off by default, but you can enable them in Photos’ General settings by checking the box next to “Show Rating Controls.”
Add Extra-Large Widgets to Desktop
If you have any widgets on your desktop, try right-clicking (or Ctrl-clicking) on them and looking for a new option called Extra-Large Portrait. You can now make widgets take up a lot more screen space, which is useful for things like weather, home, and reminder widgets.
Trade in Siri for ChatGPT
The new Siri app and the “Search or Ask” bar (Command-Space) defaults to the new Siri AI, but you can switch it to ChatGPT if you prefer. Simply right-click (or Ctrl-click) and select “Ask…” From the context menu, and you’ll see an option to change to ChatGPT. Note that conversation context doesn’t transfer when you switch chatbot providers.
Safari Organizes Pages for You
If you have several webpages open with related content, Safari can automatically group these open tabs by topic while keeping any unrelated browsing sessions apart. To enable the feature, open Safari’s Settings, select the Tabs section, and choose “Organize Tabs: Automatically Create Topics.”
Safari Can Notify You When a Page Changes
Notify Me is another new Safari feature that enables the browser to watch a webpage for a specific change, such as a product restock or price drop, and alert you when it happens. The feature’s monitoring options include daily, weekly, or monthly schedules.
Apple Notes Now Lets You Draw
The Continuity feature has allowed you to sketch in the Notes app by opening a virtual drawing board on your iPhone or iPad. But that meant you had to have at least one iOS device linked to your Apple Account. Happily, that’s no longer a requirement in macOS 27, which adds a native drawing tool to the Notes app. It includes Pen, Monoline, Marker, Pencil, Crayon, Fountain Pen, Reed, and Watercolor tools.
Video Podcasts Get Better Mac Playback
The Podcasts app gives video shows fuller playback controls on the Mac, including Picture in Picture and a download option for offline viewing. You can switch between watching and listening when a show supports video, and the search function in a show’s episode list makes older episodes easier to find.
Image Playground Gets More Styles
Image Playground has been overhauled to become genuinely useful, and it can now generate pictures in a wider range of styles, including photorealistic images. You can select part of an image and describe how you want it changed, or combine images to create something new. As with other Apple Intelligence features, Apple says usage limits may apply.
New Golden Gate Wallpapers Arrive
Golden Gate includes Sunset and Night wallpapers featuring San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, along with a new abstract wallpaper. The Bridge wallpapers animate when your Mac unlocks and you can also use them as your screen savers.
Safari Can Build Extensions From a Description
Safari’s Create an Extension option lets you describe what you want a browser extension to do in plain language. For example, a request to add a button for saving recipes can become a custom extension without you having to go near a single line of code. Safari also offers suggested prompts for productivity, focus, and design tasks.
Freeform Adds Drawing, Collaborative Folders
Freeform now supports drawing directly on the Mac, thanks to sketching tools being included in its shared boards. Golden Gate also adds folders for organizing collaborative boards and a canvas that adapts to Dark Mode.
Faster AirDrop and Network Browsing
Apple says Golden Gate makes AirDrop transfers and browsing folders on Windows or NAS network shares faster. Safari’s Start Page content also loads more quickly, and Mission Control and Spaces animations are smoother.
Calendar Events Can Be Added by Description
Calendar can now create or edit an event from your plain-language description. You can describe a lunch meeting, change the time and adjust the description to make it a coffee meeting, and Calendar will adjust the event rather than requiring every detail to be edited separately.
Enhanced Maps Flyover
With Flyover, cities like Boston, New York, London, and Chicago include more detailed 3D renderings of their skylines. Apple has enhanced the 3D models for these cities by combining AI and aerial imagery to achieve more detailed and realistic cityscapes.
Slideshows Can Start From Any Photos Album
Photos can now create slideshows from any album or collection, rather than limiting them to Memories. You can customize the presentation and save it as a video to keep or share.
Passwords Will (Soon) Auto-Repair Weak Logins
The Passwords app already warns users about weak or compromised logins. Apple says a future software update will let it use Safari to change eligible passwords automatically, replacing a vulnerable login with a stronger one on your behalf.
External Displays Get Better Resolution Support
Golden Gate adds more resolution and refresh-rate choices for compatible external displays, including 5K at 120Hz on certain ultrawide screens. Apple also says the Mac does a better job of restoring window positions, Spaces, and screen assignments when a display is unplugged and reconnected.
macOS Suggests Names for Files and Folders
In Finder, TextEdit, and other Apple apps, Apple Intelligence can suggest a name for a file or folder based on its contents. The feature is designed to make saved items easier to recognize later, especially when the original name doesn’t give much away about what’s inside.
Siri Gains New Expressive Voices
Siri AI now has more expressive voices alongside a big improvement to systemwide dictation accuracy. You can adjust both the expressiveness and pace of Siri’s voice to your preference with sliders in a new Voice section in System Settings ➝ Siri. Siri’s new expressive voices require an M3 or newer Mac with at least 12GB of memory.
Weather’s Forecast Views Are Refreshed
Weather in macOS 27 has a more orderly layout, with more room for its hourly and 10-day forecasts. You can also switch between current conditions, precipitation, and wind views, while a new Highlights section calls out notable weather events ahead. Highlights are currently only available in U.S. English.
Create Shortcuts With Natural Language
True to this era of AI, Shortcuts can now build you an automation from a plain-language description. You can ask it to assemble a sequence of actions across apps, then test, edit, or refine the result with another description. Apple says usage limits may apply.
Finder Columns Are Easier to Size and Reset
New autosize and reset controls make columns easier to manage in Finder. Right-click (or Control-click) the bottom of a column, and you’ll see options to adjust a crowded view without dragging each column boundary into place by hand.
Sidecar Finally Supports Direct Finger Input
Sidecar now lets you interact directly with the Mac interface on an iPad used as a second display. With a compatible iPad, you can tap controls, scroll with a finger, and use more system gestures instead of relying on your mouse or trackpad.
New Screen Time Controls for Parents
Parents can now set category-level allowances with different schedules by day and time, making controls more flexible than one broad daily limit. Meanwhile, Ask to Browse lets kids ask your permission to visit websites. There are also expanded protections against gore and violence, alongside existing nudity protections.
Make Interface Boundaries Clearer
A new Show Borders accessibility option makes the boundaries of macOS interface elements easier to see, in case you could do with some help distinguishing controls and panels where translucent surfaces otherwise blend into the surrounding window.
Widgets Can Update in Real Time
Widgets will now update in real time when their associated app is open, so the information you see on the desktop remains in step with what you see inside the app, instead of you having to wait for a less frequent refresh.
Dock Shows Active Background Processes
If you quit an app and it is still running a background process, you’ll see the indicator beneath its Dock icon turn a light gray. To end the activity, right-click the app’s icon and select “Stop Running in Background.”
Photos Gains New Utility Collections
The Photos app now has two Utility collections. “Captured by Me” gathers pictures taken with your current and any previous iPhones, while “Identity Documents” brings together images of passports, driver’s licenses, and any similar records you might have.
Intel Macs Miss Golden Gate
If you have a very old machine, there’s something you should know: Golden Gate does not run on Intel Macs – it requires Apple silicon (that includes the A-series chip in MacBook Neo). Sorry, Intel users.
Rosetta Support Is Ending
macOS 27 is also the final major release with general-purpose Rosetta support for Intel-only apps on Macs with Apple silicon. Apple says those apps will stop working in the next major release, apart from certain older games.
Smart Replies Can Sound More Like You
Mail’s Smart Replies are able to reflect your usual writing style when they suggest a response, right down to your tone and phrasing, so now a quick reply can sound more like something you would have written yourself. To use a smart reply, click the reply button on an email, click inside the message field, then choose one of the suggested replies generated by Apple Intelligence.
Get Context on a Phone Call
Just like in iOS 27, the Phone app on Mac supports a new Call Context feature. It can surface relevant information from the Mail app. If you call an airline, it might show your confirmation code for an upcoming flight, or your reservation code if you’re calling a hotel. It doesn’t listen to what you’re saying, but instead looks at the number you’re calling and links it to details in the Mail app.
Shortcuts Adds Screenshot and Alert Triggers
Shortcuts automations can now be triggered simply by taking a screenshot or receiving a notification. The new options add to existing triggers such as time of day, location, and app activity, giving you more ways to start a routine automatically.
Reminders Understands Natural Language
If you enter a natural-language request in Reminders, the app can fill in details you specify such as a date, time, or location, saving you from having to enter each field separately.
This article, “50 New macOS Golden Gate Features and Changes Worth Checking Out” first appeared on MacRumors.com
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