macOS 27 Golden Gate - Top 10 Features!

This is macOS 27 Golden Gate. I’ve been using it for over a week now, and it’s unexpectedly one of the bigger macOS updates. So - here are the ten major changes coming to your Mac this fall, going from the tiny tweaks to the massive leaps. Keeping in mind, this is just the beta.

Starting with the basics, macOS 27 fixes plenty of last year’s design “improvements.” I mean, you probably noticed this too, but when macOS 26 dropped last year, so many things felt rushed and unfinished. This update feels much more like the version we should’ve gotten from day one. Like,

unfinished. This update feels much more like the version we should’ve gotten from day one. Like,

how we can now fine-tune the transparency of Liquid Glass with a simple slider, up to an entirely frosted look. Or how app icons are noticeably sharper and more contrasty. Just

like toolbar buttons, plus they playfully pop out when clicked. And I genuinely can’t believe I’m saying this, but every single window on macOS now has the exact same, tighter corner radius. Thank you. The point being, it really seems like someone at Apple sat down with last year’s update and thought: “Yeah… We should probably fix that.”

In fact, Apple even showed this massive slide with more than a hundred features and fixes across their software. Like, how menu bar items can now hide and expand when your menu bar is full. Or, how Apple Notes now natively lets you copy and paste in markdown, plus insert divider lines into your notes. Freeform now has folders and an actual dark

mode. There are a bunch of invisible upgrades too, macOS should feel smoother overall,

mode. There are a bunch of invisible upgrades too, macOS should feel smoother overall, AirPlay should be faster, just like AirDrop, which Apple claims by as much as 80%.

But there’s another massive invisible change that you’ll notice every single day. You see,

the moment you upgrade to macOS 27, your Mac starts reindexing all your files, apps, emails, photos, everything on your Mac and in iCloud. The point being, search across your Mac has got a big upgrade. I’ve actually tried dozens of searches side by side on macOS 26 and 27. And while it’s

upgrade. I’ve actually tried dozens of searches side by side on macOS 26 and 27. And while it’s not a night-and-day difference yet, I can already say the new search feels much more reliable. Like,

I have three photos of meerkats in my library. Now, they’re pretty old and basically the exact same picture. When I searched for meerkat, macOS 27 instantly pulled up all three, whilst macOS

same picture. When I searched for meerkat, macOS 27 instantly pulled up all three, whilst macOS 26 - only found one. And the same goes for the more natural search, it’s now easier than ever to just describe a photo or video in your own words, and your Mac will probably find it.

And it’s this new search index that the new Siri AI is built on top of. The point being, Siri is finally, and I can’t believe I’m saying this — actually good. because it can now tap into this new system search across your Mac, it finally understands your stuff and doesn’t just go with

Google search results. It can pull up every file, photo, message, email, everything on your Mac. So,

just for instance, check this out - “Find the photo I took of a banana the other day and send it to Kevin.” - and here we go. What’s more, I really like all the places Siri’s integrated on your Mac,

to Kevin.” - and here we go. What’s more, I really like all the places Siri’s integrated on your Mac, like it’s not just this voice chat, it’s also in Spotlight Search, or in the right-click menu.

The point being, you can ask about any files, images or text you’ve selected. Or, even this calendar event, which we can right-click, and then just ask Siri to move to a different date.

Plus, there’s now Visual Intelligence on Mac too. It’s simple, you can now press Command, Shift and 6 to grab a screenshot of whatever’s on your screen and Siri can start analyzing it. Like,

you can do a reverse image search, or ask for more information and start a Siri Chat. Plus,

it automatically identifies specific items, so in the case of my banana, we could quickly look up its nutrition info.

And all of this ties together in this new dedicated Siri chatbot app, that syncs across devices with iCloud. You can start new chat directly from here, pin any conversation, and pick it up later on any device. And because it’s not just personal context that Siri now has access to,

but also current real-world knowledge, you can basically use it like any other AI chatbot.

But, honestly, it’s not just what Siri can do that impressed me the most. It’s also

how customizable it is. You can change the accent, adjust how expressive Siri sounds, but my personal favorite, you can finally change the speaking speed. Because if there’s one thing I cannot stand, it’s waiting for a computer voice to finish a sentence.

But here’s the thing, we’ve seen AI chatbots before, and it’s no secret that Siri is just catching up here. Where it actually gets interesting is with the AI Apple has added to Photos, Shortcuts - and Safari. There’s a new feature here I would have never thought of, but that makes perfect sense. You see, Safari has always lagged behind Chrome

when it comes to the sheer number of available web extensions. Now, you can just prompt any extension you want and it will build it for you from scratch. And it works surprisingly well, there are some recommendations here, like styling any website like back in the 90s, I mean that’s not useful at all, but super fun, or if you’re like me annoyed by the sheer amount of Shorts on

the YouTube website, just create an extension that hides them for you. Here we go, they’re all gone.

On the same note, Shortcuts got a very similar update. Now, when you add a new shortcut, by default, it takes you to this view, where you can simply prompt the shortcut or automation you want to create. You can still switch to the normal Shortcuts builder, but AI can now just add the actions for you. And again it works really well, plus you can still make edits

afterwards if you like. And this is the kind of AI I feel like is really useful, it takes a super powerful app maybe only 10% of Mac users ever touch, and turns into a tool my mom could use.

Photos and AI is always a very difficult balancing act, and with macOS 27, there are two new AI photo editing tools. For starters, you can expand any image, and in most cases, it looks super realistic. The Reframe tool uses the exact same technique but also throws background

separation into the mix. It lets you change the camera perspective after taking the photo, and I think it’s pretty mindblowing. It’s still a bit hit or miss, but if you don’t overdo it, it works extremely well. Oh, and the Clean Up tool got an upgrade too, I mean, check this out, on

macOS 26, it’s basically unusable. Same photo on macOS 27 — and it’s a completely different story.

But we’ve only scratched the surface here, there are plently more features hidden throughout macOS 27. I'll be doing a much bigger, complete Golden Gate walkthrough when the update drops this fall, so subscribe if you don't want to miss it. Alright, I will see you there, thank you so much for watching, and have an amazing day!