Apple announced macOS 27 Golden Gate on June 8, 2026, the follow-up to last year’s macOS Tahoe 26. The new operating system was revealed during Apple’s WWDC keynote, which focused primarily on cross-platform updates rather than macOS-specific features.
Golden Gate introduces several interface changes, including a global slider to adjust the opacity of Liquid Glass UI effects, tighter corner radii on windows for a more unified appearance, and the return of color to sidebar icons — elements that had been stripped in Tahoe’s redesign.
Search receives a significant overhaul, with a rebuilt infrastructure that indexes all device content and adds new content nearly in real time. Spotlight gains the ability to accept Siri AI queries directly, and users can select multiple files — such as PDFs — and ask Siri to analyze or compare them. A demo during the keynote showed Siri generating a comparison table from multiple shed kit quotes after being prompted to “Compare these and help me pick one.”
Visual Intelligence is also coming to macOS 27 via a dedicated keyboard shortcut, enabling tasks like screenshotting a schedule to add calendar events or asking questions about products on e-commerce sites. Shortcuts can now be created by describing the desired action in plain language. Apple also confirmed that swipe-to-refresh will work in Safari, Mail, News, and Calendar using a trackpad, and that ultrawide displays will support resolutions up to 5K at 120Hz.
Golden Gate drops support for Intel-based Macs entirely — a significant change from Tahoe, which was the last version to support x86 chips. Intel Mac owners were previously promised three years of security updates. The new OS is compatible with all Apple silicon Macs, including the new MacBook Neo. However, the most capable on-device Apple Intelligence model — which enables Siri voice customization and improved dictation accuracy — requires an M3 chip or later with at least 12GB of memory, excluding the MacBook Neo and its 8GB configuration.
Source: The Verge