What’s new in macOS 27 Golden Gate: Top features and upgrades

Curious about all the macOS 27 new features? Me too. On June 8th 2026, Apple announced the long-anticipated arrival of Golden Gate at WWDC, which will arrive later this year. It’s going to be the first-ever Apple Silicon release, so sorry, Intel users, you lucked out on this one.

One thing I noticed straight up is that it’s definitely a refinement release, not a full or total redesign.

It looks like it’s going to be focused on speed, stability, and making AI actually useful rather than showy.

I’ve put together some early info on features, plus who can install it, and how to prepare your Mac.

Which Macs can run macOS 27 Golden Gate?

You’ll need to have an Apple Silicon (M1 or later), including MacBook Neo with A18 Pro, to get your hands on all the macOS 27 new features. Intel-based Macs aren’t supported, which I think is actually pretty big news.

Apple have reported that they’ll still be providing security updates for Intel-based Macs running macOS Tahoe (26), but they won’t be adding any new features.

Golden Gate will also be the last macOS with full Rosetta 2 support, so that does mean that Intel-compiled apps will still run, but this is the end of the road for apps that haven't been updated to Universal Binary.

And it’s also been made clear that some of the advanced Apple Intelligence features will require M3 or later and more RAM. So I’d say for this update, the absolute base compatibility is going to be M1, and for the full feature set, M3+.

macOS 27 new features

Siri AI and Apple Intelligence updates

Siri AI is going to be one of the biggest changes we can see; it’s going to be replacing the standard old Siri, and it’ll be powered by Apple's partnership with Google Gemini.

You’ll be able to access it through Spotlight and type or speak your requests. It’ll be so much more powerful that it’ll be able to find files across applications like Mail, Messages, and Notes all by natural language. It can even draft text for you, summarize documents, and compare files. You’ll also be able to create Shortcuts from plain-language descriptions.

Visual Intelligence is also something worth mentioning; you’ll basically be able to point your camera or screen content at something, and Siri AI will finally be able to identify it, extract text, or take action.

We can also expect to see expanded Apple Intelligence tools. Writing Tools across all text fields, smarter photo editing (object removal, scene enhancement), contextual Messages suggestions, and intelligent notification summaries.

Beta testers are already starting to report that Siri AI is genuinely much more useful inside Apple's own apps, but third-party app support is inconsistent. Honestly, I don’t think that’s unusual, and I think we can probably expect this to improve towards the end of 2026 and into 2027.

Good thing to note is that Apple Intelligence will still download around 7–10 GB of on-device models, and users who disabled it in Tahoe should expect the same storage trade-off.

Performance gains and Liquid Glass design refinements

Apple says up to 30% faster app launches via preloading and even faster AirDrop (up to 80%). Spotlight search is getting a rebuild with faster indexing and improved network file browsing. Early beta benchmarks on Geekbench 6 are confirming real single-core gains vs Tahoe. So that is good news. We all want speed.

In fact, in general, beta testers almost universally report that Golden Gate feels noticeably faster and way more responsive than Tahoe, even on older M1 Macs. Some are even going as far as to call it a Snow Leopard moment, so let’s keep our fingers crossed because for most of us, stability and speed win every time over flashy features.

Apple has also listened to Tahoe criticism around Liquid Glass and will also release a uniform window corner radii, which should fix the annoying inconsistency that frustrated a lot of us. But we’ll also see some other improvements here like better contrast and readability, a whole new transparency slider to customize how much Liquid Glass effect you actually see, and colored sidebar icons are coming back, plus Menu bar icons have been updated for better clarity.

The mouse cursor will also be redesigned in Golden Gate to resemble pre-Tahoe style, and pull-to-refresh from iOS will also be available in Safari, Mail, News, Podcasts, and Calendar apps.

Safari, Search, and app-level updates

There are quite a few new ​macOS 27 new features updates here, so I’ve broken these down a bit.

Safari

We’ll start to get AI-powered automatic tab grouping, a Notify Me page monitoring that alerts you when a webpage changes, automatic weak-password replacement, and improved reader mode.

Search overhaul

A rebuilt backend for Spotlight, Mail, and Photos with a new ranking system. Which means finding files or emails and photos will be more accurate.

Parental controls expansion

Parents will be able to approve or block specific apps and websites, and we’ll also see enhanced Communication Safety and new child-safety content detection. I think this is huge news for families.

Other notable updates

Messages improvements thanks to better syncing and reaction changes, new Mail categories, better Calendar integration with Reminders, and Shortcuts automation upgrades.

If you want the full list, because there’s more than this, I’d take a look here at Apple's full feature explainer.

Get your Mac ready for macOS Golden Gate

My first bit of advice, before you do anything, back up your current device with Time Machine; it’s a bit of a non-negotiable for me.

​Then have a quick look at your storage, because most macOS upgrades need around 25–35 GB of free space to properly download and install. If you find yourself on the low-storage side, save yourself some hassle and clean up before you even attempt an install.

Next, I’d also check in the App Store, or wherever you get your apps from, if everything on your Mac is up to date, that’ll help with compatibility issues going into the Golden Gate update.

And while you’re at it, have a quick review of any login items and remove anything you don't need launching at startup. The reason I suggest that is that a cleaner system handles major updates better.

I would also highly recommend running the Smart Care feature from CleanMyMac before you install Golden Gate.

It’ll help to tidy up your Mac: think cache, junk, and even forgotten app leftovers — you might even be surprised by just how much space it can reclaim for you. If you haven’t already, you can test the app fully for seven days for free (get your free trial here).