WWDC 2026 delivered what Apple has been promising for two years. macOS 27 Golden Gate, announced Monday by software engineering chief Craig Federighi, is the first version of macOS that runs exclusively on Apple Silicon.
Tahoe 26 was the last update for Intel-based Macs; Golden Gate leaves them behind. The marquee feature is Siri AI, a complete overhaul of the voice assistant powered by Google's Gemini models. Apple first previewed the redesigned Siri at WWDC 2024 and confirmed the Google partnership in January. The new version gets a standalone app, deeper Spotlight integration, and the ability to understand on-screen content. Users can right-click files and ask Siri questions about them directly from the context menu, or type queries into Spotlight for automatic handoff to the assistant.
Siri AI will be available to developers in English starting today, with a public beta rolling out to users later this year. Apple said support for additional languages is coming soon. The assistant is also coming to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27. EU users face a more complicated path: Apple's website indicates Siri AI will be available on macOS 27, visionOS 27, and watchOS 27 in the region, but the company said it has no timeline for iOS and iPadOS availability due to regulatory hurdles.
Liquid Glass, the visual design language introduced in Tahoe 26, gets significant refinements. Apple added a global slider to adjust opacity of Liquid Glass UI effects, tightened window corner radii for a more uniform look, and introduced a unified toolbar across apps. The sidebar now extends to the edge of windows. The company said the changes address user complaints about the original Liquid Glass implementation.
Visual Intelligence arrives on the Mac with a dedicated keyboard shortcut, letting users select portions of their screen to search or ask questions about. Safari gains Apple Intelligence-powered automatic tab grouping, "Notify Me" alerts for page updates, and a natural language extension builder where users describe what they want and Safari generates the extension.
Other additions include ultrawide display support for resolutions up to 5K at 120Hz, swipe-to-refresh gestures on trackpad for apps like Safari and Mail, context-based quick actions in Messages and Mail, and the ability to switch between audio and video podcasts in Apple Podcasts. Apple said it focused on performance improvements across dozens of underlying technologies, drawing comparisons to the Mac OS X Snow Leopard era.
Shortcuts are getting easier to use with natural language descriptions. An onstage demo showed a user asking Siri to create a shortcut that texts their spouse an ETA when leaving work.
macOS 27 Golden Gate will be compatible with all Macs on Apple Silicon, including the new MacBook Neo. The update is expected for public release in September, though Apple has not specified an exact date.
