macOS 27: new Siri takes on AI productivity apps

The two most noticeable things about macOS 27 Golden Gate are the newly updated Siri AI and the design changes that make windows and icons more consistent. Siri AI offers the same features and capabilities as on iOS 27, but the Mac gives it access to different context — and new ways to be useful.

Over the last few years, apps and browsers have tried to learn more about your work and what you want to use AI assistants for, so they can better answer your questions or perform tasks. Today, many top web browsers, excluding Safari, come with a sidebar-based AI assistant that can look at one or multiple open tabs to provide contextual answers. Apps like Highlight, Caddy, and Littlebird can also look at your current window, then use that information as context for your queries.

The new Siri is similar. You can invoke Siri anywhere on your screen, allowing it to answer questions about what it sees, summarize information, or provide you with more details. For instance, if you are looking at an item you want to purchase, you could ask Siri to show you alternative options too.

Instead of having Siri look at the whole page, you can also select a part of the page via Apple’s new Visual Intelligence features. If you press Command + Shift + Space, you can add the currently focused window to your context for the AI.

To select a specific part, press Command + Shift + 6 to bring up a crosshair selection tool. After this, you can directly ask a question or perform an image search. Based on your selection, you will also get shortcuts like “Select,” “Add to Contact,” and “Look up Location.”

Apple has also improved Spotlight Search on Mac. You can directly ask Siri questions within Spotlight to get answers from the web, and now you can also select Applications, Files, Actions, and Clipboard to search within that particular area of context. Plus, Spotlight now allows you to run Shortcuts or look up your recent search history.

Since Siri has access to your files, emails, and messages, you can search for a variety of things that you couldn’t before. In tests, I pulled up membership IDs without opening my files, asked for details about an upcoming trip, and looked up the embargo date for an upcoming news story in the works. While I don’t find Spotlight as advanced as the highly extensible Mac productivity tool Raycast, it’s still much better than before.

Siri can also now help you with reviewing documents or performing writing tasks. Since the desktop is one of the better surfaces for writing long text, I found it to be more useful here than on the iPhone. You can do things like select a block of text and ask Siri to proofread it, improve it, or rewrite it. You can also ask Siri to draft something for you within any text box.

Safari, meanwhile, has added AI-powered page tracking, which is useful for keeping an eye on things like price drops, privacy policy changes, or new blog posts on pages when there is no RSS support. Plus, Safari can automatically organize tabs based on topics, which is handy.

One small but neat new feature is that when you download a file or rename it, the system suggests a name based on context in the Finder or when you’re saving the document.

Apart from Siri, macOS 27 Golden Gate brings design changes with new Liquid Glass icons, an adjustable slider for the Liquid Glass design, and a better way to “diffuse” content when you move windows around.

The company said that app windows have a more consistent corner radius. Sidebars now stretch edge to edge and have new colorful icons. The new operating system update also better highlights active windows.

The OS update additionally adds features like enhanced child safety controls, shared cross-platform photo albums, and an updated eraser, better search in email, app resizing for iPhone mirroring, and quick suggestions for adding events to the calendar.

Starting today, macOS 27 Golden Gate is available for MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 2020 version with Apple Silicon or later, iMac with Apple Silicon (2021 or later), Mac Mini (2020 or later), Mac Studio (2022 or later), Mac Pro (2023 or later), and MacBook Neo. Go to System Settings > General > Software Update to get the latest version.