With macOS Golden Gate (macOS 27), Apple makes significant progress for the Mac, but without a completely new look like Big Sur or Tahoe. Instead, Golden Gate has the feel of a true ‘Snow Leopard update’. macOS 27 is the first version to run exclusively on Apple Silicon, with a greater focus on speed, stability and optimizing the Liquid Glass.
In this article we won’t discuss Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, but we will look at other new features and improvements that you will notice in your daily use. Think of a new search function, better support for ultrawide screens and useful options in Safari, Photos and system apps.
Speed ​​and performance
Apple presents macOS Golden Gate as real optimization releases, with clear gains in speed and responsiveness. With releases scheduled for 2027, Apple products are even more reliable and easy to use. The software design has been refined, there are performance improvements and it is easier to work, communicate, share photos, listen to music with AirPods and track your health.
New OS releases include improvements to key system features, making everyday tasks faster and smoother. Apps launch up to 30% faster, photos load up to 70% faster, and AirDrop files arrive up to 80% faster. Finally, window animations and interface transitions have been sharpened and therefore feel more immediate.
Improvements to search and system apps
Under the hood, Apple has significantly improved the search functionality of Spotlight, Photos, and Mail, with the aim of delivering more relevant and stable results. The system learns from your usage, allowing it to make better suggestions over time. In Mail, a new ranking system has been introduced for the most relevant results, so important messages appear at the top more often.
System Search (Spotlight) uses less CPU, which improves your MacBook’s battery life and provides a faster and more consistent experience. Furthermore, it has become easier to take actions directly from the search screen, such as opening an app, making an appointment or finding a file. All this can be done in natural language, so you can find exactly what you need.
Liquid Glass refined: more control, better readability
Golden Gate addresses one of Tahoe’s biggest irritations: the inconsistent corner rounding of windows. In macOS 27, all app windows now have the same, tighter radius, for both Apple and third-party apps, including older apps that haven’t yet been updated for Liquid Glass. This gives the whole thing much more peace and a clearer visual hierarchy.
Navigation columns, menus and toolbars have also been redesigned. Apple has improved contrast and typography, so that labels and buttons stand out better from the transparent background and you can see more quickly what is clickable.
Finally, app icons have been refreshed and displayed sharper, and contrast and refractions in the interface have been subtly improved. The result is a slightly calmer and more readable whole, without it feeling like you have to learn to work with a completely new system.
Liquid Glass slider: determine the transparency yourself
The main new feature of Liquid Glass is the system-wide Liquid Glass slide switch, which you can find via  ▸ System Settings ▸ Display. This allows you to determine the degree of transparency in the entire system. You can choose more transparency, a matte appearance, or something in between.
Parents and family: new parental control options
With useful new features, you as a parent determine what your children can see, who they can talk to and when they can use apps. After creating a child account, you will have an environment that suits the age of your child. Setup Assistant lets you choose which apps your child can use, so you stay in control of what’s added.
You can set your child to always need your approval for new contacts, and the system can intervene if inappropriate content is shared. Children can also ask your permission to visit a website or use a new app. This way you can determine together which content is suitable.
With the new healthier screen time features, you can easily set the daily usage time for apps in the entertainment, gaming or social media categories. You will also receive a recommendation for daily time allocation, based on insights from experts and parenting experts.
Schedules let you set which apps your kids can use at different times. In addition, Screen Time has been updated and is easier to use, so you can easily see how often your children use their device and which apps they like most.
All Apple Intelligence innovations
It is striking that all these innovations are available without Apple Intelligence: they are mainly about improvements in speed, design, productivity and reliability of the system itself. Apple has also added quite a few smart AI functions to macOS, but we have already listed them in full in a separate article. This includes reframing and expanding photos, generating smart tabs in images with Image Playground, and more.
New in macOS Golden Gate
macOS 27 also adds a series of concrete features that you can use immediately. The most notable non-Apple Intelligence innovations on Mac are:
Photos and Camera
- Improved album organization in Photos, now also includes shared albums
- Share shared albums in full with other users in high resolution
- Shared albums in Photos for Android and Windows
- Adjust permissions per user for shared albums
- Shared albums can automatically expire after 30 days
- React with any emoji in shared albums
- Collection of ‘Identity Documents’ and ‘Captured by Me’ in Photos
- Save a video frame as a photo
Messages, FaceTime and Phone
- Improved synchronization of Messages between devices.
- Photos, videos and text are sent one after the other, without having to wait for each other
- Merged notifications on multiple tap responses in Messages.
- Search conversations in Messages by phone number or nickname.
- Better FaceTime quality with poorer connection.
- Live Subtitles for FaceTime in Traditional Chinese.
- Live voicemail transcription for English in Singapore and Japanese.
- Transcription of conversation recordings for traditional Chinese, Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese
Mail, Safari, Notes and Diary
- More accurate unread badges in Mail for only important or all unread messages
- Improved list formatting in Mail
- Support for more document types in Preview.
- Faster storage of PDF documents.
- Copy and paste as formatting style in Notes.
- Use dividing lines in Notes.
- Ability to use section links in Notes.
- Improved support for notes from third-party calendar accounts.
- Timestamps for diary entries
- iCloud sync status for diary.
- Higher attachment limits in Diary.
- Notify me option for websites, for example, receive a notification of price drops
- Automatically merge open tabs into ‘Topics’
Maps, find my and location
- Improved three-dimensional rendering in Maps
- Flyover now uses aerial imagery and Visual Intelligence models to clearly display architectural details and the shapes of trees.
- Decide when location sharing stops in Find My app up to a maximum of 30 days
- Ability to temporarily hide your location from Find My (without notification)
Music, Podcasts and audio
- More reliable streaming of Apple Music.
- New automatic transitions between songs.
- Refreshed artists and album pages in Apple Music.
- Search within episodes in Podcasts.
Other
- Automations for screenshots and notifications in Assignments
- Shared folders in Freeform.
- Extra large display for widgets
- Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) is disappearing, causing Time Machine backups to AirPort Time Capsule to no longer work.
- Boot Camp has been removed because Golden Gate only runs on Apple silicon and dual boot with Windows is no longer possible.
- Add events to Calendar and edit them easily by describing the item
- Sidecar gets Direct Touch support in macOS 27, which means you can operate macOS from your iPad with touch
- Ultra-wide view support. You can now enjoy higher resolutions on ultra-wide displays, such as 5K at 120 Hz. Display settings remain exactly as you set them for a seamless experience
- Swipe down to refresh. Swipe down in apps like Safari, Mail, News, Podcasts, and Calendar to get up-to-date information in your apps.
- Removed symbols in menus for a calmer look
Availability macOS 27
The new software can this fall be installed on all Macs with Apple Silicon. This includes the MacBook Pro with M1 chip from 2020 or newer, MacBook Air with M1 chip from 2020 or newer, Mac mini with M1 chip from 2020 or newer, iMac with M1 chip from 2021 or newer, Mac Studio with M1 Max or Ultra from 2022 or newer, Mac Pro with M2 Ultra from 2023 and the MacBook Neo A18 Pro from 2026. Don’t know exactly which Mac you have? Please check this via  â–¸ About this Mac â–¸ More info â–¸ Overview.