I’ve Tried MacOS 27 Golden Gate, and Here Are My Five Favorite New Features.
Apple’s WWDC 2026 presentation was packed with exciting content, but as is the case every year, it wasn’t able to cover all the changes, new features, and updates Apple is bringing to the table. Developers are already busy installing the first beta versions of Apple’s new operating systems and exploring their capabilities—so to try out the new features of macOS 27 as early as possible, I dusted off my developer account to test the new “Golden Gate” update.
Accessing the beta right now (as with iOS 27 ) requires an Apple developer account. Obtaining a developer account, which allows you to install early versions of Apple software before it’s released to the public, used to require a $99 annual fee, but that’s no longer the case—you can get early access to the developer beta for free by registering your Apple account with the program . Installing these early betas is not recommended for most users , as you’ll likely encounter numerous bugs and crashes, some of which could have serious consequences for apps and data on your devices. The most cautious strategy is to wait for the full release this fall, although a more advanced public beta is also expected in July.
Personally, I haven’t encountered any significant issues while using Golden Gate, and even at this early stage, I see the potential of Apple’s latest desktop software update. In particular, I’m excited about five new features that I hope will arrive on your Apple Silicon-based Macs later this year.
Automatically organize Safari tabs
As someone who always has a ton of tabs open, I’m intrigued by the new automatic tab organization feature available in Safari for macOS 27. It might even make me spend more time in Safari than Chrome.
“Safari analyzes each page, identifies similarities, and then groups related tabs together,” Apple says , so you can organize all your puzzle web apps in one group and all your basketball articles in another. You can customize this feature by going to Safari > Preferences > Tabs , then choosing “By Recommended Topics” or “Automatic” to organize your tabs .
So far, I’ve found this feature to be of limited use (it is a beta, after all), but it has potential. Safari currently does a good job of automatically grouping tabs opened from the same website, but it doesn’t always reliably recognize tab topics or group them that way. I expect this to improve over time, as Apple explained it thoroughly during the presentation.
Improved support for ultra-wide displays.
It might be a niche feature, but I’ll be making heavy use of it: while macOS has previously supported ultra-wide monitors, the new Golden Gate update will offer broader support for more native resolutions and refresh rates, as well as sharper scaling.
This means that if your ultra-wide monitor has always been erratic and limited when connected to a MacBook (like mine), you’ll get much better results this time. What’s more, macOS 27 will remember the layout of elements on ultra-wide monitors even after disconnecting and reconnecting, so no more scattered icons and windows.
Improved iPhone screen mirroring feature.
iPhone screen mirroring is already one of the most convenient and effective features on Mac computers, and macOS 27 makes it even better. Supported apps now let you drag the iPhone window into a two-pane layout, similar to an iPad (no doubt in preparation for the upcoming foldable iPhone).
Another useful feature is the ability to access the iOS Control Center by mirroring your iPhone screen. This means that if you need to turn on airplane mode, start a screen recording, or do anything else via Control Center, it’s just a few clicks away ( View > Control Center ).
Slider for liquid glass
A year after Liquid Glass’s release, a full-fledged system-wide customization option finally arrived: a slider that lets you adjust the intensity of the Liquid Glass effect in macOS. I’ve never had any major issues with Liquid Glass, but I’m still glad to be able to customize it to my preferences.
The slider can be found under the “Appearance” section of System Preferences , and a handy preview thumbnail appears above it, showing how the changes will look. Currently, the difference between the slider’s position and its actual position is subtle: from “quite translucent” to “almost translucent.”
And, of course… Siri artificial intelligence.
Judging by the demos shown at WWDC 2026, Apple now has an AI-powered chatbot ready to seriously compete with Gemini and ChatGPT (with a little help from Google’s AI models ). Unfortunately, at the time of writing, I’m still on the waitlist for the new and improved Siri, so I can’t tell you what it’s like to use it.
However, I’m intrigued by how Apple has integrated Siri’s artificial intelligence into the desktop OS. Every time you open Spotlight, Siri appears to answer your questions, analyze anything on your screen, view your photos, send emails, retrieve information from the web, and much more. Just like in iOS, she now also has her own app where you can view your chat history to review previous conversations with the chatbot.
Even if it can’t quite match the capabilities of its competitors, the fact that it’s built into Apple hardware and syncs chats across devices for the first time gives it a big advantage in terms of convenience.