The Next Era of Mac and iPhone Just Arrived: Apple Drops the First iOS 27 and macOS Golden Gate Public Betas

The most important new feature for future Apple phones and computers is a completely upgraded Siri, which will now use the smart AI technology to process all your required information safely on your own device or secure cloud servers. 

• ChatGPT Integration: Siri can intelligently route complex questions or photo analysis directly to ChatGPT. (Note: When utilising ChatGPT, some responses used in follow-up queries or resumed chats may be logged by Apple).
• App Intent Schemas: Users can ask Siri to trigger deep system data across everyday apps via enhanced App Intents, such as starting navigation in third-party map applications or finding specific entities seamlessly.
• The Siri App: For the first time, macOS and iOS feature a dedicated Siri app interface. As a privacy measure, conversations within the Siri app streaming interface may be automatically deleted a few minutes after completion.

Note: The broader Apple Intelligence suite requires compatible hardware featuring advanced Neural Engines. On-device specialisation and large model loading (over 1 GB) performance are vastly improved, requiring devices that support modern Core AI architectures.

The Liquid Glass Appearance: macOS 27 has now introduced "Liquid Glass" as a new visual appearance theme, while still in beta, which means that, with some segmented control rendering bugs currently being patched by developers, it offers a distinct, translucent aesthetic for compatible system UI elements.

Menu Bar Restructuring: On macOS Golden Gate and iPadOS 27, menu bars and context menus now present a noticeably cleaner look. By default, the system hides all menu item symbol images to reduce visual clutter, while non-symbol images remain visible for consistency.

Neural Engine Performance Gains: Hidden engine improvements ensure that applications utilising AI run far more efficiently. Neural Engine memory usage is now directly connected to the specific app process rather than the general system, and loading large AI models (over 1 GB) has received a massive speed boost.

Beyond system architecture, native apps have received substantial feature bumps:

Photos & Image Playground: The Photos app gains enhanced editing features, including Spatial Reframing, which allows users to fine-tune spatial image captures. Additionally, generative AI takes centre stage with the new Image Playground app and Messages extension, allowing users to instantly generate images natively using ChatGPT integration.

Intelligent Browsing in Safari: Safari 27 introduces Safari Intelligence, adding deep AI-driven web features once the necessary system assets are downloaded in the background. It also introduces the highly anticipated "Describe an Extension" feature, allowing users to build and toggle custom Safari browser extensions using natural language prompts.

HomeKit Intelligence: The Home app is getting a massive Apple Intelligence upgrade. When enabled, HomeKit Secure Video recordings are now processed on-device and through Private Cloud Compute to generate advanced video descriptions and allow for intelligent search.