At the WWDC 2026 Global Developers Conference, Apple announced macOS 27 Golden Gate, a new operating system version for Macs. Notably, this is the first version to only support devices using Apple Silicon chips from M1 and above.
This means that Mac models using Intel chips will not be able to upgrade to macOS 27. However, Apple said it will continue to release security updates for this line until 2028.
Apple began switching from Intel chips to Apple Silicon chips in 2020 with MacBook Air M1, MacBook Pro 13 inch M1 and Mac mini M1 models. Currently, this chip line has developed to the M5 generation.
On macOS 27, Apple focuses on three main upgrades including Siri AI, smart search and performance optimization.
The new Siri has the ability to maintain multi-step conversations, understand context and search for information in emails, photos, notes or documents in natural languages. Apple also added its own Siri application, allowing synchronization of chat history between Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Spotlight is redesigned to become a search engine throughout the system. Users can enter requests in natural language to find data or perform tasks without opening the application.
Apple also said it has improved the data indexing system to fix the situation where Finder cannot find files, folders or applications. This is one of the errors that has existed for many years on macOS and is often complained about by users.
Golden Gate is also the first version to bring Visual Intelligence to Macs. This AI tool can recognize content on the screen, analyze images, summarize text and answer related questions.
In addition, Apple continues to adjust the Liquid Glass interface, adding the option to change the level of transparency to improve display capabilities.
The developer beta version was released after WWDC 2026. The public beta is expected to be released next month, before the official release in the fall of this year.
