There was a lot to take in from Apple's WWDC 2026 keynote, but as is the case every year, the presentation couldn't hope to cover all the changes, new features, and upgrades to Apple's software. Developers are already busy installing the first beta versions of Apple's new operating systems and seeing what they're capable of—so, in the interest of trying out the new features of macOS 27 as early as possible, I've dusted off my developer account to give the new "Golden Gate" update a try.
An Apple developer account is required if you want to access the beta right now (as is the case with iOS 27). Getting a developer account, which allows you to install early versions of Apple's software before it is released to the general public, used to require you to pay $99 per year, but that's no longer the case—you can receive 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 people, as you're likely to come across numerous bugs and glitches, some of which could have serious consequences for the apps and data on your devices. The most cautious strategy is to wait for the full release this fall, though a more advanced public beta is also due in July.
Personally, I haven't experienced any issues of note in my time with Golden Gate, and even at this early stage, I can see the promise of Apple's latest desktop software update. In particular, there are five features in this update I'm glad to see, and that you should be looking forward to arriving on your Apple Silicon-based Mac later this year.
Automatic Safari tab organization
As someone who always has plenty of tabs open, I'm intrigued by the new automatic tab organization tool that's available in Safari for macOS 27. It might even make me spend more time in Safari compared to Chrome.
"Safari analyzes each page, identifies similarities, and then brings related tabs together," Apple says, so you might get all your puzzle web apps in one group and all your basketball news articles in another. You can set up the feature by clicking Safari > Settings > Tabs and then choosing By recommended topics or Automatically for Organize tabs.
I've found the feature to be of limited use so far (this is a beta after all), but there's potential here. At the moment, Safari does a good job of automatically grouping together tabs open from the same website, but doesn't reliably recognize tab topics or group them together that way. I expect this will improve with time, as Apple made a big show of explaining it in the keynote.
Better support for ultrawide displays
This probably has niche appeal, but personally speaking, it's something I'll be making plenty of use of: While macOS previously supported ultrawide monitors, the new Golden Gate update will offer broader support for a greater number of native resolutions and refresh rates, with sharper scaling included.
This means if your ultrawide monitor has always been a bit glitchy and limited when connected to a MacBook (like mine), you should get a far better experience this time around. What's more, macOS 27 will remember layouts on ultrawide monitors as well, even after disconnecting and reconnecting, so no more scattered icons and windows.
Improved iPhone mirroring
iPhone mirroring is already one of the slickest and most handy features on Macs, and it gets better with macOS 27. On supported apps, you can drag out the iPhone window to a dual-pane, iPad-style layout (no doubt in preparation for the upcoming foldable iPhone).
Another neat addition is that you can now access the iOS Control Center through iPhone mirroring, so if you need to turn on airplane mode, start a screen recording, or do anything else through Control Center, it only takes a couple of clicks (View > Control Center).
A slider for Liquid Glass
A year after Liquid Glass was thrust upon us, there's finally a proper system-wide customization option: A slider that lets you adjust how much Liquid Glass you want in macOS. I've never had a huge problem with Liquid Glass, but I'm still happy to have the option to adjust it to suit my own preferences.
You can find the slider under Appearance in System Settings, and there's a neat little preview thumbnail above that shows you how the adjustments will look. Right now, the difference from one side of the slider to the other isn't huge: It goes from "fairly translucent" to "hardly translucent at all."
And of course... Siri AI
Based on the demos we saw during WWDC 2026, Apple now has an AI chatbot ready to offer Gemini and ChatGPT some genuine competition (with a little help from Google's AI models). Sadly, at the time of writing, I'm still on the waiting list for the new and improved Siri, so I can't tell you what it's like to use.
Still, I'm intrigued by how Apple has integrated Siri AI into the desktop OS. Whenever you open a Spotlight search, Siri will pop up to answer your questions, analyze something on screen, browse through your photos, send emails, pull information from the web, and more. As on iOS, it now comes with its own dedicated app as well, where you'll be able to sort through your chat history to review previous conversations with the chatbot.
Even if it can't quite match the capabilities of its rivals, the fact that it comes built into Apple hardware—and will sync chats across devices too, for the first time—gives it a big advantage in terms of convenience.
