iOS 27 and MacOS Golden Gate announced
Apple announced the latest versions of its Mac and iPhone operating systems at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), alongside the next generation of Apple Intelligence features.
Dubbed iOS 27 and MacOS 27 Golden Gate, the operating systems will benefit from the new suite of artificial intelligence (AI) features.
However, unlike previous years, Apple did not spend much time on platform-specific features. Instead, it mostly focused on cross-platform features powered by its new large language models.
Apple said its latest set of Foundation Models was developed in partnership with Google, with variants that can operate on-device and more advanced ones that run on Apple’s private cloud infrastructure.
Apple senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, said the company’s vision for AI focused heavily on privacy and personal context.
“Truly helpful AI must be centred on our users’ needs, deeply integrated into the products they rely on every day, grounded in personal context, and built with privacy at every step,” he said.
Key upgrades to iOS 27 and MacOS Golden Gate include upgrades to Safari and the Photos app, AI integration with Siri, and updates to Apple’s image playground.
Safari is receiving several new features, including tab organisation, Notify Me, and Describe an Extension. With tab organisation, Apple said Safari would automatically categorise open tabs into relevant topics.
At the same time, Notify Me monitors web pages for changes such as price drops or stock updates and alerts the user.
Apple said the Describe an Extension feature would allow users to build customised Safari extensions by providing a text prompt of what they want it to do.
It added that MacOS and iOS users would benefit from automation upgrades in the Passwords app, which can automatically strengthen the passwords of weak or compromised accounts with one tap.
Apple announced various updates to the Photos app on both platforms. The app will receive advanced image editing models, including Apple’s “Spatial Reframing” feature.
It said the feature drew on spatial computing models from the Vision Pro augmented reality headset and would allow users to shift a photo’s perspective after it was taken.
Apple said the new operating systems would introduce an Extend tool to expand the borders of photos and adjust aspect ratios without cropping them.
Additionally, it said the Photos app would get an upgraded Clean Up tool to remove unwanted distractions from scenes.
Apple said all photos edited with an Apple Intelligence feature would automatically include a hidden SynthID watermark.
Big Siri upgrades on Mac and iPhone
The Cupertino-based tech giant spent a fair portion of its keynote presentation discussing new artificial intelligence features for its virtual assistant, Siri.
The company said its AI upgrades completely overhauled the virtual assistant, and that it would act more as a conversational assistant with a dedicated app.
The upgrades also included cross-platform writing tools, which Apple said would work on “most third-party” apps, and Visual Intelligence features.
Apple said the new Siri could search for information across various sources, such as emails, messages, and photos, to complete actions within third-party apps.
It added that the assistant would be able to create reminders or find specific photos based on conversation history in the Messages app.
At the same time, Apple added Smart Reply capabilities to the Mail app. The outputs are tailored to the user’s writing style, and the upgraded Siri underpinned the Smart Reply feature.
The tech giant also announced updates to Image Playground, its Apple Intelligence–based image generation and manipulation app.
Image Playground will receive a new generative model running on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. It said the new model allowed users to generate photorealistic images.
Apple explained that users can modify generated images with text descriptions or touch gestures, and that they can use the tool to create custom lock screen wallpapers and contact photos.
Apple said test builds of MacOS Golden Gate and iOS 27 were made available to developers from Monday, 8 June 2026, with a public beta scheduled for July.
A broader public rollout was scheduled for late 2026, while Siri’s new Apple Intelligence features will launch in beta later.
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