Apple is giving Siri a major overhaul with macOS 27 Golden Gate, turning its long-running voice assistant into a much more capable AI companion for the Mac. Instead of appearing only when users ask a quick question, Siri now has a dedicated app, conversation history, deeper access to personal context, and the ability to understand what users have on their screens.
The changes reflect Apple’s broader plan to rebuild Siri around Apple Intelligence. Apple wants Siri to understand what users are doing, work with information stored across their devices, and help complete tasks instead of simply answering questions.
Siri finally gets its own Mac app
For years, Mac users have interacted with Siri through a compact interface that appears when they activate the assistant. That design works for quick commands, but it does not lend itself well to longer conversations or more complicated tasks.
macOS 27 changes that experience by giving Siri its own dedicated application. Users can open the app, start a conversation, return to an earlier chat, and continue working from where they left off. The change gives Siri a more permanent presence on the Mac and makes it feel closer to the AI assistants users already know from other platforms.
The app also gives users more control over how they interact with Siri. They can start with a fresh conversation or open their recent chats, depending on how they prefer to use the assistant. Apple also connects Siri with Spotlight, giving users another way to access it. Instead of opening the Siri app, users can type a request directly into Spotlight. This makes Siri available throughout macOS without forcing users to rely on voice commands.
Siri can remember your conversations
The new Siri experience focuses heavily on conversation history. Users no longer have to treat every interaction as a completely separate session. Instead, they can return to previous conversations and continue working with the context already established.
That could make Siri much more useful for tasks that take hours or days to complete. Someone planning a trip, for example, could start researching destinations in the morning, return to the same conversation later and continue refining the plan without explaining everything again.
The same approach could work for research, writing, studying, project planning, and other tasks that require multiple interactions.
Apple also gives users control over how long Siri keeps conversation history. Users can choose longer retention periods or configure the system to remove older conversations automatically.
Apple has also designed the Siri app around conversation management. Users can view their previous chats in a list or use a grid-style layout that presents conversations as individual cards.
The app also gives users control over conversation previews. They can choose how much text Siri displays when showing previous conversations, making it easier to scan through a large history without opening every chat.
These may seem like small interface changes, but they highlight Apple’s larger vision for Siri. Apple no longer treats Siri as something users briefly summon and dismiss. The company is turning it into an application that users can return to throughout the day.
Siri can understand your personal context
The biggest improvement comes from what Siri can understand. Apple Intelligence gives Siri a better ability to work with personal context and information stored across supported apps. Instead of requiring users to remember exactly where they stored something, Siri can help locate relevant information based on a natural description.
You might ask Siri to find a photograph from a particular event, locate information in an email, or retrieve something you previously saved in a note. Rather than manually searching through multiple applications, you can describe what you need and let Siri help find it.
This makes Siri more useful as an everyday assistant because it can work with information that actually matters to the individual user. The new assistant can interact with supported applications and help users complete certain tasks. Depending on the application and request, Siri can create reminders, work with calendar events, interact with messages, and perform other actions.
That distinction matters. Traditional voice assistants often tell users how to perform a task and leave them to finish it themselves. Apple’s new approach aims to let Siri participate directly in the process.
The company still limits what Siri can do based on application support and available system capabilities, but the direction is clear: Apple wants Siri to become an assistant that takes action rather than simply providing information.
Siri can understand what’s on your screen
One of the most interesting additions comes through Visual Intelligence.
Users can select content on their Mac screen and ask Siri questions about it. That content could come from a web page, PDF, document, or image. Siri can then use the selected information to understand what the user is looking at and provide relevant assistance.
This removes a major limitation of traditional assistants. Users no longer have to describe everything they see before asking for help.
Imagine reading a long document and finding a paragraph you do not understand. Instead of copying the text, opening another application, and explaining the context, you can select the relevant section and ask Siri about it.
The same approach can work with images and other visual information. Apple wants Siri to understand the context around what users are doing rather than treating every request as an isolated question. The combination of personal context and screen awareness could significantly change how people use Siri on a Mac.
A user working on a project could ask Siri to find relevant information, analyze something currently displayed on the screen, and then help turn that information into another action. Someone writing an email could ask Siri to improve the wording. A person reading a document could ask for an explanation without leaving the application.
These capabilities bring Siri closer to the way people already use modern AI assistants. The difference is that Apple builds Siri directly into macOS, giving it access to system features and supported applications.
Spotlight gives Siri another entry point
Apple’s decision to connect Siri with Spotlight also makes sense from a usability perspective. Spotlight already acts as one of the main ways Mac users search for files, applications and information. Adding Siri requests to that experience means users can move from searching for something to asking for help with it without changing tools.
It also gives users a quieter alternative to voice commands. People working in public spaces, offices, or shared environments can simply type their requests.
That makes Siri feel less like a voice assistant and more like a general-purpose AI interface built into the operating system.
Which Macs support the new Siri?
The new Apple Intelligence features require compatible hardware. Apple supports Apple Intelligence on Macs equipped with Apple silicon beginning with the M1 generation. The MacBook Neo with its A18 Pro chip also supports the new capabilities. However, the most powerful on-device AI model will require Mac models with the M3 generation or newer and at least 12GB of memory. This will include the more versatile Siri’s voice customization.
Intel-based Macs do not receive the full Apple Intelligence-powered Siri experience as macOS 27 will drop support for those Macs. Not to mention that Intel Macs have never supported Apple Intelligence from day one.
The hardware requirement reflects Apple’s increasing reliance on dedicated processing power for AI features. The company designed its newer chips with machine-learning workloads in mind, allowing many AI operations to run directly on the device.
The biggest change in macOS 27 goes beyond the new Siri app or any individual feature. Apple is changing Siri’s role within the Mac.
The dedicated app gives users a place to have ongoing conversations. Conversation history lets them return to previous work. Personal context helps Siri find relevant information. Visual Intelligence lets the assistant understand selected content on the screen. Spotlight provides another way to access it, while supported app actions allow Siri to help complete tasks.
Together, these changes move Siri far beyond the assistant that Mac users have known for years.
Apple is no longer positioning Siri as something you occasionally activate to set a timer, check the weather, or answer a simple question. The company wants Siri to become a regular part of how you use your Mac.
With macOS 27 Golden Gate, Siri is moving from a voice-controlled feature to an AI assistant that works alongside you.
