The approach of a new version of macOS always brings a sense of excitement and anticipation. But it also creates a question: should I upgrade? Sure, there might be lots of shiny news features and improvements. But there’s also the possibility that it will slow your Mac down, break apps you rely on, or even have bugs that cause significant issues. The imminent arrival of macOS 27 is no different. So, let’s take a look at what’s likely to be coming in the new macOS and whether or not you should upgrade.
macOS 27 release date
Apple has settled into a cycle of macOS upgrades that sees one new version launched every year. It’s announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers’ Conference (WWDC) in June and usually released in the fall, around October time. There’s no reason to think that this year will be any different.
macOS 27: What will it be called?
Having gone through a phase of naming OS releases after big cats, Apple settled on California as a theme with Mavericks 13 years ago and has continued with that ever since. It has used the names of national parks, geographical features, and regions. So, perhaps macOS 27 will use the name of a big city like LA or San Francisco, or a forest like Redwood. The one thing we do know is that now that Apple has unified the numerical versions of macOS, iOS, and iPad OS, and aligned them with the year following release, the next version of the Mac’s operating system will definitely be macOS 27.
macOS 27: What new features will it have?
Unlike Tahoe, which features new apps and an interface re-design, macOS 27 is likely to be a relatively small release, and will be focused on refining the Liquid Glass interface and adding incremental improvements. There are a few areas, though, where the additions may be more significant.
Siri
It’s been two years since Apple announced Apple Intelligence at WWDC, and in the time since, it’s fair to say progress has been underwhelming. One place where that’s very evident is Siri. Apple’s voice assistant is yet to benefit from Apple Intelligence and has apparently been hit by problems. That should all change in macOS 27 when a new, more personal version of Siri is likely to debut. The new AI Siri should be more like a chatbot and should be able to answer natural language questions that require it to interrogate apps and find information.
Say, for example, you want to find email messages in Mail that you received last week and had PDF attachments, or messages in a thread from a specific sender, you could ask Siri to find those for you. The new Siri should also be able to search inside documents and retrieve information.
Because Siri runs on your Mac and has access to your apps, data, and settings, there’s a good chance that it will be able to act like an AI agent, checking documents, analyzing on-screen content, changing settings on your Mac based on natural language requests, and perhaps even creating new documents pre-populated with data. An example of that could be a Numbers spreadsheet with a schedule for the week based on information in Calendar and Reminders, or even in Messages or Mail.
There’s also a possibility that Siri will get a visual overhaul to make it friendlier and more interactive, perhaps taking the inspiration for the way it looks from the Finder icon.
Photos
The Photos should also benefit from improvements to Apple Intelligence. While Image Playground is fun, it’s miles behind what other AI tools and AI features within apps can do. The update to Photos is expected to address that with three new editing features: Extend, Enhance, and Reframe.
- Extend will use AI to add content to an image beyond the original limits of the frame. So, for example, you could widen a portrait shot of a person to include more of the background.
- Enhance is similar to the one-click feature currently in Photos that allows you to change the lighting, color, and other image features automatically.
- Reframe allows the perspective of images taken with the iPhone camera’s Spatial mode to be changed.
Interface
Apple is reported to be working on a touch-screen version of the MacBook Pro. Although this has been something that has been speculated on for years, it seems that this time there is substance to the reporting. With that in mind, it’s likely that one of the additions in macOS 27 will be some kind of optimization for touch screens. Among the possibilities are allowing users to tap on a menu bar item to display a touch-friendly version of the menu, and screen versions of the gestures already available on the touchpad, such as swiping with one, two or three fingers, and pinching and unpinching to zoom in and out.
Security
Apple has made security and privacy an important part of macOS upgrades for several years, and macOS 27 is likely to continue that trend. It’s expected, for example, that the new OS will refuse to connect to servers that have outdated security requirements.
Performance improvements
macOS Tahoe was a significant upgrade on many fronts, but it wasn’t entirely successful. So, one of the things that macOS 27 will focus on is fixing bugs and improving performance.
Built-in apps
Apple often uses a new OS version as an opportunity to add features and improvements to built-in apps. In macOS 27, it may focus on recently introduced apps such as Image Playground, Journal, and Passwords, while making smaller improvements to the likes of Safari, Mail, and Messages.
macOS 27 supported devices
Apple has already said that macOS Tahoe is the last version of macOS that will support Intel Macs. So, the only Macs that will be supported to run macOS 27 will be those with Apple Silicon, starting with the M1 Macs released in 2020. Apple is also phasing out the Rosetta 2 layer that allows apps written for Intel Macs to run on Apple Silicon Macs. macOS 27 will be the last version of macOS to support Rosetta 2.
- Reasons to upgrade
If your Mac is running macOS Tahoe, the major reason to upgrade to macOS 27 is likely to be that it will fix many of the problems with Tahoe and improve the Liquid Glass interface.
If you haven’t already upgraded to Tahoe, then the performance improvements in macOS 27 should be enough to persuade you to make the leap. Other than that, the main reason is likely to be the new version of Siri – which should be similar to having your own AI chatbot built into your Mac – and the other improvements to Apple Intelligence.
- Reasons to wait
The main reason to wait is the same as with every new version of macOS: to see whether there are any problems with it. Early adopters bear the brunt of bugs and performance issues, and often waiting until there have been a couple of updates is a smart strategy. The other reason is that every new version brings with it a performance overhead and you might not consider the new features worth paying that price for.
Before you upgrade: Prepare your Mac
If you’ve decided to go ahead and upgrade your Mac, it’s a good idea to do some preparation first. That means getting rid of junk files and clutter that may not be causing a problem at the moment – aside from taking up several gigabytes of disk space – but could cause your Mac to slow down or become unstable after you upgrade. It also means upgrading your apps and clearing out remnants of apps you thought you’d uninstalled but left files behind.
Upgrading without preparation is like building a house on shaky foundations, it’s likely to lead to problems later. CleanMyMac’s Smart Care module takes care of all of that for you. It scans your Mac looking for junk files, broken app remnants, and space hogs that could slow down the installation or cause problems afterward. Think of it as a pre-flight check before you upgrade. Try CleanMyMac free for 7 days here.
How to upgrade to the new macOS 27
Upgrading a supported Mac is simple. When macOS 27 is available, you will get a notification and see an alert in System Settings > General > Software Update. It will be clearly labeled as macOS 27 so that you don’t confuse it with an update to the version of macOS you are currently running. Before you upgrade, though, make sure you follow the advice above to prepare your Mac.
If you run into problems when you try to upgrade, it could be that Apple’s servers are very busy, so you may just have to wait a little while and try again. If it still doesn’t work, you can download macOS 27 from the Mac App Store and install it that way.
Should you upgrade?
The decision to upgrade is one you should take some time to consider. That’s even more so if the Mac you are thinking of upgrading is one you use for work. If something were to go wrong and you couldn’t use an important app, what would you do? In that case, especially if you don’t have a backup Mac, it’s a good idea to wait until the first or second update. If, on the other hand, the Mac is one that you don’t rely on for work and it meets the criteria for macOS 27, there’s no reason not to go ahead and upgrade straight away.
