Apple makes Ask Siri the first result under Command+Space in macOS 27

macOS 27 has a dedicated Siri app; a submitted query is stored in the app for later review, can be opened via the expand button in the upper right of the Spotlight query, and conversations can be pinned for convenient access.

Thanks to iCloud sync, every conversation with Siri AI across a user's devices appears in the Siri app, so a dialogue on an Apple Watch, iPhone or Apple Vision Pro remains accessible on any other Siri AI-capable platform.

In previous versions of Siri, even helpful answers vanished once a request ended, and the ChatGPT integration in macOS 26 Tahoe shared this lapse in memory.

In macOS 26, Ask Siri sat as a lower option in the Spotlight list; typing "why was Steve Balmer suspended from the NBA" would prompt choices like iCloud Drive, Finder or the Web before reaching the Siri option at the bottom of the list.

In macOS 27, Ask Siri is the leading choice in Spotlight, making Siri available through the Mac's most familiar keyboard shortcut, Command+Space.

MacRumors says that from the new "Search or Ask" bar you can hold a conversation with Siri, find relevant information in apps such as Mail and Photos, and "take actions in supported apps".

Visual Intelligence is now available on the Mac: press Shift-Command-Space to select something onscreen, then ask Siri to explain it, translate text, search for similar images or find related information.

macOS 27 Golden Gate is only compatible with Apple Silicon Macs; macOS 26 Tahoe was the last update to support Intel-powered Macs.

Siri AI is still in beta and turned off by default, and in Settings it states that Siri AI is "being rolled out gradually".

WIRED's reviewer had been waiting almost an entire day for waitlist access at the time of writing, and says Apple hasn't indicated how extensive the wait list is or how long it will take to come out of beta.

WIRED reports that the new Apple Foundation Models that Siri runs on are based on Google Gemini, giving it improved natural language processing along with computer vision and image-generation models.

Siri can be pulled up from anywhere on the desktop from a right click in the context window; in Finder you can select a few files, right click, then click Siri AI to start prompting in the Siri AI app.

9to5Mac writes that the macOS 27 update "represents a much improved and highly integrated experience that takes into account personal context while prioritizing privacy", while noting Siri is still in beta and not perfect.

In macOS 27 users can still trigger Siri voice search by holding the F5/microphone key or by using the Hey Siri voice command, but Apple clearly thinks the new Spotlight approach is where it's at.

The updated Siri handles open-ended questions such as "What's the best way to preserve an avocado?"; in macOS 26 Siri would shift to ChatGPT for answers, but in macOS 27 it responds directly.

More advanced Apple Intelligence features, such as the improved Voice Mode, require an M3 Mac or newer with at least 12GB of RAM, which rules out the MacBook Neo and lots of MacBook Airs from before 2024.

The three reviews together describe five distinct ways to start a Siri request in macOS 27 without first opening an app.

WIRED reports that Siri AI is currently English-only and will not be immediately available in the EU or China due to regulatory concerns.

9to5Mac writes that most Mac users rely on Spotlight for searching and launching apps, opening documents, calculating values and browsing the web, and that "Spotlight is where Mac users go to do things."

WIRED's reviewer writes: "Siri on Mac never made a lot of sense, and I can't imagine it has ever been used much."