How to Use Siri's New On-Screen and Contextual Intelligence in macOS 27

We have been busy this month. The beta 2 release of macOS 27 is out, and things are getting wild. The system is packed with deep Apple Intelligence integration, completely transforming how Siri interacts with your files, your screen, and your personal data. Plus, there are some fantastic quality-of-life upgrades across the entire operating system. Let us dive right in and explore how to use these new features.

On-Screen Visual Intelligence

Siri can now "see" what is on your screen and take action based on it. If you stumble across a picture on a website or social media, you can ask Siri to identify it, find where to buy it, or even extract data from it.

Here is how to try it

1. Press Shift + Command + 6 on your keyboard to bring up the crosshairs.
2. Click and drag to select the part of the screen you want to analyze.
3. Click either Ask Siri or Image Search from the floating menu.

If you select an animal or landmark and click Ask Siri, it will identify the subject and give you key facts. If you highlight a product like a bag on Instagram, you can ask "where can I buy this?" to get shopping links.

You can also use this tool to parse massive amounts of text. If you highlight a concert poster full of tour dates and wait a second, an Add to Calendar option appears. Clicking it pulls up a window where you can add all the events to your calendar in one click. You can do the exact same thing with a recipe page. Just highlight the ingredients, click Ask Siri, and tell it to "add these items as reminders to my Grocery list."

Contextual Siri in the Finder

Siri is no longer just a voice assistant. It is built directly into your file system. You can now select multiple files and ask complex, contextual questions about them without ever opening a document.

Here is how it works

1. Open a Finder window and highlight two or more files.
2. Two-finger click to open the contextual menu.
3. Select Ask Siri.
4. Type a prompt like "compare the surround sound formats across these two receivers" into the text box.

Siri will read the documents and generate a detailed breakdown. In the case of comparing two massive PDF manuals, it will output bullet points and even build a comparison table from scratch.

If you want to keep the information, you can click the expand icon to open the result in the dedicated Siri app.

Deep Personal Context in Spotlight and the Siri App

Spotlight has been supercharged with better indexing and Apple Intelligence. When you press Command + Space and start typing, Spotlight predicts whether you are looking for a local file or asking a general knowledge question. If you ask "how tall is Ryan Gosling", Siri AI steps in and answers directly in the search bar.

But the real magic happens when you ask about your personal life. Siri now cross-references your emails, texts, and apps to build context.

Give it a spin

1. Open Spotlight or Siri.
2. Ask a vague, contextual question like "What time should I leave for the airport this weekend?".
3. Siri will scan your emails, find your Delta flight for Sunday, July 5, and tell you your departure time.
4. Ask a follow-up question like "If I want to arrive two hours before departure and I'm leaving from home, when should I leave?".

Siri calculates the drive time using Maps and tells you exactly when to leave. It even provides a clickable directions button. You can also ask multi-step actions like "find the recent photo I took of headphones and text those to Dad".

All of these interactions are now saved in the new dedicated Siri app. You can view your past conversation history, pin important chats to the top, and continue them later. You can also click the + icon to manually add photos or files to a conversation.

Safari's AI and Browsing Upgrades

Safari is getting a handful of powerful new tools. You can now use a pull-to-refresh gesture directly on your trackpad to reload a webpage. But the biggest updates are hidden in the address bar and settings.

What this unlocks for you

• Track page updates: Click the bell symbol in the address bar and select Notify Me. You can describe what you are looking for, like "Price Drops". Safari will check the page daily at a specific time and alert you if the content changes.
• Build custom extensions: Click the address bar icon and select Describe an Extension. Type a prompt like "download all images on the current page". Safari will either suggest existing apps from the App Store or use AI to generate the extension for you. Click Create to add it to your toolbar.
• Auto-organize your tabs: Go to Safari > Settings > Tabs. Under the Organize tabs section, select Automatically Create Topics. Safari will automatically group your open tabs into neat folders based on their content.

A few more things

• Smart file names: Go to Finder > Settings > General and check Suggest file names. Click an unnamed file like a screenshot once. Finder will analyze the image and suggest descriptive titles.
• Clean up Control Center: If your Control Center feels cluttered, go to System Settings > Menu Bar and toggle off Show suggestions in Control Gallery.
• iPhone Mirroring resizing: You can now resize the mirrored iPhone window. Press Command + 9 to snap back to iPhone Size, or drag the corners to make it iPad-sized. Apps like Apple Podcasts will reformat to fit the larger display.
• Sidecar touch support: Sidecar now supports robust touch controls. You can use single-finger scrolling, trigger hot corners, and pull down the notification center just like a touchscreen Mac.
• Adjust system transparency: Go to System Settings > Appearance and tweak the new Liquid Glass slider to make your UI elements more opaque or transparent.
• Video Podcasts: The Podcasts app now fully supports video playback. It includes chapters and a follow-along transcript that highlights active words as they are spoken.
• Draw in Freeform: You can now draw in Freeform using your trackpad. If you draw a shape and hold your finger on the endpoint for a second, it will automatically snap into a perfect circle or rectangle.

Go explore

This update completely redefines how you interact with your Mac. Siri is finally smart enough to understand what you are looking at and what you actually mean. Dive into the settings, try highlighting a few images, and see how much time these contextual tools can save you.