For macOS 27 Golden Gate, which will be released this fall, Apple appears to be testing a new formatting bar for the Mail app’s compose window that promotes Apple Intelligence and Siri AI writing tools, based on results from the latest beta.
Feature flags discovered by Woozad Forum member “mactracker” – who also revealed Siri’s hidden “voicepad” interface in Beta 4 this week – shows off the reworked bar in Mail’s message composer, which now features “Write with Siri” in the most visible position.
In the current implementation, classic formatting controls are automatically collapsed to the right edge of the composer and disappear completely once the user selects Write with Siri and begins typing a prompt.
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The redesigned bar adds the ability to display Siri AI’s contextual Smart Reply suggestions without necessarily using them in your email draft. (macOS users will know that Smart Reply itself isn’t new, since it arrived with the first wave of Apple Intelligence features.) The new design lets you preview a suggested reply by hovering over it before inserting it, something the previous inline design couldn’t do.
When a suggested composition is selected, the formatting bar displays the options “Edit with Siri,” “Reread,” and “Rewrite,” as well as “How does it sound?” with traditional formatting controls minimized.
The new bar is not enabled by default and remains hidden behind an internal feature indicator, so most testers won’t see it. It’s also still buggy, which suggests it’s a work in progress – in Beta 4, for example, the redesign only appears when replying to a message, but composing a new email still brings up the old formatting bar.
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At this point, no one knows if the redesign will allow for the general release of macOS 27, but it fits the broader model of integrating the new context-aware Siri AI throughout the system.
macOS 27 Golden Gate is expected to officially launch in September when Apple launches new iPhone 18 Pro models, alongside its first foldable iPhone.
