macOS 27: Hidden Siri interface with 13 voices discovered

The current macOS beta contains an interface that Apple hasn't activated. Instead of a selection list, an almost black surface appears, upon which voices emerge like stars from the darkness. The discovery suggests 13 voice variations – and it affects precisely the platform on which Siri AI actually runs in this region.

A member of the MacRumors forum has uncovered an unfinished interface in the fourth beta of macOS 27 Golden Gate, which Apple is keeping hidden behind a feature flag. It replaces the existing voice selection in System Preferences with a so-called VoicePad. The beta was released on Monday. This overhaul of the assistant is the biggest change since the introduction of Siri, and the voice selection was previously the least noticeable part of it.

How the Voice Pad works

The interface displays an almost black surface on which the currently selected voice is marked as a colored dot. When the pointer is held down and moved across the surface, color gradients move across the view, more dots appear, and the voice changes its characteristics.

The audio layer beneath is technically remarkable. A spatial mixer analyzes the distance, angle, and speed of the pointer and uses this information to control volume, reverberation, masking, and filtering – for both the voice and the background. As the pointer approaches a specific point, the corresponding voice sounds clearer and more present, while voices further away recede into the background.

13 votes, of which two exist so far

The points are distributed across 13 places in a loose grid. An accompanying file in the beta version describes 13 voices for American English according to gender, age, and character – from a quiet young female voice to a deep adult male voice, and finally to two older-sounding variants.

The beta version doesn't include the necessary language models. Therefore, the system reverts to the two currently available voices. In the current betas, only American English is available for Siri AI anyway; expression and speaking rate can be fine-tuned using sliders. If the interface makes it into the final version, it will likely serve as the initial setup step, while the existing controls remain for fine-tuning. The interface is unfinished but already localized for 44 languages, and it uses the same setup framework as iOS 27 – making its appearance on iPhone and iPad technically feasible.

Why the Mac is particularly important for Europe

For readers in Germany and Austria, the location where the information was found is more important than the discovery itself. Siri AI will not launch on all devices in September: On iPhones and iPads, the assistant will remain blocked in the EU for the time being because Apple and the EU Commission could not agree on the implementation of the Digital Markets Act. However, Siri AI is available on macOS 27 and visionOS 27 in the EU – the restriction explicitly applies only to iOS and iPadOS.

The Voice Pad would thus be one of the few Siri AI innovations that users in this country would actually get to see, instead of observing them remotely. Talks between the two sides are ongoing, most recently at the level of Apple's top management and the EU Commission, but there is no timetable for the iPhone and iPad.

The situation is different in Switzerland: As a non-EU and non-EEA country, it is not subject to the DMA. Swiss users therefore also get Siri AI on iPhone and iPad – the question of where it was found simply doesn't arise there.

The language question remains open. All 13 voices described are designed for American English. While the interface may be translated into 44 languages, German-language voices are not documented in the files found so far.

Accessible only with system backup disabled

Unlike a hidden Siri window that appeared in the macOS 27 beta earlier this week, the VoicePad cannot be unlocked via a Terminal command. To see it, users must disable System Integrity Protection and overwrite internal code using a debugger.

This is more than just a technical footnote. A feature flag locked down like this indicates an early stage of development - and that Apple is deliberately keeping it away from beta testers. Whether the interface will be included in September cannot be deduced from this. Discarded concepts appear in betas just as often as finished features.

macOS 27: Here's what's next

The new assistant, based on major voice models, will be released in September with macOS 27 and other system updates in supported regions. Further betas are expected before then, which should reveal whether the voice models will be added later and whether the VoicePad will be removed from the feature flag. As long as it remains there, it indicates Apple's intentions – not its final state at launch. (Image: Apple)