A hidden feature in the beta of macOS Golden Gate shows how Apple is testing ways to simplify and speed up Writing Tools in Siri AI.

Although some users, including ones at AppleInsider, are finding that Writing Tools have vanished in macOS Golden Gate, typically they remain available whenever selected text is right-clicked. But Reddit users have found that there is a hidden alternative that automatically pops up a short list of Writing Tools when you select text.

To try it out, you have to enter two Terminal commands and macOS will caution you that it's possible the commands are malware. They are not, and they are required to uncover this hidden feature.

Before you decide whether to bother, you should know that this is clearly quite an early test of a user interface because not all of the options presented actually work. You can also already see what it looks like visually because the Writing Tools are presented in the same way as Siri AI options when you use Visual Intelligence on a Mac.

In the case of Writing Tools, you have to select some text and then wait for a tiny Siri AI icon to appear. In AppleInsider testing it can take as long as ten seconds for that to happen.

Clicking on this icon produces a pop-up menu that at present offers only options labelled:

  • Proofread
  • Rewrite
  • How does this sound?
  • Edit with Siri

The rewriting option expands out to offer the familiar Friendly, Professional, or Concise settings.

To enable this hidden feature, open the Terminal app and paste these two commands one after another:

sudo mkdir -p /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain && \

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/WritingTools LightweightUI_macOS -dict Enabled -bool true

Then restart your Mac.

Laptop screen displaying a food photo editor, showing multiple bowls of colorful Indian dishes and snacks on a table, with editing handles and menu options like alt text and nutrition visible

The design of the new Siri AI Writing Tools feature is the same as that for the existing Visual Intelligence popups on Mac - main image credit: Dishoom Restaurant

Changing this setting in Terminal only adds the new prototype feature, it doesn't take away from Writing Tools in the regular right-click menu. But to undo the change anyway, paste this into Terminal:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/WritingTools LightweightUI_macOS -dict Enabled -bool false

At present, this feature is a curiosity. Because of its similarity to the Mac's implementation of Visual Intelligence, it seems likely to launch officially at some point.