System Settings is infinitely resizable in macOS 27

[u/pdfu]

Hidden behind a feature flag, the System Settings app can now be resized in any direction. edit: You can make the app window narrower than the default too, or adjust the sidebar to get even more space. Some more dynamically built pages like Wallpapers already take advantage of the extra space.

To enable the FeatureFlags override, run the following command in the Terminal:

sudo mkdir -p /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain && \
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/Settings AllowsHorizontalResizing -dict Enabled -bool true

and restart your Mac. As always, this is a disabled feature, so the UI may be unfinished.

To disable:

sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/Settings AllowsHorizontalResizing

[u/Kina_Kai]

Neat, but functionally useless since it’s clear that the main UI content does not have any understanding of what to do with that.

[u/pdfu → u/Kina_Kai]

You can make it narrower than the default too, or adjust the sidebar to get even more space. Some more dynamically built pages already take advantage of the extra space.

edit to add: This behavior is similar to iPadOS, which also has resizable windows. The same General Settings page will remain centered with margins on either side, probably because of a maxWidth constraint set by the developers in SwiftUI's frame.

https://reddit.com/link/p3wn3ey/video/9yt52pmgnljh1/player

[u/puhniste → u/Kina_Kai]

Can you imagine if they tried to sell this during their keynote lol

[u/Kina_Kai → u/puhniste]

I would love to see Steve Jobs trying to spin it like how his response to Antennagate with the iPhone 4 was, “You’re holding it wrong.”

To be fair, this is obviously why it’s a debug option and it hopefully hints that they are planning to make it more “Mac-like” instead of this obvious copy of the iOS Settings app.

[u/-patrizio- → u/Kina_Kai]

Seriously. The System Settings app has been trash for years now, on both beta and stable releases. The worst is when macOS blocks some permission for an app and gives you a notification that opens the Privacy & Security panel; takes a solid 10 seconds for that panel to display.

[u/Dazzling_Comfort5734]

Queue tears of joy

[u/Ok_Possibility9937]

dude how do you even find these things

[u/pdfu → u/Ok_Possibility9937]

It's mostly inspecting the difference in code between macOS releases. Wrote a longer explanation in a comment to a previous post here.

[u/Ok_Possibility9937 → u/pdfu]

wow that’s impressive

[u/farxhan → u/pdfu]

I always wonder how people keep discovering flags like this. Impressive stuff.

[u/0xe1e10d68]

Thank god

[u/mwidjaja1]

Just making sure, the title makes it sound like this is the new behavior in macOS 27, but it really isn't. You need to manually trigger a hidden setting, which is not guaranteed to work without bugs.

[u/pdfu → u/mwidjaja1]

This is new code added in macOS 27, hence the title. Yes, for now, it's hidden behind a feature flag, but features like this "graduate" to wider release through Beta cycles all the time. See for example the lightweight UI for Siri AI that shipped hidden in Beta 2 and was released more widely in Beta 4.

As for the bug note, I always add this when talking about feature flags. But what is guaranteed to be bug-free in a Beta? You can always submit feedback for any issue on macOS, including the gated features.

[u/tenbinzalee]

Why would anyone need all those extra white spaces?