LaunchAngels: What's behind Apple's new launch "angels"
Startup daemons and startup agents have been implemented in macOS for decades. Apple is now providing "angels" for this – initially only for itself.
macOS 26: New inside and out.
(Image: Apple)
In macOS 26 alias Tahoe, a new category of launch types has been added, about which Apple has so far remained silent: LaunchDaemons and LaunchAgents are joined by the so-called LaunchAngels. A corresponding directory can be found in the /System/Library folder, as Mac & i author and macOS expert Howard Oakley has discovered. Not much is yet known about what this is all about. The only thing that is clear is that the technology is currently used for three Apple routines.
Three LaunchAngels discovered
While daemons are background processes that act independently, run as root before login, interact indirectly with user processes and are managed by launchd, agents run under the control of launchd. They are requested by the user and interact with processes and daemons directly. They are managed via plist files. It's the same with Angels.
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There are currently three LaunchAngels in the system (macOS 26.0.1): GameOverlayUI, Posterboard and AccessibilityUIServer. The latter helps with accessibility features and is directly connected to the Accessibility process. GameOverlayUI has to do with the new game overlay system that Apple is now giving to games. PosterBoard seems to have to do with the configuration of the lock screen, for example, to place shortcuts there. However, this still appears to be a test. The key "_ExperimentalNonLaunching" is set for this.
Protected directory
Oakley also discovered that all three LaunchAngels have references to RunningBoard, a life cycle management tool. These are not yet available for agents and daemons. It remains to be seen what Apple plans to do with the LaunchAngels in the future, and why the manufacturer has introduced a new category of start tools for this purpose. There is currently no way to define your own Angels, the directory is protected.
It is also still unclear whether LaunchAngels work in the user's library folder or only system-wide. The latter would have to be implemented if Apple opens up the technology for third-party apps as a new form of service. What advantages this would have for developers is also not yet clear. In any case, the protection means that Angels cannot be misused so far.
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