MacOS Tahoe Announced with New Liquid Glass Interface
Apple has announced MacOS Tahoe, versioned as macOS 26, jumping 11 versions ahead from the current versioning of MacOS 15. This versioning number change is congruent with the new year-based versioning system that also arrives on iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, and the rest of the Apple operating system suite.
MacOS Tahoe features an updated interface look with the new Liquid Glass interface style, which is basically just a shinier more transparent visual appearance, with updated icons and widget look, new color tinting options, along with some other minor changes to the interface. MacOS Tahoe also features a new default wallpaper that is very Windows 11-esque wallpaper-y.
The color tinting is similar to what has been available on iOS and iPadOS for several years now:
The new interface color tinting option allows for user interface elements and icons to change their look:
While the visual change is likely to get the most attention, macOS Tahoe also includes some interesting new features as well.
The Phone app debuts on the Mac, just in case you want to make and manage phone calls on your Mac.
Spotlight is getting some significant updates including a new actions feature that lets you execute actions directly from Spotlight for things like sending a group message, and the ability to search your iPhone from your Mac.
The Shortcuts app is gaining some new functionality with APple Intelligence features, and a new Live Translation feature is arriving on the Mac, and there are even new Genmoji and Image Playground features.
The Messages app for Mac also gains some updates similar to whats coming to iOS 26 which can make the Messages windows look more like something from WhatsApp with custom backgrounds.
A variety of other new features are coming to MacOS Tahoe 26 too, including Clipboard History, a new Games app, the inclusion of Journal app on Mac (and iPad, separately), and many other smaller new features and changes.
MacOS Tahoe launches as a beta today, with a public beta available next month, and the final version will be released this fall.
Yawn…
Ta-HO-HuM!
Anyways
Im staying with Monterrey, which hopefully is finished with any setback interference!
I already have “reduce transparency” and “reduce motion” turned on. Hopefully there will be a “reduce glass” option as well.
Agreed, the new interface has less contrast and too much transparency, it’s going to be a usability disaster much like the earliest iOS 7 and MacOS Big Sur interfaces were low contrast and hard to use.