All the Liquid Glass Changes in macOS Golden Gate

[MacRumors]

When Liquid Glass launched in macOS Tahoe, Apple faced criticism over how the design looked on the Mac. Some people felt that Liquid Glass in macOS Tahoe was an afterthought with little impact from the design update, while others had issues with contrast, readability, rounded corners, and design consistency. There were long complaint threads on the MacRumors forums and on Reddit, and some people refused to update.

Apple is making several changes to Liquid Glass and the overall macOS Golden Gate design, and while subtle, some of the changes could make Liquid Glass on Mac easier to digest.

Transparency and Diffusion

Apple added a full Liquid Glass slider under System Settings > Appearance. It changes the translucency of Liquid Glass elements, and users can choose a clear version of Liquid Glass that allows some of the background to show through, select a more opaque, tinted version that improves the legibility of text, or choose something in between.

Unfortunately, there is no ultra-clear version of Liquid Glass available with the slider. Even the setting that's as clear as possible does not match the original version of Liquid Glass that Apple showed off at WWDC 2025.

Apple changed the overall Liquid Glass opacity, and it now diffuses complex content more effectively. Apple says a darkened edge and brighter specular highlights establish more depth and separation for the UI.

Toolbars and Window Shapes

Apps have uniform toolbars to make text headings and groups of controls more legible. Windows also all have the same corner radius for more consistency between apps.

macOS Tahoe​

Corners of apps are not as dramatically rounded in macOS Golden Gate, and the difference is noticeable.

macOS Golden Gate​

It's easier to tell when a window is active because of the sidebar design, the opacity update, and changes to window shadows.

Sidebars

Sidebars are no longer floating and are instead edge-to-edge. It's a design that's less distracting and more uniform because there's no unnecessary sidebar shadowing that just takes up space.

Sidebar icons have color again, which is something Apple removed in macOS Tahoe.

Icons

Apple didn't budge on requiring squircle Mac icons, but it did change icon design. Icons have more layers of Liquid Glass to improve detail and sharpness in light, dark, tinted, and clear icon modes.

Apple is also using icons for some menu bar items to make it easier to find commonly used actions.

HDR

Apple is using HDR for depth and dimension in the macOS Golden Gate interface.

Launch Date

macOS Golden Gate also includes all of the new Siri AI features coming in iOS 27, along with performance improvements that make the Mac feel faster.

The update is limited to developers right now, but Apple plans to release a public beta in July. macOS Golden Gate will launch this fall.


Article Link: All the Liquid Glass Changes in macOS Golden Gate

 

[kevin.barrett]

Crossing my fingers (but not holding my breath) that they take all of the icons out of the menus!

 

[ams1117]

All these are actually refining the design and making it better.

I still don't like the large corner radius but given that it's plausible that they want to add touch input (not that I understand why touch = big and round) I guess it's tolerable at 16pt, increasing from 12pt since ~Big Sur, which used to be 4pt since Mac OS X 10.0. I still like the tight 4pt radius corners better, though.

 

[Timpetus]

Crossing my fingers (but not holding my breath) that they take all of the icons out of the menus!

I saw that they did in the user posted thread detailing all the changes people have found so far.

 

[tennisproha]

Not enough Liquid Glass! The slider is basically Frosted Glass high or mid. Terrible downgrade in UI, I want a more transparent Liquid Glass option like the initial beta last year.

I'm glad they made the icons more Liquid Glass at least.

 

[Populus]

Golden Gate… it’s the first macOS name that sounds a bit weird to me, maybe because it is a bridge… OKAY, OKAY, IT’S AN AREA. MESSAGE RECEIVED.

By the way, the way Apple has backtracked with some UI elements is pleasant to see. And when I saw the mention to the windows corners radii, it was inevitable not to think about MR comments and forums lol

C’mon Apple, now bring us back launchpad!

EDIT: Wait a moment. The Liquid Glass slider has only three positions? And the most transparent is still frosted??

 

[Timpetus]

All these are actually refining the design and making it better.

I still don't like the large corner radius but given that it's plausible that they want to add touch input (not that I understand why touch = big and round) I guess it's tolerable at 16pt, increasing from 12pt since ~Big Sur, which used to be 4pt since Mac OS X 10.0. I still like the tight 4pt radius corners better, though.

Looking at the side-by-side image in the article, the corner radius seems to be smaller now.

 

[BigJohno]

Sooo we are just going back to Mac OS Sonoma.... why did you put us through this pain Apple? Why?!!!

 

[poematik13]

Happy to upgrade from 15 to GG and totally ignore the dark age that was tahoe

 

[dwhankner]

Installed the bata. And loving all the Liquid Glass changes. Updated my iPhone and watch 11 too. Need to buy an m5 iPad Pro. Then I am set for the future

 

[bluecoast]

This looks very promising but I need to see it for myself.

For Apple to basically respond to much of the trenchant criticism from ux pros shows that:

a) they were right
b) this really stung Apple
c) that lots of regular users complained
d) Apple listened and responded in what seems to be a thoughtful way.

 

[Seanm87]

Can someone please explain the rounded corners thing to me and why people don’t like it?

 

[963852741]

Crossing my fingers (but not holding my breath) that they take all of the icons out of the menus!

Icons in menus are gone. Also there are few new menus like open Terminal in current folder.

 

[jimothyGator]

Crossing my fingers (but not holding my breath) that they take all of the icons out of the menus!

I'm not a fan of the icons, but they don't bug me nearly as much as the rounded corners everywhere in menues. In Tahoe, the menu title (e.g., "File", "Edit"), the drop down menu, and the selected menu item all have four rounded corners, making them look like disconnected elements. I hope they bring back the previous appearance, where a menu title and its drop-down items appear connected.

 

[iStorm]

Transparency and Diffusion

Apple added a full Liquid Glass slider under System Settings > Appearance. It changes the translucency of Liquid Glass elements, and users can choose a clear version of Liquid Glass that allows some of the background to show through, select a more opaque, tinted version that improves the legibility of text, or choose something in between.

Unfortunately, there is no ultra-clear version of Liquid Glass available with the slider. Even the setting that's as clear as possible does not match the original version of Liquid Glass that Apple showed off at WWDC 2025.

Apple changed the overall Liquid Glass opacity, and it now diffuses complex content more effectively. Apple says a darkened edge and brighter specular highlights establish more depth and separation for the UI.

The comparison here is confusing. I was looking at the controls in the upper left corner and wondering why it's so opaque despite it being set to be clear...then I realized the window doesn't have focus. Can the screenshot be redone so we have a better comparison? (Yes, I know there is the preview section, but I want to see real-world examples.)

 

[SaxPlayer]

I’ll reserve judgment until I see it for real but this sounds promising. I agree they need to rollback on the icons in the menus as well but overall if they’ve listened and acted on the negative feedback then they deserve credit for listening.

The main thing I’m excited about is all the big fixes. It’s not “exciting” in marketing terms but the last time they did this (Snow Leopard) it was a huge success. Interesting that both of these “big fix” updates were when Apple dropped support for an old architecture - PowerPC in the case of Snow Leopard and Intel in the case of Golden Gate.

I’m optimistic about the update!

 

[MilaM]

Did Apple really listen to the criticism this time? I'm impressed.

 

[ericesque]

Your design’s bad and you should feel bad!

 

[Rychiar]

barely notice Liquid Glass on Mac. it looks cool on the dock. other than that I forget it exists. Dunno how anyone had issues with readability. I'm glad they're fixing the side bars. the way they have that now is definitely weird and distracting

 

[Saturn1217]

The glassy search input is really odd to me (looks like a button when it should be an input?).

But overall, this is great and I'm sure things will be refined further in the betas. I've actually been pretty impressed by how responsive Apple has been in the last several years to user feedback. Definitely better than it used to be.

 

[Eureka20]

I loathe the liquid glass garbage so much I still have not updated my iPad Pro and I won't be buying another iPad until they let me turn it completely off lol.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Excellent stuff

Fixing the sidebars seemed like totally low hanging fruit and it was a horrible idea how they have it in Tahoe.

It’s nice to see the corner radius situation getting addressed a little bit and unified also.

Most importantly, it’s clear to me that Apple does actually pay attention to feedback and conversations online about their software.

Anyone suggesting we should all just be quiet and accept however things are is incorrect.

 

[BigBlur]

Crossing my fingers (but not holding my breath) that they take all of the icons out of the menus!

We've been able to hide them in Tahoe with a command line. Still works in Golden Gate.

Hide macOS Tahoe’s Menu Icons With This One Simple Trick

I really dislike Apple’s choice to clutter macOS Tahoe’s menus with icons. It makes menus hard to scan, and a bunch of the icons Apple has chosen make no sense and are inconsistent between system applications. Steve Troughton-Smith is my hero for finding a Terminal command to disable them...

512pixels.net

 

[AppliedMicro]

Unfortunately, there is no ultra-clear version of Liquid Glass available with the slider.

Fortunately, there is no ultra-clear version of Liquid Glass available with the slider.

Fixed that for you.

 

[TheMacDaddy1]

Not enough Liquid Glass! The slider is basically Frosted Glass high or mid. Terrible downgrade in UI, I want a more transparent Liquid Glass option like the initial beta last year.

I'm glad they made the icons more Liquid Glass at least.

Your the one! So sorry, maybe the next version.