All the Liquid Glass Changes in macOS Golden Gate

[Luftkopf]

Sorry. Wrong post, wrong place, wrong time.

 

[conmee]

The biggest news IMO is the use of HDR for macOS elements. Long overdue and I’m looking forward to seeing the implementation.

Can’t wait to see macOS in all its HDR glory… oh wait, my $1,600 ASD doesn’t support HDR… need to peel off $3,299 for the upgraded XDR. 🙁

 

[Le0M]

No Mac has an OLED display.
So basically only people who bought a third-party monitor will be able to take advantage of HDR 😂

 

[MonkeyT]

You cannot see the Golden Gate Bridge from Golden Gate Park. You're probably talking about the Presidio or Headlands.

Likely. I've only been there once, and I was driving, so I didn't get tp look around much. Pretty area, though.

 

[Stehsegler9]

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.

My guess is they saw abysmal adoption rates compared to previous major MacOS updates.

 

[svish]

Liquid glass slider is a huge addition. Very good to give control to the user. I like it clear and will set it that way. The icon for maps looks nice.

 

[HBX]

Fisher price would a word with you 🤪

Just Fisher Price, I think we can pool in PlaySkool in as well, especially with those rounded corners LOL

 

[zenmacx]

I have a 13" Air. I really don't need huge corners gobbling up hundreds of pixels worth of valuable screen real estate.

Using both a 13” MacBook Air and 16” MacBook Pro, I concur, those corners consumed an unusually large amount of screen real estate.

It’s encouraging that Apple has responded with an improved design.

 

[blufrog]

Tighten up the space around elements (I hate wasted UI space), and get rid of the icons in menus (this isn't Windows, thanks!) and I could be persuaded to like Golden Gate.

I agree they need to go back to Sequoia-style menus. WTF Apple!

Another annoyance that changed sometime in one of the Sequoia patches was screenshot files on the desktop now collapse under "Other" instead of "Screenshots".

 

[StevesBobs]

I think the thing I'm looking forward most is the HDR in the UI.

 

[subjonas]

C’mon Apple, now bring us back launchpad!

I don't care about Liquid Glass, losing Launchpad is why I won't update macOS. I depend on it daily.

 

[Brettka7]

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Aqua is BACK, baby!

I cannot wait until they fix the light mode glass on iOS 27 so it matches the macOS 27 glass. Currently, the shadows and reflections are all messed up on iOS in light mode. Praying for a fix in DB2!

 

[yabeweb]

Improved Windows corner radius, but still not where it should be.

It’s still too round for my taste.

 

[bluespark]

These are absolutely fantastic changes. Bravo to everyone who pointed out the issues in Tahoe and to Apple for listening and responding thoughtfully to criticism. Can't wait to upgrade to this!

 

[garranhado]

Apple should make an update version for 26 OSs with the UI fixes, old devices deserve UI fixes too.

 

[Starfia]

Having rounded corners on a pulldown menu makes it look like a movable window, but since it's not, this adds a little confusion to the UI.

Maybe; though the same is true of contextual menus summoned all over by secondary clicks – I'm not sure those have ever been confusing that way.

Incidentally, the menus that pertain to the Dock have a popover-style protrusion that points to the tile. It seems weird to imagine an upward-facing pointer to a menu label, but I suppose that would resolve the ambiguity about relatedness and any potential confusion about movability.

 

[Starfia]

Oddly, some non-Apple apps by default still contain a few icons in some of their menus, but these now seem to be limited to using only, as you say, system-provided icons with recognized functions associated with them.

Here's one instance where Apple has retained a lot of menu icons, apparently since this menu happens to contain mostly menu items that have long had system-provided icons:

I think specially-prescribed icons are longstanding in menus, and that icon-filled "Go" menu in particular predates Sequoia.

 

[Warped9]

I wish I could turn the transparency OFF entirely. I didn’t update to Tahoe, but if they’ve made it more usable then I might upgrade to Golden Gate.

 

[Hillstones]

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

This is the Music App with Reduce Transparency turned ON. Half the time the Music app can't figure out that setting and you get this nightmare at the bottom of the window. I guess you never use the Music app or scroll Finder windows or the Photos app. They all have awful transparency errors thanks to the half-baked Liquid Glass.

 

[purplefox]

The true solution is to not have rounded corners at all. That would solve the problems you describe as well as what users complained about in Tahoe. Really, rounded corners just cause trouble either way.

Unironically this. It's the only way to have consistency.

 

[purplefox]

They want to go back to the dark ages of Sharp edges

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Research in visual cognition suggests humans often perceive sharp angles as more threatening and rounded forms as safer and more comfortable to interact with.

• Cars have fewer sharp edges than in the 1980s.
• Furniture increasingly uses softened corners.
• Consumer electronics use radiused edges.
• Mobile apps use cards with rounded corners.

This doesn’t make them “childish.” It makes them more approachable and easier on the eyes.

If sharp edges in a computer screen scares people, then it makes sense to call the solution, rounded corners, "childish".

 

[Luftkopf]

Unironically this. It's the only way to have consistency.

Apple's been doing rounded corners on windows since System 1 in 1984, so I don't think they're going away soon.

 

[Diskutant]

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Aqua is BACK, baby!

Looks so much better than before! I hope they will change the traffic-light buttons and other buttons which are still flat.

 

[iZac]

Finally, I don’t have to use the reduce motion accessibility setting to make the phone legible. Means I can get the nice app opening animations back too! It’s unironically the best part about iOS 27

 

[jjrtiger]

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Aqua is BACK, baby!

This is what first drew my focus! Would be great if we could get pulsing buttons and true scrollbars back. Oh and finder sidebar icons that aren’t just one color!