Get a First Look at macOS Tahoe's Design and Spotlight Changes

[MacRumors]

macOS Tahoe 26, Apple's newest operating system for the Mac, is getting many of the same changes that are coming to iOS. That includes the Liquid Glass redesign, and the changes to apps like Messages, Safari, and Phone, an app that's new to the Mac this year. There's also a whole new Spotlight system that's pretty neat, so we thought we'd do a quick overview so you can see it in action.

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Liquid Glass on the Mac looks a lot like it does on the iPhone, which was Apple's goal. Apple wanted more design and navigation parity between operating systems, so mission accomplished?

The menu bar is now invisible so there's more available display space at the top of your Mac, and the icons use the same stacked glass look. You can also turn on an all-glass design for the icons, or use iPhone-style tints for the first time. Control Center has the Liquid Glass design, plus it's more customizable, along with the menu bar.

Toolbars, sidebars, and buttons have a more rounded look and a Liquid Glass aesthetic. Folders can be customized with colors and emoji, which makes them stand out more.

Spotlight got a major overhaul, and you can now use it to do just about anything on your Mac. It supports actions, so you can send emails and messages without ever opening up an app. Spotlight also incorporates a list of all of your apps plus a clipboard manager that keeps track of what you've copied and pasted. You can get to Spotlight's features with the Command Key and 1, 2, 3, or 4, and you can launch actions with short little phrases like SE for send email.

Several iPhone apps are now available on the Mac, including Phone and Journal. You can make calls with the Phone app through your iPhone, and it even supports the new Hold Assist and Call Screening features. There's an all-new Games app that houses all your Mac games and helps you find new content, and a Magnifier app that lets you use your iPhone to zoom in on text so you can view it on your Mac.

macOS Tahoe is in beta right now, so some of these features could change, and Apple could add new capabilities. The beta is currently limited to developers, but a public beta is set to come in July. macOS Tahoe will launch in September.

Article Link: Get a First Look at macOS Tahoe's Design and Spotlight Changes

 

[sniffies]

Like the new Spotlight, but

1. Need a single-step keyboard shortcut for ⌘-space-1,2,3,4
2. Give us bigger clipboard history capacity than the measly 20-30 items (Raycast is still superior in that department)
3. The new App Library needs a Favorites section or Recently Opened or Frequently Opened, not just Suggestions

 

[Macbookey]

Let us pin apps in the applications section of Spotlight so it is a smaller size launchpad replacement in proper. Spotlight rocks in Tahoe but can be taken much further.

The design harkens the forthcoming Apple Glasses but will be polarizing and require a ton of refinement.

All that said, there are shades of Aqua and a bygone era when  thought different and employed crazy ones that makes me smile.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Thanks for the brief overview.

 

[kagharaht]

Gosh all this hand movement while speaking is distracting. Anyway the new UI is terrible. I’m sure most people will love it and think it’s beautiful.

 

[xaqt93]

Like the new Spotlight, but

1. Need a single-step keyboard shortcut instead of ⌘-space-1,2,3,4
2. Give us bigger clipboard history capacity than the measly 20-30 items (Raycast is still superior in that department)
3. The new App Library needs a Favorite section or Recently Opened or Frequently Opened, not just Suggestions

I am curious, only because I have never needed a clipboard history of more than many 5 or 6 things...why do you need a clipboard history of so much? As I said, just curious.

 

[n-evo]

I’m absolutely disgusted by those enormous rounded window corners. I thought the ones introduced by macOS Big Sur were bad enough. The rest looks okay.

 

[sniffies]

I am curious, only because I have never needed a clipboard history of more than many 5 or 6 things...why do you need a clipboard history of so much? As I said, just curious.

A recent example: I copied a code snippet that I didn't save anywhere. I remember it had the word 'WebGL' in it. I typed WebGL into Raycast's Clipboard, and it pulled it right up. I copied it more than 6 months ago.

And that's just one of many many many such examples.

 

[xaqt93]

A recent example: I copied a code snippet that I didn't save anywhere. I remember it had the word 'WebGL' in it. I typed WebGL into Raycast's Clipboard, and it pulled it right up. I copied it more than 6 months ago.

And that's just one of many many many such examples.

Gotcha, okay, I guess that makes sense. I mean, in your case, a separate app that you mentioned is probably the best solution...I mean, Apple could easily make their own version of this, but why would they? MOST users don't need to do that. I use Xcode all the time, and if I copy a code snippet from Github or from Stack Overflow, I just save it where I need to save it. But thats just me.

My point is that the average user and probably MOST users, not all, but most users don't need to be able to search through 6 months of "Copy paste" history. Haha.

 

[bice]

Like the new Spotlight, but

1. Need a single-step keyboard shortcut for ⌘-space-1,2,3,4

Oh yes. Today (and since start of history) Shift-⌘-A gets me the programs-folder and from there I can just start typing the name of the program I want to get to. Maybe this still works in next os, but if they remove this path, it is silly to be forced to do ⌘-space, then ⌘-1

 

[sniffies]

Oh yes. Today (and since start of history) Shift-⌘-A gets me the programs-folder and from there I can just start typing the name of the program I want to get to. Maybe this still works in next os, but if they remove this path, it is silly to be forced to do ⌘-space, then ⌘-1

You can perform ⌘-space-1 without lifting your finger off the ⌘-key, but it's still considered a sequential keyboard shortcut.

 

[flybynight]

Nice overview. I have to say that things look better in this video than I was fearing. But… I'd love to see a video where you get multiple apps and windows going, with a lot of things overlapping. Does the Liquid Glass transparency/translucency become a hinderance at some point? I'm a person who currently has "reduce transparency" turned on and "allow wallpaper tinting in windows" turned off, because I don't want background things changing the color of my windows. I'll probably try it with those options off to get the full Liquid Glass experience… but who knows how long that will last.

 

[svish]

Nice video. Will try it out soon. Very happy with all changes especially the option to change folder colours!

 

[jlc1978]

Some neat new stuff; but I hope I can leave my desktop as is, black desktop with menu bar at top.

 

[TechRunner]

Looking forward to trying it out when I upgrade...in early 2026. Please get most of the bugs sorted by then. Thanks, Tim!

 

[Moka Akashiya]

All i want from macOS is a way to disable spaces swipe transition animation, like i was able to do it in OS X with terminal command, but NOT ANYMORE. Second thing is remove all Apple bloatware i will never use (i cannot even hide them in /Applications).

 

[bigheaddoug]

So far, I don't want to lick it.

 

[turbineseaplane]

The corner rounding has gotten out of control.

It's sort of interesting to see the normal rectangular screen from his screen sharing (Photo below)

I vastly prefer the squared off corners.
It makes using all the available space more practical as well.

 

[turbineseaplane]

There is so much wasted space with all the rounding and then enclosing things in capsules, inside of capsules.

Just bad UI design, I'm sorry.

 

[turbineseaplane]

This is underneath a pointer!

We don't need the totally superfluous, view distorting and honestly in the way "Magnifying thing".

 

[G5isAlive]

There is so much wasted space with all the rounding and then enclosing things in capsules, inside of capsules.

Just bad UI design, I'm sorry.

I get it change is hard. We like what we are used to. But that doesn't make change a bad UI design. Sorry. Modern visual science has shown that hard corners demand attention and draw the viewer's eye to specific points. If an image is filled with many hard edges, the viewer's eyes can be constantly drawn to multiple points, potentially leading to visual fatigue. Is what it is. When the original 128 k Mac came out with squared off windows optimized for crampness which you seem to prefer, the screen dimensions were a puny 512 x 342. These days standard is 1920 x 1280, literally 14 fold more pixels for UI engineers to work with. With all the concern about visual fatigue from working with screens all day, it's about time UI engineers move from cramming things in to optimizing for easing visual fatigue. Thats the Macintosh way. Always has been, always will be (hopefully).

Everyone's entitled to opinions, but don't think thats the only comment.

 

[mxrider88]

did they make also all the UI elements bigger? I’m running the beta on a virtual machine and it looks like it to me. Unless it’s a resolution issue but the resolution is set correctly.

It looks like a toy. A lot of space wasted and the UI draws to much attention.

 

[tkermit]

Feels a lot more like a Linux distribution now.

 

[Atog]

Sorry but this whole new UI looks like plexiglass. And plexiglass is not something premium or the like.

 

[chabig]

did they make also all the UI elements bigger? I’m running the beta on a virtual machine and it looks like it to me. Unless it’s a resolution issue but the resolution is set correctly.

It looks like a toy. A lot of space wasted and the UI draws to much attention.

Have you considered that Apple plans products years ahead? I think the reason for larger UI elements will become apparent in a few years when they introduce new touchscreen products.