macOS Tahoe: A Pattern of Poor Usability and Design Regression

[Kal Madda]

The line of thinking that is counter to this reasoning is that there are hundreds of millions of devices that do not have rounded corners. Apple's own Studio Displays don't have large rounded corners, while the bottom corners on MacBook are not rounded. Even where the top corners are rounded on MacBooks, the actual usable area falls below the menu bar and is thus square, unless the application is being run in fullscreen mode.

There are hundreds of millions more devices that do have rounded corners though, like essentially all flagship tablets, smartphones, etc. Just about every tablet on the market have rounded display corners, am I really to believe you’re developing a website or web app and don’t consider that? I just find that highly doubtful… 🤷🏼‍♂️

And laptops and monitors seem to be moving to rounded display corners as well. I would love for the next Studio Display to use rounded corners, it would look much nicer and sleeker. Same with the MacBook displays, add the rounding to the bottom as well. I’m hopeful they’ll do that with the new designs when they drop. 🙂👍🏻

 

[CrabQueenInc]

There are hundreds of millions more devices that do have rounded corners though, like essentially all flagship tablets, smartphones, etc. Just about every tablet on the market have rounded display corners, am I really to believe you’re developing a website or web app and don’t consider that? I just find that highly doubtful… 🤷🏼‍♂️

And laptops and monitors seem to be moving to rounded display corners as well. I would love for the next Studio Display to use rounded corners, it would look much nicer and sleeker. Same with the MacBook displays, add the rounding to the bottom as well. I’m hopeful they’ll do that with the new designs when they drop. 🙂👍🏻

Are there? I would include Windows, Android, and Linux devices as generally having square corners or at least corners that are not rounded to the extent of Apple's iPhones and iPads of the past few years. Likewise, Apple's screens on their computers still have square corners when taking into account the menu bar.

I personally hope that Apple increases the useable screen space of their devices in the future by moving away from screens with such overly rounded corners. As someone who loves photography, the examples in this blog post about rounded corners cropping photographs resonates with me: https://eclecticlight.co/2025/12/28/last-year-on-my-mac-look-back-in-disbelief.

Edit: Looks like I haven't used forum code in some years!

 

[Kal Madda]

Are there? I would include Windows, Android, and Linux devices as generally having square corners or at least corners that are not rounded to the extent of Apple's iPhones and iPads of the past few years. Likewise, Apple's screens on their computers still have square corners when taking into account the menu bar.

Last I checked there are more phones and tablets out there than desktops and laptops. And the vast majority of phones and tablet use rounded corners is the point I’m making. 👍🏻. And mobile web use accounts for the majority of web traffic, which makes it even less likely a web developer is not going to consider that when designing their page or web app. 👍🏻🤷🏼‍♂️

I personally hope that Apple increases the useable screen space of their devices in the future by moving away from screens with such overly rounded corners. As someone who loves photography, the examples in this blog post about rounded corners cropping photographs resonates with me: https://eclecticlight.co/2025/12/28/last-year-on-my-mac-look-back-in-disbelief.

Edit: Looks like I haven't used forum code in some years!

Personally, I prefer the rounded corners. I understand you prefer the hard corners, I just don’t think they look very great on modern hardware. 🤷🏼‍♂️. And personally, I don’t see how it really makes any practical functional difference. 🤷🏼‍♂️. I view and edit my photos on my iPad all the time fullscreen, and it doesn’t really make any difference in editing said photos.

I understand and respect your preferences, I just don’t really see it as anything other than a cosmetic issue. I fail to see how a couple mm in the corners is going to make the device more or less useful, or the app more or less useful. 🙂👍🏻

 

[CrabQueenInc]

Last I checked there are more phones and tablets out there than desktops and laptops. And the vast majority of phones and tablet use rounded corners is the point I’m making. 👍🏻

Personally, I prefer the rounded corners. I understand you prefer the hard corners, I just don’t think they look very great on modern hardware. 🤷🏼‍♂️. And personally, I don’t see how it really makes any practical functional difference. 🤷🏼‍♂️. I view and edit my photos on my iPad all the time fullscreen, and it doesn’t really make any difference in editing said photos.

I understand and respect your preferences, I just don’t really see it as anything other than a cosmetic issue. I fail to see how a couple mm in the corners is going to make the device more or less useful, or the app more or less useful. 🙂👍🏻

I would encourage you to look at the examples in the blog that I posted as an example where rounded corners, specifically those in Tahoe, impact photography.

As a matter of preference, we'll have to agree to disagree on the usability of rounded corners in desktop/laptop screens.

 

[Kal Madda]

I would encourage you to look at the examples in the blog that I posted as an example where rounded corners, specifically those in Tahoe, impact photography.

I did, thanks for sharing it, though I definitely disagree with it. I’ve seen many prior pieces from that blog as well, they complain almost all the time about just about anything new that Apple does…. Scandal and negativity sells clicks, so many blogs like that will create artificial scandals out of nearly everything (not all, there are some really good ones that don’t tend to do that as much or at all)… As to the picture examples in there, the first is a small preview for a Photo album. Those were rounded in macOS Sequoia as well… The second, I see no issue. You can clearly see the photo of the fallen tree…

As a matter of preference, we'll have to agree to disagree on the usability of rounded corners in desktop/laptop screens.

Sure, we can agree to disagree on that. I just have not seen any examples where a hard pointy display corner was more practical than a rounded one. My primary computer has rounded display corners, and I’ve never found that to be an issue for practical use, but do find it to be very visually satisfying to me… 🤷🏼‍♂️👍🏻

 

[CrabQueenInc]

I did. I’ve seen many prior pieces from that blog as well, they complain almost all the time about just about anything new that Apple does…. Scandal and negativity sells clicks, so many blogs like that will create artificial scandals out of nearly everything… As to the picture examples in there, the first is a small preview for a Photo album. Those were rounded in macOS Sequoia as well… The second, I see no issue. You can clearly see the photo of the fallen tree…

Sure, we can agree to disagree on that. I just have not seen any examples where a hard pointy display corner was more practical than a rounded one. My primary computer has rounded display corners, and I’ve never found that to be an issue for practical use, but do find it to be very visually satisfying to me… 🤷🏼‍♂️👍🏻

I must say that the author of the blog to which I linked has many thoughtful posts about art and technology that don't seem written to generate simple clicks. His writing is lucid and his criticisms seem constructive.

Anyway, our disagreement is twofold: (1) having reduced useable physical space, and (2) having space limited by software. Regarding physical space, when it cuts into the visibility of documents or interferes with the UI, that's an unacceptable limitation for me. Sadly, Apple seems keen on continuing to cut more from its screens in its push to use squircles as branding.

Regarding software limitations on useable space, I can't say if photos are rounded in such a way in Sequoia, but the corners of photos are most definitely not rounded to the same extent in Sonoma whether using Preview of QuickLook. For my purposes, photography or writing, cutting from material to that extent is an unacceptable interference with the material itself.

Your use case is clearly different, and I wouldn't deign to argue you should dislike what works for you.

 

[Kal Madda]

I must say that the author of the blog to which I linked has many thoughtful posts about art and technology that don't seem written to generate simple clicks. His writing is lucid and his criticisms seem constructive.

I strongly disagree with many of their takes, and have noticed a consistent trend towards negative content from them over the years. But to each his own. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Anyway, our disagreement is twofold: (1) having reduced useable physical space, and (2) having space limited by software. Regarding physical space, when it cuts into the visibility of documents or interferes with the UI, that's an unacceptable limitation for me. Sadly, Apple seems keen on continuing to cut more from its screens in its push to use squircles as branding.

Regarding software limitations on useable space, I can't say if photos are rounded in such a way in Sequoia, but the corners of photos are most definitely not rounded to the same extent in Sonoma whether using Preview of QuickLook. For my purposes, photography or writing, cutting from material to that extent is an unacceptable interference with the material itself.

Your use case is clearly different, and I wouldn't deign to argue you should dislike what works for you.

I totally respect that, and am not saying you should dislike what works for you either. 🙂👍🏻. I’m just a sucker for squircles and rounded corners. 😂🙂👍🏻

 

[amancalledsun]

This is a web app with quite a complex UI. It’s called Photopea, and is essentially a full Photoshop alternative. Rounded corners don’t impact its functionality… The windowing button covers some stuff, but that’s easily fixed by full-screening the web app, which is what I would usually do anyways. I just made it a smaller window to show the rounded corners in the screenshot on my iPad. I have yet to see a web app that places teeny tiny buttons in the very corners. Because that isn’t standard practice… Furthermore, displays and windows with rounded corners have been a thing for many years now…

Comical, posting about screenshots of an iPad in a thread about Tahoe, i.e. Mac.

 

[amancalledsun]

Modern user, as in, the people who are picking up the platform and using it today… Mostly younger, probably around 30 and below…

And that isn’t a “fact”, that’s your opinion. I’m pretty sure most users probably like the changes in Tahoe… There’s not really any evidence otherwise…

It's not clear what you mean by picking up the platform and using it today. You mean new users? Or people who use it for work, like many of us posting here about all the things we don't like about it?

You've made so many generalized assumptions and assertions here it's hard to know where to start. It absolutely is fact that there are many design changes in Tahoe that don't improve user experience in any way. I'm not going to enumerate them in detail because it's already been noted and discussed ad nauseam here. Read through all the threads on these forums that discuss this in depth and you'll see many people who agree with that statement. This one is a good one to start with. You being "pretty sure" about what "most users probably like" doesn't prove anything besides your opinion, which many of us here disagree with. Move on.

 

[Kal Madda]

Comical, posting about screenshots of an iPad in a thread about Tahoe, i.e. Mac.

The corner rounding is the same on both, as is the UI of the web app in it. It was in relation to the corner radius and the web app. Both of those are the same on both platforms…

 

[Kal Madda]

It's not clear what you mean by picking up the platform and using it today. You mean new users? Or people who use it for work, like many of us posting here about all the things we don't like about it?

Yes, I am taking about new users or people who have first began using the platform in probably about the past 5 years or so since the introduction of Apple Silicon Macs.

You've made so many generalized assumptions and assertions here it's hard to know where to start. It absolutely is fact that there are many design changes in Tahoe that don't improve user experience in any way. I'm not going to enumerate them in detail because it's already been noted and discussed ad nauseam here. Read through all the threads on these forums that discuss this in depth and you'll see many people who agree with that statement. This one is a good one to start with. You being "pretty sure" about what "most users probably like" doesn't prove anything besides your opinion, which many of us here disagree with. Move on.

With all due respect, you could always move on as well… 🤷🏼‍♂️. I am just as free to share and express my opinions here as you are…

 

[avro707]

Another example of great UX:

Mac Pro 2019, W6800X 32GB machine with a W3275M on 26.3b3

That is the cursor! No technical failures on my machine, this only occurred on the latest update. How do they manage to break things like that? It is a known issue that has been reported, but I can't understand how they manage to break the cursor when it wasn't broken before.

 

[Kal Madda]

Another example of great UX:

View attachment 2601118

Mac Pro 2019, W6800X 32GB machine with a W3275M on 26.3b3

That is the cursor! No technical failures on my machine, this only occurred on the latest update. How do they manage to break things like that? It is a known issue that has been reported, but I can't understand how they manage to break the cursor when it wasn't broken before.

You’re running a beta. You may encounter bugs. That comes with running betas…

That clearly is not normal for most users on the public version. It is not intended system behavior. It’s a glitch. So trying to categorize it as a “UX design/choice” is entirely disingenuous…

 

[amancalledsun]

Yes, I am taking about new users or people who have first began using the platform in probably about the past 5 years or so since the introduction of Apple Silicon Macs.

With all due respect, you could always move on as well… 🤷🏼‍♂️. I am just as free to share and express my opinions here as you are…

It would be more interesting and perhaps more relevant if anyone actually had valid data from Apple about how many users have only started using a Mac since 2020. I will speculate based solely on the steady volume of Mac sales for the last decade that the vast majority of Mac users have been users for much longer than that and wouldn't fit your bill of "modern users".

You seem very defensive of any criticism of Tahoe or Liquid Glass, which begs the question as to what you have invested in it. Sorry if we hurt your feelings but there are still many valid complaints with design choices in Tahoe specifically and Liquid Glass overall.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

I would spin the conversation to why a developer would actually choose to implement Liquid Glass into their software. Many have and many haven’t, but there have to be reasons for each.

A good example of one that has is the developer of Craft, which in my opinion is now worser/busier looking than the prior version. Which is not what you want for a document/management app. The contrast of text over various colours is funky and there’s more irrelevant design everywhere.

Yet a high-profile developer like Adobe has avoided LG, despite having a close relationship with Apple. Does this say anything about the usefulness of LG? Some users make the argument “Ah, but that’s professional software”. What difference does it make? If that’s an excuse then it’s an admission that LG serves no purpose.

Even Apple chose not to put LG on Final Cut or Logic Pro, relegating it to the horrendous icons.

 

[Kal Madda]

It would be more interesting and perhaps more relevant if anyone actually had valid data from Apple about how many users have only started using a Mac since 2020. I will speculate based solely on the steady volume of Mac sales for the last decade that the vast majority of Mac users have been users for much longer than that and wouldn't fit your bill of "modern users".

You seem very defensive of any criticism of Tahoe or Liquid Glass, which begs the question as to what you have invested in it. Sorry if we hurt your feelings but there are still many valid complaints with design choices in Tahoe specifically and Liquid Glass overall.

I think the data indicates there are quite a few. Sales went way up with the introduction of Apple Silicon, Mac sales had been on steady decline, and it was beginning to look like a dying product, but Apple Silicon Macs took sales to record highs. Quite a few people switched from Windows to macOS because of Windows 11 and Apple Silicon providing something that Windows didn’t offer. Besides, it really doesn’t matter whether new/modern users are the majority or not. In order for the platform to continue to grow and expand, you have to appeal to new users. If you don’t, the platform will inevitably stagnate and die… 🤷🏼‍♂️

I’m not defensive, as I’ve said, I have limited stakes in this fight. It’s not as if Liquid Glass is a stock option on the stock market… I don’t have anything “invested” in Liquid Glass, I just really like the aesthetic and am glad to see Apple finally doing some of the things I was hoping they would to modernize the look of macOS more, and make macOS and iPadOS more visually congruent.

No worries, and I don’t have anything against people sharing complaints, I just don’t agree with them, and push back on some. 🙂👍🏻

 

[Kal Madda]

I would spin the conversation to why a developer would actually choose to implement Liquid Glass into their software. Many have and many haven’t, but there have to be reasons for each.

A good example of one that has is the developer of Craft, which in my opinion is now worser/busier looking than the prior version. Which is not what you want for a document/management app. The contrast of text over various colours is funky and there’s more irrelevant design everywhere.

Apps that already make use of Swift UI and Swift Code have a much easier time moving to Liquid Glass.

Yet a high-profile developer like Adobe has avoided LG, despite having a close relationship with Apple. Does this say anything about the usefulness of LG? Some users make the argument “Ah, but that’s professional software”. What difference does it make? If that’s an excuse then it’s an admission that LG serves no purpose.

Even Apple chose not to put LG on Final Cut or Logic Pro, relegating it to the horrendous icons.

It’s not really fair to characterize it as Adobe “avoiding” Liquid Glass. Adobe uses custom UI code for their apps, so integrating Liquid Glass will take more effort. It could be a year before we see Liquid Glass integrated into Adobe’s UIs. And it isn’t necessarily because Adobe’s “avoiding” it. It would be because it will take lots of effort and time to integrate into their custom UI.

 

[Wolf1701]

Yet a high-profile developer like Adobe has avoided LG, despite having a close relationship with Apple. Does this say anything about the usefulness of LG? Some users make the argument “Ah, but that’s professional software”. What difference does it make? If that’s an excuse then it’s an admission that LG serves no purpose.

Even Apple chose not to put LG on Final Cut or Logic Pro, relegating it to the horrendous icons.

Having worked with people who use professional programs... (in radio and television), they hate drastic changes to interfaces. These are people who earn their living with these programs every day and don't have time to play around with new interfaces: the documentary has to be ready, the editing done... I think developers like Adobe and Avid know their customers well. And anyway, it costs them less to have a common UI between Windows and Mac... keeping up with Apple's extravagances is not worth it.

 

[Kal Madda]

Having worked with people who use professional programs... (in radio and television), they hate drastic changes to interfaces. These are people who earn their living with these programs every day and don't have time to play around with new interfaces: the documentary has to be ready, the editing done... I think developers like Adobe and Avid know their customers well. And anyway, it costs them less to have a common UI between Windows and Mac... keeping up with Apple's extravagances is not worth it.

That may be true, Adobe probably doesn’t want two different UIs for different platforms. And also, as I noted earlier, Adobe is using a custom UI design. Incorporating Liquid Glass would take some time, so even if they are moving to Liquid Glass UI, I wouldn’t expect to see that new UI for a while yet. We’re still only in 26.2. Usually large changes like that in third party apps will roll out later in the update cycle, or in the next version. 👍🏻

 

[jwrandall]

Original Poster:
I solved my problem.
I downloaded iMazing Profile Editor. There is a YouTube video that says how to do it. It works, but it will revert after 90 days. So do it again.

 

[star-affinity]

This is a web app with quite a complex UI. It’s called Photopea, and is essentially a full Photoshop alternative. Rounded corners don’t impact its functionality… The windowing button covers some stuff, but that’s easily fixed by full-screening the web app, which is what I would usually do anyways. I just made it a smaller window to show the rounded corners in the screenshot on my iPad. I have yet to see a web app that places teeny tiny buttons in the very corners. Because that isn’t standard practice… Furthermore, displays and windows with rounded corners have been a thing for many years now…

You don't think the upper left corner cuts too close to the File menu? I think it does and it's not aesthetically pleasing in my eyes – heavily rounded corners notwithstanding.

Anywho, another example of a visual ”Bug” in Tahoe that hampers legibility (FaceTime app)_

Is there a button there? The button looks quite faint on my hardware calibrated OLED display on top of the bright background. Text in the green button isn't very easy to read.

Text in the green button gets even harder to see in dark mode and like in the light mode screenshot the green lines are also quite faint in the white button.

If these designs are intentional they are pretty bad in my opinion.
If they aren't Tahoe has a lot of visual bugs that I look forward to being fixed. 🙂

 

[TumbleDryer]

You don't think the upper left corner cuts too close to the File menu? I think it does and it's not aesthetically pleasing in my eyes – heavily rounded corners notwithstanding.

Anywho, another example of a visual ”Bug” in Tahoe that hampers legibility (FaceTime app)_

Is there a button there? The button looks quite faint on my hardware calibrated OLED display on top of the bright background. Text in the green button isn't very easy to read.
View attachment 2601236

Text in the green button gets even harder to see in dark mode and like in the light mode screenshot the green lines are also quite faint in the white button.

View attachment 2601237
If these designs are intentional they are pretty bad in my opinion.
If they aren't Tahoe has a lot of visual bugs that I look forward to being fixed. 🙂

I have OLED HDR and you can barely see the buttons. The UI is sooo bright it gives me headaches so I have to use dark mode. And before anyone says 'turn down the brightness' I too use hardware calibrated monitor.

What needs to happen is the insane whiteness of the UI needs dealing back to a very light grey, a kind of off white like in the transparent parts of Sequioa. This will allow the white highlights to stand out and give everything more contrast and actually make things look glassy instead of this soft furry look we have.

 

[Kal Madda]

You don't think the upper left corner cuts too close to the File menu? I think it does and it's not aesthetically pleasing in my eyes – heavily rounded corners notwithstanding.

No, I don’t have any issue with the top corner. I don’t think it cuts too close, I can still clearly see it and use it. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Anywho, another example of a visual ”Bug” in Tahoe that hampers legibility (FaceTime app)_

Is there a button there? The button looks quite faint on my hardware calibrated OLED display on top of the bright background. Text in the green button isn't very easy to read.
View attachment 2601236

Text in the green button gets even harder to see in dark mode and like in the light mode screenshot the green lines are also quite faint in the white button.

View attachment 2601237
If these designs are intentional they are pretty bad in my opinion.
If they aren't Tahoe has a lot of visual bugs that I look forward to being fixed. 🙂

That all looks perfectly visible and fine to me... 🤷🏼‍♂️. I think that is intended behavior, not a bug, and looks quite nice to me. 👍🏻

 

[Kal Madda]

I have OLED HDR and you can barely see the buttons. The UI is sooo bright it gives me headaches so I have to use dark mode. And before anyone says 'turn down the brightness' I too use hardware calibrated monitor.

What needs to happen is the insane whiteness of the UI needs dealing back to a very light grey, a kind of off white like in the transparent parts of Sequioa. This will allow the white highlights to stand out and give everything more contrast and actually make things look glassy instead of this soft furry look we have.

I’m not opposed to an off-white for Light Mode, but I wonder why one wouldn’t move to Dark Mode if Light Mode were a problem? Personally, I’ve used Dark Mode on all of my devices for years, so I guess perhaps I’m just biased toward Dark Mode. But I never really liked Light Mode in the first place. 👍🏻

 

[Kal Madda]

You don't think the upper left corner cuts too close to the File menu? I think it does and it's not aesthetically pleasing in my eyes – heavily rounded corners notwithstanding.

Anywho, another example of a visual ”Bug” in Tahoe that hampers legibility (FaceTime app)_

Is there a button there? The button looks quite faint on my hardware calibrated OLED display on top of the bright background. Text in the green button isn't very easy to read.
View attachment 2601236

Text in the green button gets even harder to see in dark mode and like in the light mode screenshot the green lines are also quite faint in the white button.

View attachment 2601237
If these designs are intentional they are pretty bad in my opinion.
If they aren't Tahoe has a lot of visual bugs that I look forward to being fixed. 🙂

Oh, and I aimed my camera directly at a ceiling light with my iPad and with my iPhone to overlap that camera flip button with the light in FaceTime. Both were perfectly legible… 🤷🏼‍♂️