Apple added translucency to macOS window chrome some years back, along with very thin fonts, and then spent each subsequent year rolling both back. Translucency is often an impediment to usability, and is best used sparingly and subtly, in places only where it makes sense. Docks and menu bars, there it makes sense. Translucency in upper window/app chrome only makes sense to show hidden content when barely visible, and can easily be very distracting, as Apple and Microsoft Windows Vista showed. Change for change’s sake is getting old.
I’d prefer they focus on useful stuff like system-wide video cropping outside of Photos apps (especially on iPad and Mac), fixing longstanding bugs, dynamiting the iOS Photos app, quick access for ALL volume sliders, and cross-platform iMessage so users of the Apple ecosystem can message everyone out-of-the-box with ease from any Apple device without third party apps. RCS is handy, cross-platform iMessage would be far more desirable, and payments. We shouldn’t need to have Venmo, PP, CashApp, Revolut, Zelle and Square to send small amounts of money around. Payments should be cross-platform, industry standard, and just work, like physical cash. We should be able to iMessage Apple and Android users “$50” as simple text (and in person by tapping phones) with an automatic prompt for confirmation ✅. Open a photo, tap phones, open contacts, tap phones, open wallet, tap phones, it’s 2025, someone get to fixing the basics.
