Apple on Monday unveiled macOS Tahoe 26. The preview of the new macOS operating system took place during the WWDC25 keynote, as it debuted alongside iOS 26, iPadOS 26, tvOS 26, watchOS 26, and visionOS 26.
The new version, which is currently avilable to developers in beta format, will see a public beta release in July, and will be released for free to the general public this fall. Tahoe boasts several new images, including a Liquid Glass interface, expanded Apple Intelligence features, a Phone app, live translation, and more.
Liquid Glass Interface
macOS Tahoe now has a new design that while enhancing the macOS experience, will be familir to long time users. Liquid Glass uses a new material that reflects and refracts its surroundings, with a refined Dock, toolbars, and sidebars.
The menu bar is now completely transparent. More personalization options are available, including both light and dark appearances, colorful new light and dark tints, and even a clear look. Folders can be customized by setting their colors and by adding an emoji or symbol to the folders. New theme colrs and personalized wallpapers are also available.
Continuity: New Phone App and Live Activities
New Continuity features include a new Phone app that can be used to relay calls from a user’s nearby iPhone. The Mac Phone app offers several familiar features, including Favorites, Recents, and Voicemail. It also includes two new features that are also available in the iOS 26 Phone app, including Hold Assist and Call Screening. Using Hold Assist, users who are put on hold can save their spot in the call queue, while being productive on their Mac while they wait, only to be alerted when a human answers. Call Screening automatically answers calls from unknown numbers, asks the caller for information, relaying the info to the user, allowing them to decide whether to answer the call.
Live Activities from a nearby iPhone will now appear in the Mac’s menu bar, including sports scores, deliveries, flights, and other real time events, Clicking on a Live Activity opens it up in iPhone Mirroring.
Spotlight
An improved Spotlight makes it easier to find what you’re looking for, as well as providing new ways to take action. All search results — including files, folders, events, apps, messages, and more — are now listed, while being intelligently ranked based on relevance to the user. Spotlight can even search for documents stored on third-party cloud services. A new browse view makes it easy for users to scan through their apps, files, clipboard history, and more.
Spotlight can now perform new actions, including creating notes, sending emails, and more, even in third-party apps, thanks to the App Intents API. A new quick keys feature allows users to enter short strings of characters to perform actions.
New Apple Intelligence Features
Live Translation
Users can have their messages automatically translated when communicating with someone that speaks a different language in Messages. Messages can be typed in the user’s language and will be delivered in the recipient’s own language. Responses are instantly translated. FaceTime Calls can by translate via live captions while still hearing the speaker’s voice. Phone calls are also translated in the same way. Apple-built models that run on device provide the translations, so your conversations are never sent to the cloud.
Shortcuts
Shortcuts allow creating images with Image Playground, as well as text summarizing with Writing Tools. Apple Intelligence models, both on-device and with Private Cloud Compute, can be tapped into to generate responses related to a shortcut. Shortcuts can also be scheduled for a particular time of day, or be set to run when taking specific actions.
Reminders
Apple Intelligence can now review an email, website, note, or other content to discover the most relevant action items. Apple Intelligence cn also automatically categorize Reminders into sections.
Genmoji and Image Playground
Genmoji can now be created by starting with an exiting emoji and description in Image Playground, and modifying attributes and expressions.
Games App
The Apple Games app acts as a central hub for Mac user’s games, including those that were installed from outside of the Mac App Store. Users can more easily discover new games, play with friends, and more. The app’s Game Overlay feature allows gamers to easily adjust their settings, chat with othe rplahyers, invite friends, and more without leaving the game they are in.
Metal 4 provides more advanced graphics and rendering technologies to game developers, resulting in smoother visuals and faster frame rates.
Other New Features
macOS Tahoe 26 also brings several other new and improved features.
Safari now offers a a rounded tab design that floats in the toolbar, as well as a refreshed sidebar. Apple says Safari is 50% faster than Chrome when loading frequently visited websites. It also provides an additional four hours of battery life when viewing streaming video. Advanced fingerprinting protection in all browsing ius enabled by default.
The Messages app now offers backgrounds, polls, and a redesigned details view to better navigate conversations. New typing indicators make it easy to see who is about to comment in a group conversation.
Journal is now available on the Mac, allowing users to write about their day or make notations of important events. Multiple journals can be kept and they are synced across all of a user’s Apple devices.
The Photos app boasts an updated Liquid Glass design, better customization, easier workflows, and more. Pinned Collections have also come to the Mac.
