Apple has previewed the next major macOS release, macOS Tahoe 26. It brings a new look that the company can be personalised with an updated Control Center and new color options for folders, app icons, and widgets. Continuity gets even better with the Phone app arriving on Mac, so users can access familiar features from iPhone — including Recents, Contacts, and Voicemails — and new ones like Call Screening and Hold Assist.
Live Activities from iPhone will enable users can stay on top of things happening in real time on their Mac. Spotlight gets its biggest update ever, allowing users to now directly execute hundreds of actions like sending an email or creating a note as well as new browsing experiences.
After a less than stellar introduction, Apple says its swing at an AI home run, Apple Intelligence, gets a bunch of new features. Here’s hoping they do better than the initial swag of Apple Intelligence features which failed to hit the mark. macOS Tahoe will include Live Translation along with Genmoji (I stil, question the value of this feature) and Image Playground
Apple says the new design enhances the Mac experience while maintaining the familiarity of macOS. As expected and widely leaked, the new design language, dubbed Liquid Glass takes its cues from visionOS. Apple says the new material, Liquid Glass, is translucent and behaves like glass in the real world, extending to small elements like buttons, switches, sliders, text, and media controls as well as tab bars and sidebars for navigating apps. It’s also seen Lock Screen, Home Screen, notifications, Control Center, and more.
Continuity continues to be expanded with the Phone app officially arriving on the Mac. Last year, we saw iPhone Mirroring but this new feature takes things further with familiar features of the Phone app on iPhone including Recents, Favorites, and Voicemails. Live Activities also make an appearance so you can see updates from Uber, flight details, or live sports scores on your Mac.
Apple has long claimed the integration of its hardware and software is a significant advantage. It communes to expand the integration of its different hardware and software, further strengthening its ‘walled garden’.
Spotlight, Apple’s system-wide search tool gets some love. But the proof will be in the pudding as Apple claims the update will intelligently rank search results based on relevance to the user. There will also be some new filtering options to help narrow searches to exactly what a user is looking for, like PDFs or Mail messages. And Spotlight will also search within documents on third-party cloud drives.
Apple has been dabbling in gaming for a while now. Game Centre has been around for a few years but Apple has pushed further ahead with the introduction of Apple Games, a dedicated app that gives players a home for all their games, making it easier to jump back into favorites, discover new games tailored just for them, and play with friends in whole new ways. The new Game Overlay enables players to conveniently adjust their system settings, chat with friends, or invite them to play without having to leave their game. Players can also turn on Low Power Mode to extend gaming sessions and maximise playtime on battery. Game developers get Metal 4 as par of macOS Tahoe introduces Metal 4, which brings more advanced graphics and next-generation rendering technologies to games, like MetalFX Frame Interpolation and MetalFX Denoising, for smoother visuals and faster frame rates.
Apple has tweaked a number of apps as well.
- Safari now features a rounded tab design that floats in the toolbar, along with a refreshed sidebar with new sections to help users more easily find saved content like iCloud Tabs and Saved. Apple says that Safari, when compared to Chrome is 50 percent faster at loading frequently visited websites and offers up to four more hours of battery life when streaming video. And for even greater protection from trackers when browsing, Safari now offers advanced fingerprinting protection in all browsing by default.
- The Messages app brings Backgrounds, Polls, and a redesigned details view that helps users easily navigate what has been shared in a conversation. Plus, it features typing indicators in groups to let participants know exactly who is going to chime in, as well as the ability to add new contacts easily right from the group chat and search with more natural language.
- Journal comes to Mac, making it easy to capture and write about everyday moments and special events when inspiration strikes. On Mac, it’s easy to type long, thoughtful entries and view them on a map. Users can keep multiple journals for various aspects of life, which are all synced across Apple devices.
- Photos has an updated design that includes beautiful Liquid Glass elements, enhancements for customization, easier workflows, and sidebar consistency with iPadOS. Pinned Collections now come to Mac, so users can access the collections they use most with a click on the sidebar. Users will also find new buttons to quickly access filtering and sorting options in all views, and the ability to customize the size of Collections tiles, so they can view their library just how they like.
- FaceTime gets a new landing page with Contact Posters of recent callers, Liquid Glass controls now float in the bottom right and recede to create more space and a new More button lets users quickly access features like SharePlay and Live Translation.
- Notes adds the ability to import and export a note into a markdown file, and support for capturing conversations in the Phone app as audio recordings with transcriptions.
- Accessibility features include Magnifier on Mac, which enables users with low vision to zoom in on their surroundings using Continuity Camera on iPhone or attached USB cameras, apply image filters so items are easier to see or read, and even change perspective when viewing presentations or books from an angle. Additional features include Accessibility Reader, a new systemwide reading mode designed with accessibility in mind; an all-new Braille Access experience that offers a user-friendly interface for those with a connected braille display; and Vehicle Motion Cues, which helps reduce motion sickness in a moving vehicle.
- With Passwords, users can easily reference changes they make to their accounts, including checking previous versions of passwords they save, along with details on when they were changed.
Availability
Developers can get access to the developer beta versions of macOS Tahoe 26 through the Apple Developer Program at developer.apple.com. A public beta will be available through the Apple Beta Software Program next month at beta.apple.com. The release will be available as a free software update this Spring.
The Apple Intelligence features detailed require supported devices, which include all iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad mini (A17 Pro), and iPad and Mac models with M1 and later that have Apple Intelligence enabled and Siri and device language set to the same supported language: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, or Chinese (simplified). More languages will be coming by the end of this year: Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Portugal), Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (traditional), and Vietnamese. For more information, visit apple.com/os/macos and apple.com/apple-intelligence.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.