Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2025 has wrapped, giving us our very first look at macOS 26: Tahoe. This next major iteration of macOS promises to make your Mac “more capable, productive, and intelligent than ever.” macOS Tahoe is built on several key pillars: a breathtaking new design, deeper Continuity experiences between your Mac and iPhone, the most substantial update to Spotlight we’ve ever seen, and a significant expansion of Apple Intelligence capabilities.
Let’s explore what macOS Tahoe has in store and how it will reshape your Mac experience.
A Visual Feast: The New “Liquid Glass” Design
Apple is rolling out its new “Liquid Glass” software design language across each of its operating systems. This new design material is designed to reflect and refract its surroundings, bringing a new level of depth and dynamism to the interface of each Apple device. You can read more about the design philosophy behind Liquid Glass and how it will span across every Apple operating system and device here.
In macOS Tahoe, iconic elements like the Dock, sidebars, and toolbars have been refined with Liquid Glass, aiming to bring “greater focus to a user’s content”. One of the most striking changes is the menu bar, which is now completely transparent, creating a more immersive experience and making your display feel even larger.
Beyond these foundational changes, personalization takes center stage. The Control Center has been updated, and users will find new color options for folders – you can even add symbols or emojis to give them a unique identity. App icons are also getting a refresh with options for light or dark appearances, vibrant new tints, and an elegant clear look. When combined with personalized wallpapers and theme colors, macOS Tahoe offers unprecedented ways to make your Mac truly an extension of your personal style.
Mac and iPhone: An Even More Seamless Partnership with Continuity
The synergy between Apple devices continues to strengthen, and macOS Tahoe brings some game-changing Continuity updates.
First up, the Phone app is officially arriving on Mac. This isn’t just basic call forwarding; you’ll get access to familiar iPhone Phone app features like Recents, Contacts, and Voicemails directly on your Mac.
Even more impressively, new functionalities like Call Screening and Hold Assist are coming too. Call Screening can automatically answer calls from unknown numbers, ask the caller for information, and then let you decide whether to pick up. Hold Assist will keep your place in line when you’re on hold, freeing you up to continue working on your Mac until a live agent is available.
Additionally, Live Activities from your iPhone will now appear in your Mac’s menu bar. Whether it’s tracking an upcoming Uber ride, monitoring a flight, or keeping an eye on a live sports score, you’ll have that real-time information glanceable on your Mac. Clicking on a Live Activity will seamlessly open the relevant app in iPhone Mirroring, allowing you to get more details or take action right from your Mac.
Spotlight Shines Brighter: A Revolution in Mac Search and Action
Prepare for what Apple is calling the “biggest update ever to Spotlight”. The Mac’s central search tool is evolving into a much more powerful productivity engine. Search results – encompassing files, folders, events, apps, messages, and more – will now be listed together and “ranked intelligently based on relevance” to you. New filtering options will help you rapidly narrow down searches, and Spotlight will even be able to surface documents stored on third-party cloud drives.
For those times when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, Spotlight’s “new browse views” will make it easy to scan through your apps, files, clipboard history, and more.
Perhaps the most significant change is the ability to take hundreds of actions directly from Spotlight without needing to jump between apps. Imagine sending an email, creating a note, or playing a podcast, all from the Spotlight interface. This functionality will extend to third-party apps thanks to the App Intents API. Furthermore, Spotlight will learn from your routines to surface personalized actions and introduce “quick keys”—short character strings—to get you to your desired action even faster.
Apple Intelligence: Your Mac Gets Smarter, More Creative, and More Productive (While Protecting Privacy)
Apple Intelligence, the company’s personal intelligence system, is expanding its capabilities in macOS Tahoe, with a continued strong emphasis on protecting user privacy through on-device processing and Private Cloud Compute.
- Breaking Language Barriers with Live Translation: Communication becomes more seamless with Live Translation. In Messages, it can automatically translate messages as you type or translate incoming texts. During FaceTime calls, you can follow along with translated live captions while still hearing the speaker’s original voice. In the Phone app, your words can be translated for the recipient as you speak. These features are powered by Apple-built models that run entirely on-device, ensuring your conversations remain private. Initial language support includes English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, and Chinese (simplified) for Messages, with a slightly different list for Phone and FaceTime.
- Creative Expression Unleashed with Genmoji and Image Playground: Get ready for new ways to express yourself. macOS Tahoe allows you to create Genmoji by starting with existing emoji and descriptions, then modifying personal attributes like hair length or accessories, and selecting expressions to match the moment. Image Playground also receives updates, offering more control over personal attributes and expressions in your generated images. It will also tap into new styles with ChatGPT integration, such as an oil painting or vector art style, and an “Any Style” option lets you describe exactly what you want to create.
- Automation Elevated with Intelligent Shortcuts: Shortcuts are becoming significantly more powerful with a new class of intelligent actions. These allow you to create shortcuts that can summarize text using Writing Tools or generate images with Image Playground. You’ll also be able to tap directly into Apple Intelligence models (either on-device or via Private Cloud Compute) or even ChatGPT for its broad world knowledge to generate responses that feed into the rest of your shortcut, all while maintaining the privacy of your information. For instance, a student could build a shortcut that uses Apple Intelligence models to compare an audio transcription of a lecture to their notes and identify any missed key points. Moreover, shortcuts can now be run automatically on macOS, triggered by a specific time of day or actions like saving a file to a folder.
- Productivity Power-Up with AI in Reminders: Apple Intelligence can now review content from an email, website, note, or other sources on your Mac to find the most relevant action items and suggest adding them to Reminders. It can also automatically categorize your Reminders into sections, making them more manageable.
Level Up: A Richer Gaming Experience on macOS Tahoe
Apple is continuing its efforts to bolster the Mac as a gaming platform. macOS Tahoe introduces the new Apple Games app, a dedicated hub for all your games, making it easier to jump back into favorites, discover new titles, and play with friends. A new Game Overlay will allow players to conveniently adjust system settings, chat with friends, or invite them to play without leaving their game. There’s also a Low Power Mode designed to extend gaming sessions and maximize playtime on battery.
For developers, Metal 4 brings more advanced graphics and next-generation rendering technologies, including MetalFX Frame Interpolation and MetalFX Denoising, promising smoother visuals and faster frame rates. Apple also highlighted a slate of upcoming titles like Crimson Desert, InZOI, Cyberpunk 2077, and HITMAN World of Assassination, which will leverage technologies like MetalFX Upscaling and the power of M-series chips for enhanced performance and visuals. These developments signal a more focused effort to improve the gaming user experience on the Mac.
Your Everyday Apps, Reimagined and Enhanced
Beyond the headline features, macOS Tahoe brings welcome refinements to many core applications:
- Safari: The world’s fastest browser gets a fresh yet familiar look with a rounded tab design that floats in the toolbar and a refreshed sidebar. Apple claims Safari is now 50 percent faster at loading frequently visited websites compared to Chrome and offers up to four more hours of battery life when streaming video. Advanced fingerprinting protection is now offered in all browsing by default for enhanced privacy.
- Messages: Enjoy new features like Backgrounds and Polls. A redesigned details view helps navigate shared content more easily. Group chats will now feature typing indicators, and adding new contacts directly from a group chat is simpler. Search also gets an upgrade with more natural language capabilities.
- Journal: The Journal app makes its way to the Mac, allowing for longer, more thoughtful entries typed on a proper keyboard and the ability to view entries on a map. Users can maintain multiple journals, all synced across their Apple devices.
- Photos: The Photos app sports an updated design incorporating Liquid Glass elements, enhanced customization, easier workflows, and sidebar consistency with iPadOS. Pinned Collections arrive on Mac for quick access, along with new buttons for filtering/sorting and customizable Collection tile sizes.
- FaceTime: A reimagined landing page features beautiful 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 provides quick access to features like SharePlay and Live Translation.
- Notes: You can now import and export notes as markdown files. Notes also gains the ability to capture conversations from the Phone app as audio recordings complete with transcriptions.
Accessibility and Other Notable Enhancements
Apple’s commitment to accessibility continues with innovative new features in macOS Tahoe. These include Magnifier on Mac, which uses an iPhone or attached USB camera via Continuity Camera to let users with low vision zoom in on their surroundings, apply image filters, and even change perspective. Accessibility Reader offers a new systemwide reading mode designed with accessibility in mind. There’s also an all-new Braille Access experience and Vehicle Motion Cues to help reduce motion sickness in a moving vehicle.
The Passwords app also sees an update, allowing users to easily reference changes made to their accounts, including checking previous versions of saved passwords and details on when they were changed.
Availability: When Can You Get macOS Tahoe
The journey to macOS Tahoe begins now for developers. The update is available for testing starting today through the Apple Developer Program. A public beta will follow next month via the Apple Beta Software Program, with the full public release slated for this fall as a free software update.
