Final month, Apple announced its newest replace for MacOS 26, codenamed “Tahoe.” It is full of recent visible design parts like Apple’s Liquid Glass design theme, higher integration with the iPhone, and a extra strong Highlight characteristic that is higher built-in with Shortcuts.
Actually, the theme of all of Apple’s updates this yr is streamlining each the visible UI and have units throughout Apple gadgets, whereas making extra apps and options out there on them, punctuated by Apple Intelligence.
Additionally: The best MacBooks of 2025: Expert tested and reviewed
Though the official launch of MacOS Tahoe will not be till this fall, in case you’re eager on making an attempt them out early, the general public beta is lastly right here. This implies Apple has decided the working system is secure sufficient to be opened as much as the general public at massive, however remember the fact that there may nonetheless be bugs.
Let’s check out the most important bulletins Apple made for MacOS.
1. The Telephone app on Mac
The Telephone app has lastly arrived on MacOS, permitting for a extra streamlined person expertise between your iPhone and laptop. Customers can now entry latest calls and contacts synced out of your iPhone, and make calls with a single click on in the identical manner. What’s extra, the Telephone app will embrace the brand new options added in iOS 26, together with Maintain Help and Name Screening.
Additionally: New to MacOS? 8 beginner tips and tricks to try first – and why
Along with calls and contacts, dwell actions from the iPhone will likely be seen in your Mac, akin to monitoring an Uber or a supply from Seamless. Clicking on the dwell exercise will open up iPhone Mirroring, which can mean you can take motion instantly out of your Mac.
2. Liquid Glass and visible consistency
Apple dropped a serious visible overhaul for iOS with its Liquid Glass design theme, and lots of of these updates are filtering over to MacOS, streamlining the person expertise throughout gadgets.
The dock, sidebars, and toolbars have been redesigned in the identical translucent aesthetic that is supposed to point out extra content material on display with out UI litter. As well as, the rounded parts and added dimensionality look much more like what you’d see on the iPhone. Customization additionally means that you can modify the management middle in the identical manner because the iPhone
Additionally: What is Liquid Glass? Here’s everything we know about Apple’s major UI overhaul at WWDC
Similar to the iPhone, Macs will help further personalization choices, together with darkish or mild mode, an all-clear icon, and dock theme, in addition to custom-made coloration tones. This customization extends to folder icons themselves, with colours, themes, and even emojis.
3. Shortcuts and Highlight get smarter
MacOS 26 provides a handful of good integrations for the Highlight characteristic. As a substitute of simply being a easy search bar, Apple’s updates to Highlight make it right into a extra highly effective management panel that works with Shortcuts and might take app-specific actions, whereas powered by Apple Intelligence.
For instance, in the course of the WWDC keynote, we noticed a demo in a photograph modifying app, with the person adjusting the colour tone by trying to find that perform within the Highlight. In a posh app like Photoshop, for instance, if you cannot discover a particular perform, Highlight may step in to behave as a top-level search perform.
Additionally: Apple’s secret sauce is exactly what AI is missing
In supporting further productiveness options, Highlight will even include clipboard historical past and mean you can create automations along with Apple Intelligence to make advanced actions like summarizing textual content or creating photographs. You’ll be able to entry Apple Intelligence fashions in your gadget or ChatGPT.
Highlight will even help a handful of shortcut Fast keys, akin to “sm” for “ship message,” for instance. That opens a thread the place you may ship a message instantly from the Highlight app itself, with out swapping to Messages.
4. Apple Intelligence, after all
A few of the Apple Intelligence options that debuted on the iPhone will now be out there in MacOS, together with a extra strong, personalised Siri, and a better Shortcuts app.
Apple can also be opening up MacOS 26 so third-party builders can begin creating apps that really combine with Apple Intelligence. It is a good transfer, permitting some respiratory room to additional innovate by itself AI options (which some say have fallen behind competitors’) whereas permitting exterior builders to carry helpful AI capabilities to the Mac.
5. Apple Video games
Coinciding with the launch of the Video games app on the iPhone, we’re additionally seeing Video games come to MacOS 26 as a devoted retailer, launcher, and leaderboard. The Video games app additionally brings an overlay exhibiting system settings like low energy mode, in addition to on-line mates and communications.
Metallic 4 involves MacOS 26 as nicely, providing larger high quality graphics with MetalFX Body Interpolation and MetalFX Denoising for smoother visuals and quicker body charges.
Let’s discuss compatibility
All of those updates sound nice, however not each Mac will likely be appropriate with MacOS 26 Tahoe. Older Macs with Intel processors, sadly, won’t help the brand new OS model. This implies any Mac with an M1 processor or later will run MacOS 26, however most gadgets from earlier than the 2020 mark won’t.
Additionally: How to install the MacOS 26 beta on your Mac (and which models support it)
This transfer all however seals the deal on phasing out older Intel-based fashions, one thing we have been anticipating from Apple for some time. Should you do have a Mac laptop with an Intel processor, you may nonetheless run the earlier MacOS, Sequoia, or its predecessor, Sonoma, relying on how previous your gadget is.
Get the morning’s prime tales in your inbox every day with our Tech Today newsletter.
