Now available as a public beta, macOS Tahoe (version 26) is set to be the most spectacular and useful upgrade to Apple’s desktop operating system in the last decade. It not only looks better than ever, thanks to the Liquid Glass design overhaul, but it also introduces convenient calling and messaging enhancements, super-efficient keyboard shortcuts, and unprecedented Spotlight features that make it a productivity marvel. I'm almost impatient enough to use the public beta of Tahoe as my daily driver thanks to its genuinely impressive feature set and stability, though I'm still planning to wait for the full release in the fall. I'll be able to share my full thoughts then, but in the meantime, these are my initial impressions.
Can Your Mac Run Tahoe?
Tahoe runs on any Apple silicon-based desktop or laptop; it supports the M1 and M4 chips and everything in between. Alternatively, you can install it on the 13-inch MacBook Pro (2020), 16-inch MacBook Pro (2019), 27-inch iMac (2020), or Mac Pro (2019). If you have anything older, you’re out of luck.
Tahoe will be the last macOS version to support Intel-based Macs. Apple has also warned developers that it will severely reduce the functionality of the Rosetta 2 emulation layer—the software that lets Intel-based macOS apps run under Apple silicon—for the version that comes after Tahoe. In other words, Apple is decisively moving away from supporting non-silicon Macs.
What's New in macOS Tahoe?
Here are the biggest changes in macOS 26 in order of importance:
- Apple's Liquid Glass software design ushers in a spectacularly more attractive (but potentially distracting) interface.
- The iOS Phone app arrives with the Hold Assist feature that lets you focus on something else while the app silently waits for a live agent to pick up.
- Spotlight gains hundreds of helpful ways to search for data and perform complex actions.
- The automated Shortcut feature gets new conveniences formerly available only to advanced users who were comfortable with the AppleScript scripting language.
- Calls and Messages support live translation, meaning they will automatically translate what you say or type into the recipient's language. Then, they will translate the recipient's reply into your language.
Keep in mind that many of these features rely on Apple silicon.
Interface and Design: Liquid Glass Takes Over
The most spectacular change in Tahoe is the semi-translucent interface that Apple calls Liquid Glass. It takes many of its cues from the visionOS operating system used by Apple's Vision Pro headset.
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)I have conflicting feelings about the new visual direction. Messages and menus are brighter and livelier than ever, but the large rounded corners and wide margins between the borders and content of an app seem somewhat distracting. It seems at least possible that Apple designed Liquid Glass partly for the sake of gee-whiz marketing instead of for improving ease of use and efficiency.
Liquid Glass comes with other interface changes, too. Widgets optionally move from the communications center to the desktop. The macOS menu bar is transparent by default, leaving its icons floating over the desktop. Otherwise, app icons get rounded corners, while sidebars in app windows gain a tint to match the color of the desktop. You can fortunately adjust most of these behaviors in the Settings app, but you can't—and won’t want to—change the new spacious layout of apps like Messages and Contacts, where horizontal lines separate items that used to crowd each other.
Other design tweaks aim to improve productivity. For the first time, macOS includes an option to link a folder's color to its color-coded Tag (the colorful dot that appears to its left). And you can now stamp folders with an emoji or icon of your choice (including default ones like Applications and Downloads) to make them easier to find.
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)I’ve been begging Apple for years to let me change the blinding blue default color of macOS folders. Now, I can apply any color I like, with an option to make folders lighter or darker depending on the time of day—when Apple resolves to change a feature, it doesn’t go halfway. This set of folder customization options outclasses what's available for any other desktop OS, either natively or via third-party software.
One of my long-standing annoyances with macOS was the lack of control over the menu bar. Often, an icon that an app automatically added to it would disappear behind my MacBook's webcam notch or another app's menu. Tahoe thankfully gives you the power to choose which icons appear here. I might still turn to the third-party Bartender app for its ability to add a secondary, drop-down menu, but Tahoe's native options are a major improvement.
Calling and Notifications: More Parity With iOS
macOS already includes the iPhone Mirroring capability, which displays your phone screen in a window on your desktop, meaning you can run most of your iPhone apps without leaving your Mac. (Some banking and finance apps that require the highest level of security don't support this feature.) Tahoe adds the full Phone app, so you don’t need to deal with the cramped iPhone Mirroring interface to see your recent and missed calls and voicemails or dial a number.
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)The macOS version of the Phone app includes features that will show up in iOS 26. The best of these is the aforementioned Hold Assist. Meanwhile, a Call Screening feature asks unknown callers to state their name and the reason for the call—something that you had to use pricey third-party apps for in the past.
I find the Phone app to be a major productivity booster. I can leave my phone in another room and avoid the temptation to doomscroll, while still being able to make, receive, and screen calls.
Your Mac can also now receive Live Activity notifications that normally require a phone, such as those related to a food delivery or the arrival of a ride-share car. If you choose to allow this, the notifications that appear on your phone’s lock screen will also appear on your Mac.
Search Improvements: Spotlight Gets More Granular, Helpful
The fast, intelligent Spotlight search feature has always outclassed anything in Windows, and it gains massive improvements in Tahoe. When you click inside the Spotlight search field, four icons appear to the right of it.
Click on the first icon (or type Cmd-1) to search applications, starting with a window that resembles the iOS App Library. Incidentally, this menu replaces the Launchpad app. The familiar Launchpad icon is still in the Dock by default, but you get the new App Library style menu when you click on it. Choose the second icon (or type Cmd-2) to search for files that open in Preview, Pages, or other apps; a set of buttons under the search field lets you select between these filters.
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)Press the third icon (or type Cmd-3) to bring up the Actions menu. Here, you see a long menu of options, such as “Create Folder,” “Send Email,” or "Start Timer.” Each performs the action without making you open the relevant app and find the action in a menu. Best of all, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to any action, and Tahoe populates the menu with a sample shortcut, such as “sm” for Send Message. All the other actions have an “Add Quick Keys” option, which lets you set a string of one or more keys as a shortcut. This is the most user-friendly automation technique I’ve seen in any operating system I've tested. Finally, select the fourth icon to the right of the Spotlight field (or type Cmd-4) to surface your clipboard history; you can now recover something you copied earlier without a third-party app.
If you can’t remember what number to press with the Cmd key, just hold down that key and type 1 through 4 to cycle through the available options. This is a superb implementation of a much-needed feature. You can also type in “/screenshots” to see a list of recent screenshots, and I expect Apple to add similar search strings throughout the public beta period.
Automation: Shortcuts Are More Useful Than Ever
Apple has always been a leader in automation features, starting with AppleScript, which has been going strong since its 1993 debut. Then, the Automator app introduced ways to automate complex actions by combining building blocks.
Both are powerful but have fairly steep learning curves. That's why Apple launched the easier-to-use (but less powerful) Shortcuts app on iOS first, and then macOS. With Tahoe, the Shortcuts app is finally gaining automation features that previously required AppleScript or the Automation app. For instance, you can now work with trigger actions, such as when you add a file to a “hot” folder, a specific person sends you an email, or your Mac's battery falls below a certain percentage. Being able to easily build automations with these events makes it much easier to streamline work processes. I'll be glad to use Shortcuts rather than the fussy and fiddly AppleScript functions that I currently rely upon.
Live Translation: Communicate With Anyone
Apple’s translation feature seems at least equal (if not superior) to those of Google and Microsoft. Whenever I select text in a photo on my phone or Mac and ask Apple to translate it, the results are always impressive.
With Tahoe, the Messages and Phone apps support real-time translation. As mentioned, that means you can text or talk with someone who uses another language, with each of you getting the other's message in your language. According to "Star Trek," this technology isn't supposed to exist until the twenty-second century. Some third-party apps already translate text messages in real time, but Apple's solution is the first to make real-time text and voice messaging available to anyone who uses iOS or macOS.
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)Messages gets a few eye-catching interface tweaks. For instance, Apple adds custom backgrounds to conversations. But other features, such as color-coded typing indicators, polls, screening for unknown numbers, and spam filters, are even more useful. I still want the Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp features that enable you to remove messages from one or both sides of a conversation, but I appreciate these improvements to Messages nonetheless.
More System Updates: Improvements Abound
Dozens of other, more minor improvements make Tahoe well worth the upgrade. Here are some additional updates to the core apps:
- Clock lets you adjust the snooze feature to last between one and 15 minutes; you no longer have to deal with the old default of 9 minutes.
- Journal arrives from iOS, with the ability to create multiple journals and insert pictures inline with text.
- Notes can export text into Markdown format.
- Passwords gains a history feature that lists the old passwords you have used on any site.
- Photos adds the Pinned Collections feature from the iOS version.
- Safari now hides all data that third-party snoopers can use to detect your digital fingerprint.
- Terminal finally gets the customizable color and theme options that have long been available with third-party alternatives.
Otherwise, you can expect minor Apple Intelligence refinements and some new features in the Games app. The former's summarization features aren't always accurate, so make sure to double-check everything you ask it about. You might also care about the new Genmoji feature that lets you adjust the hairstyle on an emoji or combine two emoji to make a new one. And Image Playground is still around in Tahoe, too. A new ChatGPT integration lets you apply various styles to your images.
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)Developers will inevitably find obscure changes deep in the OS. An especially interesting one is a new format for “sparsebundle” disk images that Time Machine and other virtualization software utilize. Apple claims that the new Apple Sparse Image Format (ASIF) supports quicker disk reads and writes than existing formats, which should result in faster emulation of Windows systems on a Mac. The Windows 11 system I have running in Parallels Desktop on my M4 Mac already feels snappier than Windows 11 on my brand-new Intel-based desktop PC, so we'll see if Tahoe furthers the performance gap.
How to Test Tahoe Without Any Risk
Unless you are a developer who really needs to upgrade your current system to the Tahoe public beta, you should test it only on a separate volume of your Mac. Here’s how to install the public beta in a way that lets you delete it entirely without affecting your current Sequoia setup.
Start by opening the Disk Utility app on your Mac. You should see a screen with data about your current system. In the toolbar, click the plus sign under Volume. Fill in a name, such as “Tahoe,” for the new volume, and then click Add. Once the new volume appears, quit Disk Utility.
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)Next, open the App Store, search for macOS Sequoia, click View, and choose Get. When you see a prompt asking if you are sure you want to download it, click Download. When the Install macOS Sequoia dialog opens, click through until you see the option to install Sequoia on your current disk. At this step, click “Show All Disks…” and then choose your new “Tahoe” disk as the installation target. Proceed to install Sequoia on your new disk.
When the system starts up, you can choose to import your apps and settings from your existing system, sign in with your current Apple ID, or provide a different Apple ID. If you have enough disk space to duplicate your current system, I would let the installer copy everything over so that you can test Tahoe with everything you use now. Still, you can save time by simply using your current Apple ID and not importing your apps.
With this new Sequoia system on your “Tahoe” disk, open the Settings app, search for Software Update, and click the information icon next to “Beta Updates.” Select “macOS Tahoe 26 Public Beta” from the list of options, and let macOS update to the Tahoe beta. When it’s done, you can always switch back to your older system by opening the Settings app and choosing your older setup from the Startup Disk menu. When you’re ready to upgrade your older system to Tahoe, or if you simply don’t want the beta system on your Mac any longer, go to the Disk Utility from your older system and delete the "Tahoe" volume.
Tahoe Is Off to a Promising Start
I expect Apple to ship the release version of macOS Tahoe in the early fall, and I strongly recommend waiting for that before upgrading your current system. You might even want to wait for the first point release (presumably version 26.1) to avoid dealing with some inevitable bugs. Based on what I've been able to test so far, Tahoe offers countless usability improvements over Sequoia, not to mention a completely fresh (and elegant) Liquid Glass interface design. The new Phone app and the many Spotlight enhancements are among the other headline features, but I look forward to continuing to explore and test the OS ahead of its official launch.