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macOS Tahoe 26 represents one of the more dramatic changes we’ve seen to the look and feel of the Mac operating system in recent years.
There’s new functionality too, of course, and Apple thinks the blend of the two will greatly enhance the experience of Mac users …
The company says its aim was to make the machine feel vibrant and fresh, without any loss of familiarity.
Reimagined with Liquid Glass, macOS Tahoe is at once fresh and familiar. Apps bring more focus to your content. You can personalize your Mac like never before. And everything just flows into place.
Liquid Glass is of course the core design element now seen across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple wants to make it easier to use multiple devices by harmonizing the look and feel of each.
From Camera and Photos to Safari and FaceTime, your go-to apps feel fresh and expressive. And moving across apps and devices feels more harmonious than ever.
The Mac also gets a key iPhone feature, Live Activities.
The menu bar now features the Live Activities from your iPhone. And when you click one, the app opens in iPhone Mirroring so you can take action.
Also borrowed from the iPhone is a new Phone app for Mac – complete with the new features mirrored from iOS 26.
Manage unwanted calls. For unknown numbers, Call Screening finds out who’s calling and why. Once the caller shares their name and the reason for their call, your phone rings and you can decide if you want to pick up.
Stay productive while on hold. Hold Assist keeps your spot in line while you wait for a live agent and notifies you when they’re ready.
The new Spotlight features make this popular shortcut way more powerful.
Spotlight lets you take hundreds of actions without lifting your hands off the keyboard. And new quick keys help you perform actions even faster. You can now keep all your apps and most accessed files within easy reach, including intelligent suggestions based on your routines.
We may not yet have the long-awaited new Siri, but Apple highlights several new AI features.
Now you can run shortcuts automatically — at a specific time of day or when you take specific actions, like saving a file to a particular folder or connecting to a display.
Live Translation. Automatically translate texts in Messages, display live translated captions in FaceTime, and get spoken translations for calls in the Phone app.
AI features in Shortcuts. Intelligent actions in Shortcuts can summarize text, create images, or tap directly into Apple Intelligence models to provide responses that feed into your shortcut.
Personal emoji. Mix emoji and descriptions to make something brand-new. In Image Playground, discover additional ChatGPT styles. And have even more control when making images inspired by family and friends using Genmoji and Image Playground.6
Which are the features you’re most looking forward to? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
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Images: Apple
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