Apple has planned a major redesign in the upcoming macOS 26 "Tahoe," featuring a bold new interface built around what the company calls Liquid Glass. This translucent material appears throughout the system, giving controls, navigation bars, app icons, and widgets a fresh, modern feel. Some may remember Windows Vista's translucent design philosophy. The most noticeable change is a clear menu bar and a redesigned Dock that seems to float above your desktop. Apple says this makes your screen feel more spacious. Toolbars and sidebars have been softened with rounded corners and will automatically adjust their size to fit your content. On iPhone and iPad, tab bars shrink as you scroll down to help you focus on what's important, and in macOS Tahoe, sidebars subtly reflect your wallpaper so you always know where you are.

Liquid Glass is more than just a pretty look. It reacts in real-time to light and dark modes, and specular highlights shift as you move windows or your cursor. This effect is powered by advanced rendering techniques that Apple's engineers developed in collaboration with its design team. Apple is also stepping up its efforts to make the Mac a real gaming platform. A new Apple Games app will help you find and launch titles, manage friends lists, and stay in touch without leaving the game, thanks to a built-in game overlay. Developers will be able to use Metal 4, which includes Frame Interpolation and Denoising features, to deliver smoother frame rates. Other improvements and shortcuts leverage on-device AI for more complex tasks. macOS 26 Tahoe will be available as a developer beta today, with a public beta next month and a full release in the fall. It will run on all Apple Silicon Macs from 2020 onward, as well as select Intel models back to 2019.