Here’s what’s coming to macOS Tahoe
At Monday’s WWDC conference, Apple announced the new macOS Tahoe, which comes with a series of updates related to Apple Intelligence, continuity features with the iPhone, and Spotlight search.
Apple’s new “Liquid Glass” design is coming to macOS Tahoe, making for a sleek, customizable look — yes, at long last, you can make your folder icons pink (or whatever other color you want). Like iOS 26, the macOS Tahoe design refresh has a more reflective, transparent style, like real glass. But behind the shiny update are other upgrades that leverage Apple Intelligence to improve the user experience.
macOS Tahoe more closely ties in a user’s iPhone, showing Live Activities from iOS (that thing that pops up on your lock screen and/or Dynamic Island to show you that your Uber Eats order is 17 minutes away). Thanks to Continuity features, Mac products will get a Phone app for the first time, which comes with other updates to the iOS Phone app like Call Screening and Hold Assist. Live Translation will also come to the Phone, Messages, and FaceTime apps.
Some of the most substantial macOS Tahoe upgrades are coming via Spotlight, of all places. With the help of Apple’s AI features, Spotlight will serve results “intelligently,” predicting what you’re most likely to be looking for, suggesting actions based on common activities or what you’re currently working on.
Users can also carry out actions directly from Spotlight. The demo in Apple’s WWDC keynote showed an Apple executive using Spotlight to type an email’s subject line and body text, then send it to a recipient, all without even opening up the Mail app.
The upgraded Spotlight also features quick keys, which allow users to customize short strings of characters to bring up a specific action. Apple gave the examples of typing “AR” to let you add a reminder and “SM” to send a message.
Many other major updates to iOS 26 are also in Tahoe, including Genmoji and Image Playground updates, AI-supported reminders, a new Apple Games app, backgrounds and polls in Messages, and a new FaceTime landing page. The Journal app is also coming to Tahoe.
Apple announced macOS Tahoe will be available in the fall, but a public beta will launch next month. Developers can access an early version now.
Amanda Silberling is a senior writer at TechCrunch covering the intersection of technology and culture. She has also written for publications like Polygon, MTV, the Kenyon Review, NPR, and Business Insider. She is the co-host of Wow If True, a podcast about internet culture, with science fiction author Isabel J. Kim. Prior to joining TechCrunch, she worked as a grassroots organizer, museum educator, and film festival coordinator. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and served as a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Laos.
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