MacOS Tahoe

Features

Apple said that macOS Tahoe introduces several features and improvements, mainly focused on the user interface.

System features

User interface

The user interface has been substantially redesigned for the first time since macOS Big Sur in 2020, now using the Liquid Glass design language to align with iOS 26 and iPadOS 26.

Desktop, Lock Screen, and Control Center

• Folder icons have been redesigned and can now have custom colors, emblems, and emojis, and can also abide by the accent color. They also now have animations.
• App icons have been unified with iOS and iPadOS, and can have dark and tinted variants as introduced with iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, as well as a new clear variant.
• The menu bar is now fully transparent by default, with a faint drop shadow. The option to show a background for the menu bar is retained.
• The Control Center has been redesigned, now functioning like and resembling the iOS version introduced in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18.
• Volume and brightness sliders have been redesigned; the sliders are now fully integrated with the Control Center.
• Some Lock Screen customization features on iOS and iPadOS have been brought over to the Mac, such as changing the font and weight of the clock.

Spotlight

• Spotlight Search has been redesigned and gains quick actions, "quick-key" shortcuts, third-party API support, a completely revamped indexer with AI support, menubar search, and Apple Intelligence integration.
• An Applications feature which is similar to the App Library, used on iOS since iOS 14 and iPadOS since iPadOS 15. It is integrated into the Spotlight interface. iPhone apps also appear in the Applications list through Continuity from the user's iPhone, and will launch through iPhone Mirroring. This replaces Launchpad from the previous versions of macOS.

Other new features

• App icons are now required to be squared-circles (squircles), a design recommended since macOS Big Sur; an icon that does not comply with the requirement is placed inside a gray squircle.
• Areas such as the Control Center, app opening, and Spotlight Search now have increased animation.
• Many iOS and iPadOS features have been brought over to the Mac, such as Live Activities and Collections in the Photos app.
• The cursor has been redesigned, now having a more rounded appearance.
• Vehicle Motion Cues, a system-wide Accessibility Reader, and support for Braille displays come as part of expanded accessibility features.
• The Photos, Maps, and Apple Music apps now behave more similarly to their iOS and iPadOS counterparts.
• Notifications for low battery and AirPods have been reduced to alerts in their menu bar items.
• The power and restart windows are now shown in a pop-up window rather than an actual one.
• Terminal gains support for 24-bit color and Powerline fonts.
• Passwords adds a password history feature to view previous passwords.
• The disc image format, formerly RAW, has been replaced by the new format Apple Sparse Image Format (ASIF), which Apple claims is significantly faster and more similar to a native SSD's performance.
• The Macintosh HD icon has been changed from a hard disk drive to a solid-state drive.
• NFSv4.1 (RFC 8881) client support has been added.
• The icon for Finder has been changed to align with the Liquid Glass design language.
• macOS 26.2 enables support for the 160 MHz channel for Macs with Wi-Fi 6E.

New apps

• Phone: the Phone app uses Continuity to integrate with the iPhone.
• Journal: encourages users to create journal entries in which they can record and reflect upon their thoughts and activities.
• Magnifier: the app uses the Mac's camera to allow users to zoom in on information in front of them.
• Games: provides an interface for games from the App Store and Apple Arcade, as well as social features in Game Center.
• Apps: a replacement to Launchpad that was used since Mac OS X Lion. macOS 26.1 changes the number of columns of applications visible from five to seven.

Removed features

• Home only supports the redesigned architecture introduced with iOS 16 and macOS Ventura and ends support for the older architecture.
• Support for FireWire 400 and 800 has been removed.
• Launchpad has been removed in favor of Apps. Apps removes the ability to customize the layout of applications and create folders.
• Safari no longer had the Compact tab layout in its settings in macOS 26.0 through 26.3.2, but this was added back in macOS 26.4.

Reception

macOS Tahoe has had mixed feedback. The new "Liquid Glass" UI and changes to the user experience has had mixed reception. The new version has been widely criticized for its poorer optimization, and its poorer stability compared to previous versions. The issues include stuttering even on new devices, and graphical issues in the GUI or stock apps like Notes.

Supported hardware

macOS Tahoe supports all Macs with Apple silicon and some of those with Intel's ninth-generation Coffee Lake Refresh, tenth-generation Ice Lake and Comet Lake, and Cascade Lake–based Xeon-W processors.

During its Platforms State of the Union event at WWDC 2025, Apple announced that macOS Tahoe will be the last major version of macOS that supports Intel-based Macs. The only remaining Intel-based Macs supported by Tahoe are the Mac Pro (2019), the MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019), the MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, four Thunderbolt 3 ports) and the iMac (2020), thus ending support for all Intel-based MacBook Air and Mac Mini models.

Release history

See Apple's official release notes and official security update contents.