macOS Tahoe Wants to be a Polished Leap Forward for Your Mac, Here’s What’s New

Apple’s macOS Tahoe makes the Mac experience even better with a whole new look and a ton of features that make everyday tasks way smoother and more intuitive. From a translucent interface to a recharged Spotlight and seamless iPhone integration, you’ll find it all here.

A new design called Liquid Glass wraps macOS Tahoe, giving your Mac a shiny, otherworldly glow. Menus, program icons and widgets now appear transparent, reflecting and refracting what’s behind them like a lens. Your screen looks bigger because the transparent navigation bar fades into the background and your content takes center stage. You can even add custom colors or emojis to folders and icons to make your desktop more you.

Spotlight, the Mac’s trusty search tool, gets a major update and becomes a productivity powerhouse. It’s no longer just a file search tool; it understands natural language searches and returns results based on context not exact matches. Want to send an email or schedule a calendar event? Type it into Spotlight, hit a few keys and it’s done; no need to launch another app. New tabs for apps, files, actions and even clipboard history make it easier to navigate while Quick Keys let you do things like send a message or execute a shortcut with a single tap.


Tahoe’s Shortcuts are a big deal in automation. Shortcuts now use Apple Intelligence to understand your routines and suggest tasks to help you get through your day more efficiently. Your Mac can automatically organize files, change settings or send reminders based on your schedule or location. You can use triggers like attaching a device or turning on Do Not Disturb to activate complex workflows without lifting a finger.


Your iPhone and Mac are more connected than ever with new Continuity features. The new Phone app syncs your iPhone call history, favorites and voicemails to your Mac so you don’t have to reach for your phone to stay connected. Call Screening transcribes messages from unknown callers so you can decide whether to respond, while Hold Assist waits on the line for a human and alerts you when they get back. Live Activities, or real-time updates from your iPhone, now appear in your Mac’s menu bar so you can stay up to date on delivery statuses, game scores and more.


Tahoe has new apps that are more than just add-ons. The Journal app, which was previously only on the iPhone, is now on the Mac and lets you jot down thoughts, recipes or memories using a full keyboard and trackpad. You can add photos, recordings or locations to entries and have separate journals for different parts of your life. Then there’s the Apple Games app which is a hub for all your games whether they come from Apple Arcade, the App Store or Steam. It syncs between devices, lets you chat with friends and creates leaderboards, but it’s still a work in progress and not as good as Steam.

Tahoe doesn’t stop there; it also adds little touches to everyday activities. The Control Center is customizable like the iOS version and makes it easier to get to your most used settings including third party app controls. Desktop widgets free you from the Notification Center and let you pin useful info like weather or tasks directly to your screen.