MacOS 26 «Tahoe» is now live, and besides the visual design overhaul, there are a handful of impactful new features. Here are the five best.
Apple’s latest update for MacOS 26, codenamed «Tahoe» is here, and it’s full of new visual design elements like Apple’s Liquid Glass design theme, better integration with the iPhone, a more robust Spotlight feature with Shortcuts, and a more personalized Desktop.
In fact, the theme of all of Apple’s updates this year is streamlining both the visual UI and feature sets across Apple devices, while making more apps and features available on them, punctuated by Apple Intelligence.
I’ve been using MacOS Tahoe on my MacBook Pro for the past few days now, and I’m already enjoying the updates. In fact, despite the visual design overhaul, I’d argue that some of the most impactful updates are the less flashy ones — like adding Widgets to the Desktop and the new shortcuts that work with Spotlight.
Here are the top five best features of MacOS 26. 1. The Phone app on Mac
The Phone app has finally arrived on MacOS, allowing for a more streamlined user experience between your iPhone and your MacBook. You can now access recent calls and contacts synced from your iPhone, and make calls with a single click in the same way. What’s more, the Phone app will include the new features added in iOS 26, including Hold Assist and Call Screening.
In addition to calls and contacts, live activities from the iPhone will be visible on your Mac, such as tracking an Uber or a delivery from Seamless. Clicking on the live activity will open up iPhone Mirroring, which will allow you to take action directly from your Mac. It’s a smart way to streamline your devices, and one that’s long overdue. 2. Liquid Glass and visual consistency
Apple dropped a major visual overhaul for iOS with its Liquid Glass design theme, and then brought many of those updates to MacOS. The new design aesthetic touches all aspects of the MacOS Tahoe, but its customizability also allows for a more subtle style.
The dock, sidebars, and toolbars have been redesigned in the same translucent look that’s intended to show more content on screen without UI clutter. In addition, the rounded elements and added dimensionality, with additional transparency settings to give the effect of elements being stacked on top of one another.
In terms of the UI, you can also adjust how folders look in Finder or on the Desktop.
