macOS now has a phone app: Meet macOS Tahoe 26

Apple has previewed macOS Tahoe 26, its next major update, bringing a refreshed design and several productivity upgrades. The desktop, Dock, navigation, and toolbars now feature a more expressive look without losing their familiar feel. Users can customize more than ever, with a revamped Control Center and new color options for folders, icons, and widgets.

The Phone app is now available on Mac, offering access to recent calls, contacts, voicemails, and features like Call Screening and Hold Assist. Live Activities from iPhone also show up on Mac, making it easier to track things like flights in real time.

Spotlight has been overhauled, now supporting direct actions like sending emails or creating notes. Apple Intelligence also sees expanded features, including live translation, creative tools like Genmoji and Image Playground, and smarter automation via enhanced Shortcuts — all with privacy in mind.

New Design

The new macOS Tahoe design updates the look while keeping the familiar feel. It uses a translucent material called Liquid Glass that reflects its surroundings. The Dock, sidebars, and toolbars are simplified to focus more on your content, and the menu bar is now fully transparent for a more spacious display.

You can customize which controls appear in the menu bar and Control Center and arrange them how you like. App icons adapt to light or dark modes with new colorful tints and a clear option. Folders can be recolored and personalized with symbols or emojis. Combined with custom wallpapers and themes, it’s easier to make your Mac feel uniquely yours.

New Continuity Experiences with the Phone App and Live Activities

The Phone app is now available on Mac through Continuity, letting users handle calls from their nearby iPhone. It includes familiar features like Recents, Favorites, and Voicemails, along with new ones like Call Screening, which answers unknown calls and asks for info before you pick up. Hold Assist helps users keep their place on hold while staying productive on their Mac.

Live Activities from a nearby iPhone now show up in the Mac’s menu bar, letting users track real-time updates like rides, flights, or sports scores. Clicking a Live Activity opens the app via iPhone Mirroring, so users can see more details and act directly from their Mac.

Updated Spotlight

Spotlight on Mac now makes searching easier and more intuitive. It shows all results like files, apps, messages, and more in one smartly ranked list. New filters help narrow down results quickly, like focusing on PDFs or emails. Spotlight can also find documents in third-party cloud drives. If you’re unsure what to search for, browse views let you explore apps, files, clipboard history, and more.

Users can now perform hundreds of actions directly from Spotlight like sending emails, creating notes, or playing podcasts without switching apps. Both Apple and third-party apps can offer actions through the App Intents API. Shortcuts and menu bar actions are also accessible without leaving the keyboard. Spotlight adapts to user habits, suggesting personalized actions, and includes quick keys for faster access to common tasks.

Apple Intelligence Updates

Apple Intelligence in macOS Tahoe adds new features while keeping user privacy intact.

Live Translation in Messages, FaceTime, and Phone lets users communicate across languages with automatic text and live caption translations, all processed on-device for privacy.

Shortcuts gain smarter actions like text summarizing and image creation, with the option to use Apple Intelligence or ChatGPT for advanced tasks. Users can also set shortcuts to run automatically based on time or actions, like saving files.

Genmoji and Image Playground offer more customization and new styles, including oil painting and vector art, plus the ability to describe exactly what you want.

Reminders now use Apple Intelligence to identify key tasks from emails, notes, or websites and can automatically organize them for better productivity.

Some more updates -

Here’s a concise summary of additional macOS Tahoe features:

• Safari gets a refreshed look with rounded tabs and a new sidebar. It’s faster than Chrome and offers better battery life while streaming. Enhanced fingerprinting protection improves privacy by default.

• Messages adds Backgrounds, Polls, a redesigned details view, group typing indicators, easier contact adding, and more natural language search.

• Journal arrives on Mac, letting users write, organize, and view entries on a map, syncing across Apple devices

• Photos features Liquid Glass design, easier customization, pinned collections, and new sorting and filtering options

• FaceTime has a redesigned landing page with Contact Posters, floating Liquid Glass controls, and quick access to SharePlay and Live Translation.

• Notes now supports importing/exporting markdown files and recording Phone app conversations with transcriptions.
  
• Accessibility includes Magnifier using Continuity Camera, a new Accessibility Reader mode, improved Braille support, and Vehicle Motion Cues to reduce motion sickness.

Passwords lets users track changes and view previous saved versions.