macOS 26 Tahoe makes some divisive design choices that have sparked strong reactions from critics. While macOS 27 Golden Gate’s new design is still about liquid glass, Apple’s new Mac operating system fixes many of the mistakes Tahoe made.
Apple describes the “design improvements” found in macOS 27 Golden Gate as follows:
Liquid glass updates ensure better readability with more uniform refraction and improved contrast. A unified toolbar, edge-to-edge sidebar, updated window shapes and menu bar icons give you a sleeker design. And new sliders make it easy to customize the look of your liquid glass, from ultra-clear to fully tinted.
liquid glass slider
The liquid glass slider in macOS 27 is most important in that it gives users control over the appearance of their system. Liquid glass is now more than just a choice between colored and clear. The slider allows you to adjust the exact amount of translucency distortion and tint consistency of the liquid glass element.
Updated window shape
What Apple describes as “updated window shapes” is easily my favorite design change in macOS 27 Golden Gate. This refers to the corner radius of the app window.
These aren’t just updated in macOS 27 Golden Gate. Technically, the shape of apps created for macOS 26 Tahoe has been updated.
In macOS 27 Golden Gate, window shapes are consistent across all apps. Apps no longer need to be updated to a new macOS version to have the same corner radius as the apps that come with the system. The app icon prison still exists, but at least the app windows look like they’re part of the same operating system.
Apple also mentioned updates to the menu bar icons. Specifically, this refers to significantly fewer menu bar icons used in submenus throughout the app.
Across system apps, macOS 27 Golden Gate selectively uses menu bar icons rather than assigning icons to nearly every individual item.
Regular macOS 26 Tahoe users will immediately notice the updated sidebar design in macOS 27 Golden Gate. The Tahoe’s exterior is somewhat inlaid to create the visual effect of floating above the windows. The sidebar in macOS 27 Golden Gate looks like a sidebar.
Personally, I found Tahoe’s sidebar to be one of the more attractive and modern features, while Golden Gate’s sidebar design is completely functional. It also maintains the ability to display horizontally scrolling content underneath, maintaining the effect that the content is part of the app and not completely segmented.
Beyond these changes, Apple is highlighting design changes in macOS 27 Golden Gate, including improved readability across toolbar controls, the return of color for sidebar icons, and more prominent active window differentiation.
macOS 27 Golden Gate is currently available as a developer beta. A public beta version will be released in July, ahead of the official release later this fall.
