MacOS Tahoe vs. Sequoia: Here is How A lot Liquid Glass Will Change Your Mac’s Icons

Liquid Glass is not simply coming to your iPhone — It is coming to only about each Apple product with a display you’ll be able to consider, together with your Mac. MacOS 26 Tahoe will convey the design overhaul, which will be each considerably dramatic or barely noticeable, with an total look of feeling contemporary whereas remaining comfortably acquainted. 

MacOS 26 Tahoe is way from only a design overhaul and can include a number of new options when it formally rolls out, nevertheless it’s straightforward to get caught up with all of the styling Apple has achieved with this launch. A few of these adjustments are model new and a few are new for the Mac however borrowed from iOS, like adjustments to the icons. 

New icon choices for the Mac embody colour tinting and making them fully clear like you’ll be able to on the iPhone. However even with out these visible tweaks, Apple went to work on redesigning the usual Mac icons — a few of which have not been modified in many years.  

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What’s extra fascinating to me is that Apple manages to inform the identical story whereas visually saying much less with a few of the redesigned icons. 

For those who’re curious, I’ve highlighted just a few of the brand new icons you’ll be able to count on to see in MacOS 26 Tahoe, however you need to needless to say the icons might change once more by the point the official construct is launched. Under, I will examine the newly designed icons to the present model of MacOS, Sequoia. 

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Tucked in, flattened down and rounded out

Icons on the Mac now really feel extra like that of these on iOS, with a extra rounded, squircle design. In comparison with Sequoia, Tahoe’s icons develop into flatter within the particulars and typically that texture discovered within the former OS model’s icons is changed with a delicate translucent impact. Sequoia’s typically concave or indented type has been pushed outwards, permitting for Liquid Glass so as to add a little bit shine on the corners of components inside the icon’s design. Apple has additionally pulled in all icon components that had beforehand hung off the perimeters — now every little thing is tucked inside the icon form. 

Books

The Apple Books icon updates are easy, however do so much for the general design. The pages present gradients to tell depth and the perimeters add a contact of the signature Liquid Glass shine. Moreover, a ebook cowl has been added behind the pages, displaying off a layered glass look. 

Contacts

The Contacts app icon largely appears to be like the identical so far as the weather inside it are involved, however in any other case — wow, what a distinction. The cardboard-box brown of the “contact ebook” is changed with a gradient and translucent off-white floor with a contrasting normal profile picture. There’s one much less coloured tab to the proper of the icon, and the remaining three at the moment are flat in design and span your complete top of the icon. 

Digital Colour Meter

One other good instance of Apple turning down the element with out sacrificing impression is the Digital Colour Meter app. The dropper now not hangs off the sting, the background is an easy white as a substitute of stark crimson, the shapes have been simplified to circles and the colours tackle extra pastel shades.

Disk Utility

MacOS Tahoe exhibits Apple pulling again and firming down particulars of its icons whereas speaking the identical factor. The Disk Utility app is likely one of the higher examples of this — examine the brand new model to Sequoia and former variations. 

Folders

For years and years, the default folder on a Mac has been a turquoise blue, with out a lot customization at your disposal. And perhaps the folder colour in your Mac is not one thing you have cared to spend time on desirous about, but when who’ve wished that they might change their folder colour, you can with Tahoe. 

Tucked into the Look menu in system settings is a brand new default folder colour choice, permitting you to change between crimson, orange, yellow, inexperienced, blue, purple, pink and graphite. As well as, the icon in Tahoe exhibits a doc in it, versus Sequoia’s empty folder.

iPhone Mirroring

The up to date iPhone Mirroring icon is now extra consultant of what the app does. It could not say a lot concerning the app’s performance, nevertheless it’s a step up from Sequoia’s icon with a single iPhone. 

Pictures

One other delicate Liquid Glass icon tweak is discovered within the Pictures app. In essence, it is the identical design, however the overlapping, rectangular colour panels look to have a slight lower in total width and Apple has added shiny glass edges to them. 

Settings

The updates to the Settings icon in Tahoe are minor, nevertheless it’s instance of Liquid Glass’ subtlety. That inward depth the icon has maintained for over a decade has shifted, colours are modified, and the enamel of the gears are each widened and softened. Liquid Glass is most notable within the smaller gear, which is barely extra clear, as if it has a bit of layered glass on prime of it. 

Stickies 

The Stickies app redesign is a return to how its icon appeared from 2000 to 2020, based on Primary Apple Man’s MacOS icon historical past chart. As a substitute of what appears to be like like a Publish-It notepad, the most recent icon returns to a stack of three notes mendacity on prime of one another. 

Textual content Edit

Tahoe’s replace to the Textual content Edit app may nearly be too reductive from Sequoia’s, eradicating the pen completely, leaving solely a phase of a bit of pocket book paper. It is most actually simplified, however Mac customers that is probably not so intimately conversant in every particular person icon might simply mistake Textual content Edit for one thing else. 

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