Corners!
“We fixed corner radius” was a WWDC keynote highlight. Let that sink in.
This should have been since macOS 26 #WWDC26
Folks getting excited for consistent corner radius 😂
Ehh, no change here, RIP Intel Macs… stuck on the v1 Liquid Glass forever 🫤
There was so much demand for this that the Liquid Radius haxie exists. People were willing to disable FileVault and System Integrity Protection to get consistent window corners.
Previously:
macOS Golden Gate also has design changes. For example, apps now have a unified toolbar at the top, and the sidebar now expands to the edge of the window.
Sidebar behavior is also being updated. Sidebars will now expand to the full edge of the window, with refraction effects continuing beneath them rather than cutting off at the sidebar boundary. Sidebar icons will also retain their color, a change that addresses a common complaint about the original Liquid Glass implementation.
I’m really happy for these changes, but it’s not clear to me that they’re improvements over what we had pre-Tahoe or, especially, pre-Big Sur.
Oh thank god! No more margins around sidebars on macOS!
sidebars now work how they used to!
I just love that toolbars have clear/strict dividers again in #macOS27.
Whoever said your content and UI should blend is a liar.
What a wonderful and welcome fix in #macOS27.
Instead of properly fixing the Liquid Glass implementation of
NSToolbarbuttons in macOS 27 Golden Gate, Apple decided to simply place an ugly, semi-transparent macOS 15-ish background bar behind the buttons, which makes Liquid Glass completely useless in the toolbar.
macOS 26 should have never been more than one developer seed release, with these changes taking place before the actual public release.
It’s sad that we had to endure this crap of a UI for a full year and now have to maintain apps for it for I don’t know how much longer.
Previously:
macOS Tahoe threw an icon on every menu item, making them impossible to distinguish at a glance. macOS Golden Gate has rectified that design taboo with blessedly iconless menus.
In macOS 27.0, menu bar and context menus present a reduced set of menu item images, similar to the behavior prior to macOS 26.0. By default,
NSMenuhides all menu item symbol images — non-symbol images remain visible. For menu items created from a xib file,NSMenualso observes the value of the “macOS 26.0 only” checkbox in the menu item inspector. If this checkbox is unchecked, the menu item image remains visible; if checked, it is hidden. These changes in menu item image visibility apply to applications linked on macOS 26.0 and later. Review the updated Human Interface Guidelines to determine which menu items in your app should still display images. Use the newpreferredImageVisibilityproperty onNSMenuItemto customize the image visibility for your menu items. As in macOS 26.0,NSMenuautomatically provides default visible menu item images for certain common system-wide menu items, such as Settings, Share, and Print.
„Icons in menus are now hidden by default“ and you can specifically enable them to draw attention to the most important actions.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a great change! But to take a full year and your lead designer leaving to figure out that this was a mistake… woof…
I like that Menu Icons now are hidden by default again on macOS - Quite a lot of concessions towards liquid glass being the wrong move last year. Takes courage to take so many steps back, literally. I’m appreciating that. Even if they present it as improvements rather than “undo” - that’s just what one has to do for marketing.
Previously:
Last year with iOS 26, Apple redesigned its full lineup of app icons for iPhone. But just one year later, iOS 27 has even more design changes for many app icons.
[…]
iOS 27’s new app icons are “sharper and more detailed,” per Apple’s description. And it really shows.
If you’re curious how much changed from 26 to 27 for app icon rendering with Icon Composer, here are a few examples of the difference (in this thread). First of the pair is 26, the second is 27.
App icons also look significantly different now, but I think some of this is beta 1 bugs as the 27 rendering is very flat.
All app icons are getting a Liquid Glass update
The needless, barely-even-noticeable directional specular highlights based on the rotation of your phone on app icons are gone in iOS 27, and thank god for that.
Ohhhh they made app icons sharper! That was one of the things that stood out to me, some were sooo blurry… my mom noticed it too on her new iPad.
I will say that icons render better in #macOS27 so some of these icons look super sharp, super glassy, super sophisticated. Almost like something you’d buy at the Swarovski store.
I mean, look at this icon! Look at it closely. Zoom in. Almost gives me Mac OS X Tiger detail vibes.
• • •
All I wanted from WWDC was release from squircle jail.
Just f***ng free macOS app icons from squircle jail already.
• • •
Icon Composer for Beginners Group Lab:
Join us online to ask questions, get advice, and follow the discussion about getting started with Icon Composer.
Previously:
Apple said it has heard user feedback, which it “deeply appreciates,” and is now making adjustments to the underlying foundations of how Liquid Glass is constructed. Chief among those changes is a new slider that lets users control transparency, ranging from fully opaque to completely clear.
As well as offering this new degree of customization, Apple is also changing the default way the glass material is rendered, to improve contrast and provide an even more vibrant visual look.
It’s definitely improved. I’m not sure it’s better than pre–Liquid Glass, though. I’m reserving judgement until I use it more, but I’m skeptical of the slider being a good solution. Previously, even going “full” opaque with the Reduce Transparency accessibility setting didn’t make it look good. The slider doesn’t even go as far as that, and I’m not really sure what the point of providing the intermediate options is.
I laughed out loud when that slider showed up in the keynote 😂
Can confirm that if you want to reduce the effects of Liquid Glass as much as possible, using Reduce Transparency in the Accessibility settings on iOS is still the way to go over the new slider that was introduced.
A setting to tint or clear liquid glass?!? Adding UI sliders like this isn’t design.
Design is making a choice, weighing the options and picking the best option.
I’m disappointed at the lack of deeper changes to Liquid Glass, they’re not really addressing the fundamental problem that this is an AI designed to look good superimposed over colorful feeds or photos or whatever and looks annoying and bland on top of plain text
iOS 27 Liquid Glass is more “bubble” than glass to me. More sharp on the edges.
Tell me that’s not Aqua
“We improved Liquid Glass by letting you reduce the effects until there’s no more Liquid Glass”
Well, that’s nice.
The line weights on the new Liquid Glass button elements are so thin that it looks pretty bad when not at 100% scale…
Which it will almost never be on macOS, iPadOS, in the iOS Simulator, or in screenshots… 👀
Since the release of macOS 26 Tahoe, some users have defended the changes made by Apple - specifically, the implementation of Liquid Glass - as being a forward-thinking design was unproblematic, despite many clear and obvious objections that had sound reasoning. These were routinely dismissed as a “You’re holding it wrong” mentality.
[…]
Apple should never have released Tahoe in the state that it was, and I was pleasantly pleased to see that Golden Gate looks like a return to focus on quality and attention to detail.
I think this is about how close we will get to “yeah we messed up Liquid Glass lmao”
Apple very rarely admits mistakes. The fact that they’re rolling back some of the extremeness in Liquid Glass and actively mentioned in the keynote that they very seriously took user feedback, shows just how bad some of it was.
Yes, we need to be able to read text.
Well, that’s the closest Apple is ever going to get to saying “We fucked this up and are rowing back.”
Translation for this new Liquid Glass: We fucked up, our bad.
Hey, I’ll take it.
Two conflicting things can be true at the same time:
- I quite like how retro and Aqua ╳ iOS 6 the new version of Liquid Glass looks
- I feel like the changes to Liquid Glass are a colossal rug-pull that invalidate much of the last 12 months of my development efforts across all my apps
Just as it’s more costly for users and developers when Apple rushes to ship features before ironing out the bugs, massive design changes like iOS 7 and Liquid Glass, released without adequate testing and refinement, waste developer time and burden users with poor design while they wait for Apple to figure out what it actually wants to do.
There’s a chunk of my developer timeline that is very confused that the face-eating leopards are eating their face.
My dudes (all dudes): Apple always tells you to jump. You always jumped. It’s just now you’re realising the giant corporation that will always operate in their best interest is not actually aligned with you. You conformed to it.
…but you’ll keep doing it.
If you want to support macOS Sequoia, you’re now going to have to support three different UI styles. If you want to skip the macOS 26 version of Liquid Glass, you’re going to have to drop support for users on Intel Macs. It’s a no-win situation.
Previously:
Apple at WWDC 2026 today said it has made several responsiveness improvements across its software ecosystem, speeding up system animations, app launching, and much more.
Overall, iOS 27 so far is a major collection of performance improvements and refinements.
As had been rumored leading up to today, Apple has spent extra time this year working on bug fixes and performance improvements for iOS 27.
Although there’s no obvious connection between the Tahoe and Golden Gate names to indicate a “tock” release, Apple devoted the first chunk of the WWDC keynote to how OS 27 will address user and developer complaints about OS 26.
[…]
Apple also made a big deal about performance improvements, smoothing system animations, launching iPhone and iPad apps up to 30% faster, displaying new photos in the Photo Library up to 70% faster, transferring files via AirDrop up to 80% faster, and moving files from an iPad to an external drive is up to 5x faster, so it compares with macOS transfer speeds. A new CPU Scheduler promises to improve iPhone performance even on older models back to the iPhone 11, which may encourage more people with older iPhones to upgrade.
There really aren’t many changes this year.
I’m way more interested in bug fixes, but optimizations and refinements are great, too. Simply limiting the number of new features creates space to improve the software quality, though, it’s not clear to me whether there are really fewer new features or if it’s just that they mostly fall under the single heading of AI.
Animations run smoother, apps launch faster, and Liquid Glass is better? It’s Glow Leopard for sure!
One underrated theme from this WWDC is Apple investing heavily in fundamentals.
Faster launches, scheduler improvements, search infrastructure, networking transitions, rendering performance…
Users notice responsiveness long before they notice most new features.
You gotta admire Apple’s ability to market “bug fixes and performance improvements” so effectively.
Please just do this every other year.
Previously:
Discover the newest advancements on Apple platforms.
Discover the latest productivity enhancements in Xcode 27. Accelerate your development workflow through customization, coding agents, and Device Hub. Explore updates in localization, performance, and testing tools to refine your apps further.
Xcode 27 beta includes Swift 6.4 and SDKs for iOS 27, iPadOS 27, tvOS 27, macOS 27, and visionOS 27. Xcode 27 beta supports on-device debugging in iOS 17 and later, tvOS 17 and later, watchOS 10 and later, and visionOS. Xcode 27 beta requires a Mac running macOS Tahoe 26.4 or later.
The big news is that they’re dropping support for deploying apps on macOS 10.13 through 10.15. The minimum you can target is now Big Sur (or Monterey for Apple Silicon Macs). Also, even though Xcode 27 runs on Tahoe, it doesn’t run on Intel Macs.
Google Gemini is now available in the coding assistant.
Planning with agents is now first class in Xcode. Plans appear as editable Markdown artifacts next to the conversation.
[…]
The Xcode MCP server has been updated with new tools that allow agents to debug projects by manipulating the active run state, interacting with and reading the contents of the debugger console; listing and switching between available schemes and run destinations and inspecting and modifying build settings, compiler flags, entitlements, and Info.plist keys.
[…]
xctrace recordallows you to pass recording options for Instruments from within the CLI.[…]
Enabled by default,
toolchainallows compiling IB documents without the need to download a simulator, which is especially useful for build servers.
Apple today introduced new intelligence capabilities, expanded productivity features in Xcode, and platform improvements that make apps faster, more adaptive, and easier to build.
Learn how you can use coding agents in Xcode in your development process. We’ll explore multiple ways of working with agents with tips to take you from creating an initial prototype to polishing a refined app. Discover how Xcode’s coding assistant adapts to help you stay engaged with the creative work that makes coding fun, whether you’re building an app solo or working with a team.
Translate your app using agents in Xcode:
Find out how Xcode and coding agents help you translate String Catalogs using the context of your app. We’ll walk through strategies for reviewing translated output and iterating on your localizations, so you can deliver a tailored experience to people around the world.
Create UI prototypes using agents in Xcode:
Learn how to prototype your app using agents in Xcode. Explore techniques for using AI to prototype interactions, iterate on layouts, and generate creative solutions to design challenges. You’ll learn how to evaluate ideas critically and refine them into polished, people-centered experiences for your app.
Build, deliver, and automate with Xcode Cloud:
Discover the latest updates to Xcode Cloud that quickly get you started building and delivering your apps. Learn essential Xcode Cloud concepts, set up cloud build and tests simply by connecting your source repository, and configure for app distribution when you’re ready to ship. Find out how webhooks and management tools extends Xcode Cloud’s capabilities, supporting your most advanced workflows.
Xcode Tips and Tricks Group Lab:
Join us online for a deep dive into WWDC26 with Apple engineers and designers to ask questions, get advice, and follow the discussion about getting the most out of Xcode.
• • •
In Xcode 27, new projects are created in a temporary location. You can type Command-Shift-N, hit return and you’re immediately in a scratch SwiftUI app.
You’re prompted to pick a save location on close (more like a regular document app).
Xcode 27 brings you one-click new project creation *
*because we neglected the Xcode project templates for a whole decade. And honestly no one who is still in the team knows how to write one anymore. Many of the new target types didn’t even have a proper project template anymore. Also, do you know how much work it is, to update the CoreData template code every year? We tended to forget about them… So we deleted all that. Have fun setting up the basics of a CoreData-document based app from scratch. You‘ll figure it out, we trust you! It‘ll be fun and you’ll learn so much!
Xcode 27 also got a standard-height toolbar.
you can customise the toolbar. Like it’s a regular Mac app.
This window is a perfect example of slop UI that shouldn’t have been shown. Terrible metrics, some kind of oddball non-Mac close box, Back instead of Cancel, etc.
Xcode settings in iCloud?
• • •
Xcode 27 is devastating for minimum OS deployment targets. A lot of third party software is going to be forced into dropping older OSes
Ugh swiftc hard crashes on my (tiny) apps things are not looking good for this Xcode
• • •
Xcode 27 ships with a set of agent skills that capture Apple’s own guidance for writing modern Swift and SwiftUI code. These skills cover things like adopting the newest SwiftUI APIs, modernizing UIKit apps, and auditing security settings.
They are designed to be consumed by coding agents, but they are just as useful when you want to read Apple’s recommendations directly or feed them into your own tooling. The good news is you can export all of them to a folder with a single command.
Previously:
Much like Mac OS X Snow Leopard in 2009, Apple said it focused on improving macOS’s performance and dozens of underlying technologies this year.
Apple says macOS Golden Gate offers quicker AirDrop transfers, faster network file browsing, improved syncing in the Messages app, better Spotlight search suggestions, and other changes that make your Mac feel “more responsive than ever.”
I had lots of problems installing beta 1 via Software Update, so I recommend downloading the full installer or IPSW. I eventually got it to work by updating to macOS 26.5.1 first (instead of installing on top of 26.4) and by booting into recovery multiple times to use Startup Security Utility to toggle the LocalPolicy from Full Security to Reduced Security and back.
macOS Golden Gate 27 Beta Release Notes:
The Recents list in the open and save panels can be accessed with the keyboard shortcut cmd-shift-f.
[…]
Unified Logging System archives generated on 27.0 releases cannot be read on macOS 26.1 or earlier due to an updated archive format.
[…]
Encrypted HFS+ (CoreStorage) is deprecated and will not be supported in a future version of macOS.
[…]
Starting in 27.0 operating systems, select system processes now enforce stricter network security (TLS) requirements. These new requirements might cause connections to fail if the server does not meet them.
[…]
Devices configured with Reduced Security mode might fail to install macOS 27 beta 1.
[…]
Accessing files in other developer teams’ app data containers and app group containers no longer prompts the user for authorization; such accesses are denied by default and can be managed by the user in Privacy & Security settings.
[…]
Apps can no longer access the local TCC database directly.
Visual Intelligence on macOS Golden Gate 27 is getting a dedicated keyboard shortcut. Similar to the screen capture shortcut, it lets users select portions of the screen and get contextual answers around that. From there, users can also continue the interaction from the Siri app.
When using a wired network adapter with a live connection, macOS now displays a network menu bar item!
I love this “More in Accessibility Settings…”
Apple adds native ultrawide display support in macOS 27 Golden Gate, bringing higher resolutions and persistent display arrangements to users of widescreen monitors.
macOS 27 Golden Gate brings a major improvement to iPhone Mirroring, allowing users to resize the window beyond the iPhone’s fixed aspect ratio for the first time.
Currently, there seem to be several fixed aspect ratios available for resizing the iPhone Mirroring window, meaning the system adjusts the window to the nearest supported shape rather than allowing users to choose any arbitrary aspect ratio.
iPhone Mirroring app has many, many more zoom level options now, which I very much appreciate. Thank you, whoever did that.
See also:
Previously:
- Photos: iCloud Shared Albums now supports sharing with Android and Windows.
- Health: Cycle tracking is more advanced.
- AirPods: Custom EQ is coming to Apple’s wireless headphones.
- Apple Maps is adding an upgraded Flyover feature with richer aerial imagery.
Apple said the CarPlay video feature is available in new vehicles that support it. When playing a video in an iPhone app that supports AirPlay video streaming, users can select the car’s display from the AirPlay menu on iOS and watch the video on a compatible vehicle’s screen.
New in iOS 27, Apple is allowing developers to create CarPlay apps with video browsing capabilities, so you can find videos to watch right on CarPlay.
When AirPods owners connect to their iPhone running iOS 27, they’ll see a completely revamped settings menu for their earbuds that does a better job at organizing all of the feature options that Apple has added over the last few years.
Apple’s first iOS 27 developer beta, released on Monday, includes a new feature in the Find My app that lets you temporarily hide your location from select people.
See also:
Previously:
Here’s what’s new in iPadOS 27:
- The Menu Bar can now be optionally kept always on screen
- iPhone apps can be resized in iPadOS
- Liquid Glass has been refined and is more customizable than ever
- Performance improvements make iPadOS 27 perform much quicker
- Screen Time has been revamped for managing your child’s device use
- Brand new Siri with dedicated Siri app
- Overhauled search experience with upgraded intelligence
- Active app name now displays in status bar
- Photos improvements like slideshow customization, Shared Albums across Android and Windows, upgraded Clean Up, more
- Safari can organize tabs into topics
iPadOS 27 raises the floor to A14, M1, or later, cutting the 3rd generation iPad Air model from the compatibility list entirely.
[…]
The iPad Pro also sees cuts. […] iPadOS 27 raises those floors to the 4th generation 12.9-inch and the 2nd generation 11-inch, dropping two older Pro models that were still supported just a year ago.
See also: iOS & iPadOS 27 Beta Release Notes.
Previously:
Apple today unveiled watchOS 27, featuring a redesigned dynamic app grid, new gesture controls, and a raft of usability and battery improvements.
The new dynamic app grid surfaces and rearranges five apps based on context and usage. Users can simply tap the bottom center icon to go to the rest of their apps.
[…]
Users can now create custom passes for any membership or card that uses a QR code or barcode, such as a library card, using their iPhone and access it directly from the Apple Watch’s Wallet app or pin it to the Smart Stack.
Hartley Charlton (Marcus Mendes):
Apple today confirmed that watchOS 27 will not support the Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Ultra (first generation), or Apple Watch SE (second generation), effectively drawing a line at devices equipped with the S9 or S10 chip.
Apple had initially announced that Series 9 would be dropped, too.
Here are new features coming in watchOS 27 for Apple Watch
watchOS 27 contains a series of enhancements to fitness and sleep tracking, including new Workout Buddy insights, improved indoor run tracking, and more.
Apple yesterday announced a redesigned Find My app in watchOS 27 that brings all tracking functionality into a single, map-centric interface.
Previously split across separate Find Devices, Find People, and Find Items apps, the new app now consolidates everything into one unified view.
See also:
Previously:
Apple barely touched on tvOS 27 during its WWDC 2026 keynote today, but the update exists, and it adds some new features to the Apple TV.
One major new feature for tvOS this year is an updated Podcasts app, as well as a new smart downloads feature, performance enhancements including faster app launch and Control Center loading, larger text size options for accessibility, and more.
Apple TV HD and the first-gen Apple TV 4K are not supported by tvOS 27.
See also: tvOS 27 Beta Release Notes.
Previously:
Here’s what’s new in visionOS 27:
- Turn panoramas you shoot into spatial scenes
- Use panoramas as your immersive Environment
- Enhanced Flyover features in Apple Maps
- Next-generation of Apple Intelligence
- Entirely new Siri that’s more responsive to your needs
- “New windows with curvature”
- Visual intelligence, so you can ask Siri about anything you’re looking at
- Expand notifications with your eyes
- Redesigned Control Center
Apple made the visionOS 27 beta available to Vision Pro developers after Monday’s WWDC 2026 keynote, and in this version there is a new Environment that allows you to immerse yourself in the Icelandic highlands.
[…]
There were only a handful of passing references to visionOS 27 during Apple’s keynote, but the Vision Pro software is set to benefit from the same Siri AI features that are coming to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 Golden Gate.
See also: visionOS 27 Beta Release Notes.
Previously:
