Apple is preparing what insiders describe as a “slight redesign” of macOS 27, aimed at cleaning up the rough edges introduced with last year’s macOS 26 Tahoe—and frankly, it won’t be coming anytime soon.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the upcoming changes will address the obvious effects and shadows that have made text-heavy communications difficult to read since the Tahoe’s inception. Anyone who has spent time in the Control Center, Finder, or apps with cluttered sidebars knows what the problem looks like. Think glass overlays that obscure content instead of complementing it, corner radii that don’t match every window, and floating sidebar designs that sacrifice screen real estate for aesthetics.
The design outlasts its hardware
Part of the tension is caused by fundamental differences. Liquid Glass was designed with OLED displays in mind—the kind you’ll find on modern iPhones, some iPads, and Apple watches—where true blacks and high contrast make dynamic effects stand out. Most Macs still use LCD panels, which struggle to provide the same depth and clarity that the design language requires. The design date of the MacBook Air comes to 2022, the MacBook Pro and iMac to 2021. In a very real sense, macOS 26 arrived before the hardware it was built for.
That said, blaming the LCD is a bit of a stretch. Apple designers work on Macs. They see the same displays their users do. The deeper problem, according to Gurman’s sources, is that the implementation was shipped before it was fully baked—not that the design concept itself was flawed. There’s a noticeable difference between the two, though it’s cold comfort to anyone who’s been scoffing at Finder sidebars for the past year.
Not rethinking—refining
Apple is not abandoning Liquid Glass. The company sees design language as the future of its platforms, especially with OLED MacBooks on the horizon and an all-glass iPhone that could arrive in 2027. The changes in macOS 27 aim to improve Liquid Glass into an experience that Apple’s design team envisioned from the beginning instead of the first bad version released by Apple previously.
It’s like Apple has wandered before. The company introduced a stunning flat redesign for iOS 7 in 2013, then spent the next year refining the experience in iOS 8. The premise worked; polishing took a long time. Whether that history feels reassuring or frustrating depends on how much patience you have to serve as a beta tester while Apple tunes the live product.
Personally, I get the situation on my MacBook Air model of disconnection. The hardware is unique – fast, quiet, easy to use. But the Tahoe introduced enough visual friction that I found myself going into the accessibility settings to reduce visibility to make things readable again. It’s not where Apple wants its users, and it’s not where they should be.
What else will macOS 27 face
Besides the visual cleanup, the update will bring bug fixes, battery life improvements, and performance enhancements. Locations, for many users, are more important than what shade of frosted glass adorns the sidebar.
AI improvements will also be included, focusing on a redesigned Siri with a standalone app, interactive assistant experiences, and deeper integration of Apple Intelligence throughout the system. Apple will unveil it all at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8.
Safari gets tab management smart
A handy addition coming to Safari in all of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 is automatic tab merging. Apple already offers Tab Groups—allowing users to manually organize tabs into groups for work, travel planning, and more—but the new feature takes that a step further by automatically organizing tabs based on browsing patterns. A new “Organize Tabs” option in the tab switcher will allow users to opt in to a default group, and system to organize tabs into topic groups.
Chrome has offered this feature for years, and users have given mixed reactions—many people hate it when the browser rearranges tabs without permission. Apple still needs to prove if its version handles the experience better, but the Cupertino company made the right call by keeping it optional instead of forcing it on everyone.
An uncertain road ahead for Vision Pro
Gurman’s report also details Apple’s current local computing ambitions, and the picture looks sobering. Apple disbanded the Vision Products Group and redirected most of its engineering talent—including much of the visionOS team—towards Siri development. Mike Rockwell now leads the combined Siri and visionOS organization, although Siri work consumes almost all of his time.
This year’s visionOS 27 update focuses on performance, bug fixes, and feature compatibility with other Apple platforms rather than new headset features. Apple is still at least two years away from another closed-loop headset, and the company has canceled the Vision Air project. Right now, Apple is directing most of its local computing effort into augmented reality glasses instead of another premium headset.
Apple executives, including incoming CEO John Ternus, have never been as enthusiastic about the Vision Pro as it is now. They see it as a stepping stone to glasses, not a product with a clear mass market future in its current form.
Big picture
What emerges from all this is a company in a familiar, if uncomfortable position: it shipped ambitious software before it was fully ready, and now it’s spending a full release cycle cleaning up the mess. The iOS 7 comparison that Apple’s peers reach is fair—but so are the criticisms embedded in it. Users don’t have to wait a year for the software to work as advertised.
The good news is that macOS 27’s development effort appears to be genuine and robust rather than cosmetic. The downside is that it required the community to work as a department that ensures high quality throughout the year. For anyone sitting on macOS Sequoia and wondering whether to upgrade, June 8 should provide a clear picture of what Apple has learned.
Grigor Baklajyan is a technical copywriter at . His contributions include product reviews, buying guides, how-to articles, and more.