Take Control of Tahoe

Version 1.1.1, updated September 17, 2025

Apple has given Macs a new look and feel with macOS 26 Tahoe. But it's not just a pretty face. Tahoe adds impressive features that will save you time and effort while enabling you to customize your Mac like never before. This book is your complete guide to what's new in Tahoe and how to upgrade.

macOS 26 Tahoe, which made a huge version number leap from macOS 15 Sequoia, joins other Apple operating systems in using a new year-based numbering scheme. Featuring Liquid Glass, the first major user interface overhaul in years, plus a great many new features, Tahoe makes your Mac more powerful than ever. This book thoroughly covers everything that's new or different, and provides detailed upgrade instructions. (It isn't a complete guide to everything Tahoe can do. To get a full overview of your Mac's features, read Mac Basics.)

This book teaches you things like:

• How to tell whether your Mac is compatible with Sequoia (and which features require an M-series Mac)

• Steps you should take before upgrading

• How to upgrade your Mac to Tahoe using either an in-place upgrade or a clean install (including migration of your old data from a backup)

• How Liquid Glass changes the appearance of macOS, the many ways you customize it, and how to disable parts of the new interface you may dislike

• Brand-new ways to customize Control Center and your menu bar 

• What's new in Spotlight: a completely revamped interface and support for Actions that let you perform hundreds of activities from the keyboard without opening a single app

• Using the new Phone app for Mac, which includes features like Hold Assist, Call Filtering, and Call Screening

• How to carry on a conversation with someone who speaks another language using the Live Translation feature in FaceTime, Messages, and Phone

• New Mac apps: Apps (yes, an app called "Apps"!), Games, Journal, and Magnifier

• What's new in the System Settings app

• The but interesting changes you'll find throughout macOS, such as accessibility improvements and new capabilities for AirPods, AutoFill, Family, Genmoji, and more

• Noteworthy improvements to bundled apps, including FaceTime, Image Playground, Messages, Music, Passwords, Photos, Reminders, Safari, and Shortcuts