WWDC 2026 is just around the corner, and so is macOS 27. Will Apple get rid of Liquid Glass? No, but according to the latest Mark Gurman report, the company looks set to address some of the key frustrations about it — all while adding some nifty new features and optimizations to the OS too.
With it being quite the make-or-break year for Apple’s AI ambitions, Safari looks set to get awesome new tech to automate tab grouping (alongside the revamped Gemini-infused Siri), and there is even talk about prepping the desktop OS for touch.
A ‘slight redesign’ to tackle Liquid Glass problems
In his newsletter, Gurman has reported that a “slight redesign” is coming to help address the readability problems that Liquid Glass has caused — namely the “shadows and transparency quirks.”
It’s been one of my biggest pet peeves with macOS over the past few months, but also one I’ve been conflicted about because I do actually like the transparency of Liquid Glass giving me subtle context clues of where my windows are. So if we could get better text visibility, improved scroll bar placement and less shadow effects taking over the screen, that would be a damn good place to start.
Thoughtful AI usage in Safari
Same as what Gurman has been told about test versions of iOS 27, a new “Organize Tabs” button is set to be added to Safari for AI-infused automatic tab grouping in Apple’s Safari.
Taking the manual process out of figuring out all your browser tabs (and catching up with other browsers that have been doing this for a while), Apple is dealing with the groups for you and “you can choose whether you want the grouping to occur automatically or not.”
Touch-ready for MacBook Ultra
This is the big question mark. All rumors are pointing to a touchscreen MacBook Ultra launching later this year — it’s gotten us so excited that we got impatient and created our own touch iMac.
So it stands to reason that with new hardware, the software needs to catch up. macOS may look rather touch-friendly with its iOS stylings, but it’s certainly a bit awkward to use in this way. In another Gurman report, it sounds like this is finally the year where we’ll see it happen.
However, don’t expect it to be out in the wild for you to test in betas. Given it’s potentially connected to new devices, you can expect the Cupertino Crew to keep this one hidden until the Ultra reportedly breaks cover towards the end of this year/beginning of next year.
This needs to be a ‘Snow Leopard’ moment
Remember Snow Leopard? This came after a particularly massive feature-rich version of macOS Leopard — bringing a lot of stuff to the table while introducing some bloat to say the least.
Snow Leopard is easily my favorite version of the OS that Apple has ever launched because it focused simply on everything under the hood. It was a night-and-day difference in speeds and feeds, and everything just felt much more “put together.”
And it’s this feeling that I’ll be looking for in macOS 27. An improved Siri looks ready to potentially bring some agentic capabilities, Liquid Glass needs a tune-up, and while macOS is in a much more power-optimized place now with Apple Silicon, there are still plenty of stability improvements to be made.
If we get this version of Craig Federighi (and his magnificent hair) on stage in June, then you’ll know Apple’s been cooking.
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