macOS and iOS 20 public beta impressions

I installed macOS and iOS 26 public beta today. The main attraction in this update is the design change called Liquid Glass. I liked the Liquid Glass design in most places, but in some areas, it has readability issues.

Below are the features I liked in the update:

iPhone

• Liquid Glass design – It gives a uniform and fresh look to almost all inbuilt apps. But in some places, there are readability issues. We’ll have to wait and see if others will adopt it or not.
• Spatial wallpaper – It’s stunning on the iPhone.
• You can now create Spatial photos in the Photos app.
• The Camera app is now more simplified and useful.
• After 16 years, we can finally set ringtones on the iPhone without using the GarageBand app.
• The Preview app has come to iOS from macOS, and it’s very useful for me.
• You can now see how many minutes your phone needs to reach 80% charge. The Settings section also received a nice update.
• In the Photos app, Collections and Library are now separated into two sections.
• Some options like Save Image, Copy, Add to Album, and others are now easily accessible through a quick access menu.

Mac

• Here too, the Liquid Glass design is a win in most places, although some areas still have readability issues.
• Spotlight is now supercharged with new capabilities. Search results now include files, folders, events, and apps from both Mac and iPhone. You can also view clipboard history directly from Spotlight.
• A new Phone app allows you to make calls over Wi-Fi with a connected iPhone.
• The Journal app is finally available on Mac. I’ve been wanting this since I use it a lot on my iPhone.
• Safari got a design update—tabs look better, and it’s now 50% faster at loading frequently visited websites compared to Chrome.
• Notes can now be imported as Markdown, which is a great addition.

These are just my first impressions of both updates. There are many more features to explore, like Apple Intelligence in Shortcuts, Call Screening, Hold Assist, Polls in Messages, and Live Translations.

The features mentioned above are the ones I used first and felt like highlighting. If I come across anything else worth sharing, I’ll update here later.