Following several rounds of beta testing, macOS Tahoe 26.1 is now out, with a focus on bug fixes and graphical improvements.
The new macOS went through five rounds of developer testing, beginning back on September 22, 2025. Perhaps the most significant or visible difference is that Apple has added a control to allow users to customize Liquid Glass.
The control is a toggle under System Settings, Appearance, which offers either Clear, or Tinted. It's Tinted that offers the new option — turning it on prevents quite so much of the background being visible through Mac windows and menus.
Beyond that, the new release includes updated Apple Intelligence for multiple languages. That included Live Translation in Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), plus Japanese, and Korean.
There are also multiple bug fixes and performance improvements. For Apple Music users, for instance, the new AutoMix feature not longer stops working when used with an AirPlay device.
Apple has also redesigned its icon representing storage drives. It's now a simplified rendering of an SSD drive, a minor update to how it looked under the initial macOS Tahoe release.
The new macOS 26.1 is rolling out internationally. If a Mac can run macOS Tahoe, it will prompt the user to install it.
It can, though, even take some weeks before the prompt appears. And alternatively, when it is available, users can check Settings, General, Software Update to start downloading it.
