macOS Tahoe (macOS 26) brought the biggest visual redesign to the Mac in years. Apple's new Liquid Glass design language — translucent, depth-layered UI elements that respond to what's behind them — first appeared on visionOS and iPhone, and it's now the defining aesthetic of the new Mac generation.

The apps that feel right on Tahoe are the ones built from scratch for it, not the ones that just updated their icon. Here's a look at the apps doing Liquid Glass properly, starting with Apple's own and including the third-party developers who were ready on day one.

Apple's First-Party Apps

Apple's own apps set the benchmark for Liquid Glass on macOS Tahoe. These show what the design language is actually capable of.

Safari

Safari's toolbar in Tahoe is the clearest demonstration of Liquid Glass. The address bar, tab bar, and extension buttons all use translucent materials that show the content beneath them with a subtle blur and tint. When you're on a dark webpage, the toolbar darkens. On a light page, it lightens. The glass adapts to its environment.

Finder

Finder's sidebar in Tahoe uses Liquid Glass for the sidebar and toolbar. The effect is subtle compared to Safari, but it reinforces the layering hierarchy — you're always aware of what's behind what. The sidebar items have gentle tinting that responds to your selected accent colour.

Mail

Mail's compose window is where Liquid Glass is most prominent in the core apps. The formatting toolbar floats above the composition area with a glassy, material feel. When Mail is in dark mode over a dark desktop, the toolbar becomes almost imperceptible — the right kind of UI that gets out of your way.

Notes

Notes uses Liquid Glass for its format toolbar and the panel dividers between the note list and editor. The materials give it a much more polished feel than the flat version in earlier macOS releases.

Messages

Messages on Tahoe adopts the same materials seen on iOS 26 — the input bar, reactions, and the inline photo picker all use Liquid Glass. On a large display, the effect is more subtle than on iPhone, but the design language carries through.

Calendar

Calendar's toolbar and the day/week view headers use Liquid Glass. Scroll a long event list and you'll see the header blur the content beneath it as you scroll — a small touch that makes the app feel physically real.

Photos

Photos uses Liquid Glass extensively in its editing tools. The editing pane controls float with glassy materials, and the floating action buttons in the browsing view use Liquid Glass with strong blur effects.

System Settings

System Settings in Tahoe is the most thorough adoption of Liquid Glass in any Apple app. The sidebar, the content area headers, and the action sheets all use the material consistently. It's the clearest example of a traditional Mac UI rebuilt for the new design system.

Third-Party Apps

The third-party ecosystem is growing. These are the indie and commercial apps that shipped with Liquid Glass support from the start.

OpenMark

OpenMark is a native markdown editor for macOS built with SwiftUI specifically for Tahoe. The toolbar — formatting controls, view toggle, export button — is implemented in Liquid Glass. It floats above the document with the glassy, translucent material, adapting to light and dark mode and to whatever's behind the window.

For a tool designed to get out of the way of your writing, the Liquid Glass toolbar feels exactly right. It's present when you need it and visually recedes when you don't. OpenMark is available for $9.99 on the Mac App Store — no subscription, one-time purchase.

Federico Viticci's Markdown Tools

Several apps in the Apple writer/power-user community have adopted Liquid Glass quickly, recognising that native design is part of what Mac users are paying for. The trend is clear: apps built by developers who care about the platform are adopting the new materials, while cross-platform Electron apps can't follow.

What Makes an App "Liquid Glass"?

Not every app that updates for Tahoe qualifies. True Liquid Glass adoption means:

Using the right materials. SwiftUI's .ultraThinMaterial, .thinMaterial, and .regularMaterial background materials are the building blocks. Apps that just updated their accent colours or added a dark mode toggle aren't really Liquid Glass apps.

Adaptive tinting. The glass responds to what's behind it. An app that uses a fixed frosted glass colour rather than one that adapts to its environment is missing the point.

Consistent hierarchy. Liquid Glass works by making the layering in your UI visible. Toolbar above content, sidebar beside content — the materials reinforce what's in front of what. Apps that use Liquid Glass inconsistently (glass here, flat there) feel disjointed.

Purpose-built, not retrofitted. Apps written in SwiftUI from scratch have a significant advantage. UIKit and AppKit apps can adopt the materials, but they rarely feel as fluid. The apps in this list that feel best are native SwiftUI apps designed for Tahoe from day one.

The Electron Problem

The elephant in the room: most popular Mac apps aren't actually Mac apps. VS Code, Slack, Discord, Notion, Figma, 1Password (partially), and countless others are built on Electron or similar cross-platform frameworks. They can't adopt Liquid Glass because they don't have access to Apple's native UI materials.

This is creating a visible split in the Mac ecosystem. Native apps are getting noticeably more beautiful, while Electron apps stay flat and generic. If you care about your Mac looking and feeling like a Mac, the Tahoe redesign is a good reason to start seeking out native alternatives.

What to Watch

The ecosystem is still early. macOS Tahoe shipped months ago, and most third-party apps are still catching up. Some to watch:

Craft (note-taking) — already uses native SwiftUI, likely a quick Liquid Glass adopter
Reeder (RSS) — consistently one of the most polished native Mac apps, expect fast adoption
Tot (text scratchpad) — native Swift app from the iconfactory, well-positioned
Screens (remote desktop) — native SwiftUI, watching this one

The common thread: apps that were already native and well-maintained are doing Liquid Glass right. Apps built for the Mac by people who use Macs.

If you're curious about the technical decisions behind building a Liquid Glass app from scratch, Why We Built OpenMark with SwiftUI and Liquid Glass walks through the development journey. And if you're looking for the best native Mac apps for working with markdown specifically, The Best Markdown Editors for Mac in 2026 covers the full landscape.

OpenMark is one of the first third-party markdown editors built natively for macOS Tahoe with Liquid Glass. If you want a markdown editor that feels like it belongs on your Mac, give it a try.

Download OpenMark →