macOS 26 with Liquid Glass: Icon change sparks discussions
Once again, the change of a prominent icon in the macOS 26 beta is causing frowns – and growing doubts about Apple's design expertise.
The new Apple icon for "Macintosh HD" (left) replaces the classic hard disk.
(Image: Montage: heise medien)
New beta, new excitement: Apple has radically changed another classic Mac icon that has been an integral part of the operating system for 25 years. The fifth pre-release version of macOS 26 Tahoe, which is intended for developers, replaces the hard disk icon for the "Macintosh HD" start drive with an icon that apparently represents an external SSD. This is adorned with an oversized Apple logo, strange ports and also looks wrong in terms of perspective.
Apple has had to defuse the new Finder icon
Just like iOS 26 & Co, macOS 26 relies on a material called "Liquid Glass" for the new user interface. The design change is accompanied by a redesign of numerous icons for system tools and Apple apps. In addition to "Macintosh HD", Apple has also redesigned the other drive icons, which display external drives and connected servers on the desktop, for example. For a long time, the hard disk icon was standard and therefore very prominent on every Mac desktop. It is now only an option for new installations of macOS. Newer Mac users are often not very familiar with it.
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In social media and forums, long-time users reacted with surprise or even bewilderment to the new Macintosh HD icon. Both the large logo and the inverted perspective were met with incomprehension. This is the second time that an icon change during the macOS 26 beta has triggered strong reactions: In Beta 1, the Finder icon, a Mac staple, suddenly changed its shade. After an outcry, Apple immediately reversed the change.
Much discussion about Apple's Liquid Glass
Liquid Glass and the icon changes have been the subject of heated debate for weeks. In macOS 26 Tahoe in particular, the new design does not appear to have been thought through to the end in several places. Critics rarely criticize the new glass look, but rather conceptual problems, such as when active interface elements are no longer clearly recognizable as such.
Liquid Glass continues to cause situations in which buttons or text elements are difficult or impossible to read. Apple is obviously still experimenting a lot in the betas, which sometimes show significant changes from version to version. Developers are becoming increasingly frustrated because they cannot see a clear design line. iOS 26, iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 are expected to be released to the public in mid-September, and a public beta is already available.
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