The software is only available to developers in beta form right now—with a public beta expected soon—but Apple has already showcased several of the major features arriving later in the year with macOS Tahoe 26. Perhaps the most exciting of the bunch, if you take away the Liquid Glass redesign, is the upgrade coming to Spotlight.
With macOS 26, Spotlight will be more than a search tool: It’ll also be able to launch apps and actions within those apps, and get at the contents of the clipboard. It’s getting full integration with Shortcuts, too, so any automation you’ve set up can be launched via Spotlight.
Spotlight now has four sections.
Credit: Lifehacker
Apple calls it the “biggest update ever” for Spotlight, with “intelligently” ranked results, support for third-party cloud drives, and a browse view that helps you see what’s on your system even if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. App developers are also going to be able to support actions through Spotlight, though it may take a while before your favorite apps add the feature.
Even with all these changes, Spotlight can be launched in the same ways as before: via the magnifying glass icon on the menu bar (top right), or the Cmd+Space or F4 keyboard shortcuts. The first few times you open the search panel, you’ll see instructions for using it, and after that you’ll see bubbles to the right that represent apps, files, shortcuts, and the macOS clipboard.
You can use it as a file browser.
Credit: Lifehacker
Click on any of these shortcuts to start browsing items in that category, with a sorting system that Apple says gets more personalized over time. Select the files icon for example (the folder symbol), to see recent files on your Mac. You can also cycle between these four different views by holding down the Cmd button and tapping 1 (apps), 2 (files), 3 (shortcuts), or 4 (clipboard).
Open up the shortcuts drop-down, and you get some suggestions for actions you can take, such as Send Message, Start Timer, or Create Note. On the right of these shortcuts you’ve got an Add quick keys button, so you can get to them faster. Scroll down the list and you’ll see there are a whole host of options even before third-party apps are added, covering everything from maps to music.
The new-look Spotlight isn’t just for launching tasks, either—it’s also for completing them. Select Send Message, for example, and you can then write out your message and choose the recipient for it from within the Spotlight window—just click on the fields to enter the information, then hit Enter to confirm.
What do you think so far?