I decided to install this and the updated iOS today to see how I felt about it.

My very initial impressions on MacOS:

(1) I like the look of Safari better and the Mail app compared to the prior designs. They both look really nice to me and the Mail app especially looks like a huge improvement in terms of design unification with some of the features like summaries and unsubscribe options that looked bolted on in the past now blending in seamlessly.

(2) I really, really don't like the new icons! Especially so on iOS.

(3) On iOS the app group/folders look terrible to me with the way they distort my wallpaper. Not a fan.

(4) A lot of people are complaining about transparent icons. It's not a valid complaint and is strong evidence whoever is saying that hasn't used the new OS as that is a choice you can make if you want. The default is not transparent.

(5) The increased radii in some places doesn't seem to have any meaningful impact to my information density. A simple comparison of Chrome (old styling) and Safari (with the liquid glass design) shows that Safari has a few pixels fewer in height search + tab bar as a concrete example.

(6) Messages app in MacOS looks like shit. I hate almost everything about it.

(7) Spotlight search has marked improvements! UI is nicer and functionality has expanded greatly (eg clipboard search).

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hk1337 17 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I really like the Apps change. Instead of opening up the icons full screen, it opens in a spotlight search window.

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cornedor 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Except when I forgot the name of an app

	▲	jameslk a minute ago \| parent \| next [-]
		[delayed]
	▲	creddit 9 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		CMD + SPC for spotlight and then CMD + 1 gets you to the full set of apps.

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piskov 14 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Which is shit because with launchpad you had muscle memory.

Imagine you no longer have pages with icons on your phone and instead only have a search bar

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biinjo 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I guess thats personal preference because you’re describing exactly how I use both macOS and iOS.

I can’t be bothered by app icon locations or launchpad. Just CMD+Space and boom its there.

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eddieroger 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I have to believe that Apple had anonymized telemetry that told them how many people used Launchpad and acted as justification to nix it. I remember when it came out, and I probably used it more in the first month when it was novel and new than I have since then. I'm sorry a feature that you liked is gone, but I'm sure it wasn't done blindly.

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freehorse 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In a phone writing text is not as simple, but I also find looking for the right icon there tedious, so I hope there was a better solution. In contrast, imo it is easier to get muscle memory with a keyboard (cmd+space > "first 3 characters of app name") than with searching for the app icon around. I cannot imagine the case where looking around in the launchpad is better except with some app you use so rarely you do not know the name (but somehow you have muscle memory for where it is there?).

I use CMD+SPACE 95% of the times I want to open an app. The rest 4% I do it with `open -a` on a terminal with autocomplete (or `/path/to/apps/binary &` for some specific stuff), and 1% going through the `/Applications` directory. I never use launchpad.

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kcplate 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Imagine you no longer have pages with icons on your phone and instead only have a search bar

I haven’t had pages of icons on my phone since the App Library was added. Generally the app I want is right there and if not a couple of letters in the search bar and there it is

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jachee 14 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Your “Imagine…” hypothetical is literally how I run my iPhone. I don’t need piles of icons cluttering up my screen. I can pull down and type 1-2 characters and get any app on my phone, easily.

More room for glanceable, informational widgets that way.

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amluto 12 hours ago | parent [-]

Hah. I can pull down and type 1-2 characters and my app might show up. Eventually.

Sadly you can’t swipe left and instantly type into the App Library search - that search bar actually works pretty well.

	▲	kcplate 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I have a 16 pro and pull down and type a couple of characters is delivering apps to me pretty much instantly

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browningstreet 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What I find weird: you can have light icons with color, dark icons with color, but not clear (and/or tinted) icons with color.

It’s a strange omission.

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JumpCrisscross 17 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I weirdly like the clear apps on iOS. Less visually stimulating.

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micromacrofoot 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Spotlight improvements are one of the only things I actually like about it so far, it's unbelievable how bad messages app looks... we're certainly losing some space in cases where they're doing this weird sidebar container

	▲	creddit 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Being able to search an app from spotlight is so great. CMD + SPC => "Mail" => TAB => then I'm searching all my emails is fantastic. Spotlight really is a huge improvement for me.

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reaperducer 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

No more *poof* animation when you drag a control out of the toolbar during customization.

	▲	wpm 14 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		But I was told Liquid Glass was going to add a bit more whimsy to the OS!
	▲	itopaloglu83 14 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The poof animation was such a lovely touch. Removing it feels like a crime honestly. Most of the friendly computer interactions are being removed. I presume someone thinks it takes too much effort to replicate. They’re making the computer soulless, just like Windows, they might as well remove the Mac name as well.