Qt and Apple 'Glass' UI in macOS 26

[AndyBrice]

Apple are significantly redesigning the UI of all their platforms, including Mac.

Overview video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrGYUq1mklk

Looks like they have emphasized visual eye candy over usability, accessibility, battery life and everything else. :o(

Question for fellow Qt developers:

• Has anyone tried a beta of macOS 26 with Qt 6?
• Does your app look like a Glass app?

Questions for Qt team:

• Are apps built with Qt 6 going to run on macOS 26?
• Are they going to have the 'glass' look?
• Are we going to have to do significant extra work to make our UIs look like Glass apps?
• What about for Qt 5 apps?

[Kambiz]

@AndyBrice I'm using the latest version of Qt and macOS/iOS 26.
Nothing is compatible with Qt 6.9 and everything renders in the old version style.

[AndyBrice]

Nothing is compatible

Did you mean 'Nothing is incompatible' ?

[Kambiz]

@AndyBrice In terms of functionality, yes! but I mean is that the style of the apps is not compatible with the new version.
everything rendered by old style.

[AndyBrice]

@Kambiz Ok, thanks. Do we know if Qt is planning to support the new styling? When?

[ankou29666]

The true question is when did they get that information : did they receive a private announcement before the public one ? or did they learn it at the same time as everyone else ? they are likely working (or planning to work) on it.
I haven't tried macos26 yet (i'm surprized to see it still supports intel macs when there was lots of speculations that it wouldn't), and not planning to install it before the final release. Not even sure I'll install it at all, my old 2015 macbook pro struggles a bit sometimes with Sonoma and i'm having some doubts about whether it can actually handle the new styling.

[SimonSchroeder]

@ankou29666 said in Qt and Apple 'Glass' UI in macOS 26:

Not even sure I'll install it at all, my old 2015 macbook pro struggles a bit sometimes with Sonoma and i'm having some doubts about whether it can actually handle the new styling.

Well, my 2015 MacBook Pro doesn't even support Sonoma. The last macOS version is Monterey. There are very few Intel Macs that will be supported by Tahoe.

[ankou29666]

@SimonSchroeder Officially yes. However OpenCoreLegacyPatcher fixes it !!!
however, I have to add the following line

QQuickWindow::setGraphicsApi (QSGRenderInterface::OpenGL)

to get QtQuick (not tried with QtWidgets) work properly on Sonoma and Sequoia due to metal drivers issue starting from Sonoma (no problem at all on Ventura while the latest official supported version is Monterey).

[Tor Arne]

@AndyBrice said in Qt and Apple 'Glass' UI in macOS 26:

Are apps built with Qt 6 going to run on macOS 26?

Yes

Are they going to have the 'glass' look?

Not out of the box, unless we update or add logic to our styles to incorporate it.

Are we going to have to do significant extra work to make our UIs look like Glass apps?

That depends on how easy it is for us to provide that look via the built in styles, which we are still researching.

What about for Qt 5 apps?

Any changes we do to our built in styles/controls to support Liquid Glass will not make it to Qt 5. See https://www.qt.io/blog/extended-security-maintenance-for-qt-5.15-begins-may-2025

[AndyBrice]

@Tor-Arne said in Qt and Apple 'Glass' UI in macOS 26:

That depends on how easy it is for us to provide that look via the built in styles, which we are still researching.

I hope you will be able to come up with something. Where will decisions on this be announced?

[Amit Singh]

@AndyBrice
I have updated macOS26 and my Qt6 apps line edits are not visible at all. When Qt planning to fix it or we have to do this extra work? Do you have any idea?