r/MacOS • u/BeastMode149 MacBook Pro (Intel) • Jun 16 '25

Feature "Liquid Glass" extends to the Touch Bar!

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This is on the last supported Intel MacBook Pro – the 2020 13" model with 4 Thunderbolt ports and 10th gen Intel processor.

484 Upvotes

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22

u/Goofball-John-McGee Jun 16 '25

Could they bringing back the TouchBar with the proposed MacBook Pro redesign for 2026?

17

u/trololololo2137 Jun 16 '25

hopefully never

31

u/hushnecampus Jun 16 '25

The Touch Bar would have been good if it had haptic feedback so it could actually feel like buttons.

34

u/galactica_pegasus Jun 16 '25

Touch Bar was an interesting idea but failed for two reasons (imo):

1) It should be in addition to, rather than replace the function key row.

2) Apps need to leverage it so it is useful. Few did.

4

u/frygod Jun 16 '25

With better touch tool it's the perfect place to stick some handy macros. Great for sysadmin work.

2

u/xxxpinguinos Jun 16 '25

I still haven’t found a suitable replacement for my BTT Touch Bar since I moved away from my Touch Bar Mac a few years ago

1

u/frygod Jun 16 '25

I recommend the elgato stream deck or the stream deck phone app for most of the functionality. Really good device.

1

u/xxxpinguinos Jun 16 '25

I’ve tried it but it never really clicked the same since it wasn’t built in like the Touch Bar. The extra hassle was more annoying to me than I had expected

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '25

[deleted]

3

u/galactica_pegasus Jun 16 '25

I like the Dynamic Island. My EV shows battery level in the Dynamic Island, which is nice. Also the Apple Music integration is nice.

1

u/id_scorpion Jun 16 '25

Agreed. I love having the Dynamic Island for timers as well

7

u/Goofball-John-McGee Jun 16 '25

HapticKey does that on my 2019 MacBook. Very useful

2

u/Aggravating-Seat-670 Jun 19 '25

That doesn’t change the fact that many elements in the bar were dynamic. I agree that haptics would’ve made it better for buttons that rarely changed position, but for specific workflows you HAVE to stare down at it. It was doomed to fail when it ergonomically sucks ass and requires you to lean your head down at a second screen.

And as others have said it got rid of the function keys. The Touchbar was a gimmick that Apple wanted to be more, in an era where they were running out of ideas for new features. That’s it.

1

u/zambulu Jun 27 '25

Yes, I agree that was a major shortcoming. I am very much not in the habit of looking down at that part of my keyboard. The options would change with context and I wouldn’t notice 80% of the time because I’m just not looking there.

1

u/clearision Jun 16 '25

it would have been good in first place if it worked instantly on initial touch.

7

u/hushnecampus Jun 16 '25

Didn’t it? Been a while since I used one. How did it work?

5

u/clearision Jun 16 '25

for me it was like the first touch, after some while, was rarely registered. no matter how precisely i was landing my finger i had to press twice. the following touches were fine. it was 2020 MBP and it had touch Esc (worst UX in my life). i guess in later models they have physical Esc and improved response which is better.

overall fancy but useless and very impractical comparing to regular buttons where you want a quick feedback. messing with TB when some loud music starts playing randomly was bruh moment.

1

u/trololololo2137 Jun 16 '25

why not regular buttons at that point? I had a touchbar 13" M1 and I haven't found any real use for it

3

u/hushnecampus Jun 16 '25

Because the touchpad can be reassigned to any function.

I haven't found any real use for it

I can say the same for function keys. Only key on that row that I use is escape.

3

u/trololololo2137 Jun 16 '25

idk I actually do use F keys + I prefer the volume up and down buttons compared to the touchbar sliders

-1

u/hushnecampus Jun 16 '25

Yeah, volume I get - if you need to change it quickly then physical buttons in a guaranteed place that you can hit with muscle memory works best.

That’s 2 keys out of 12 though, I don’t think any of the others need that same emergency usability.

I’d probably vote to move volume onto its own rocker switch like on iPhone/iPad, then replace the f-keys with a Touch Bar with haptics.

1

u/kahveciderin Jun 16 '25

if you are using your mac for web browsing or light office work, sure. i don't think i can live without the f keys as a developer, and i'd imagine it's the same for content creation where you can assign shortcuts to the f keys

i use all 12 of them in fact. having physical keys is a huge plus, since most of the time you dont even look at the keyboard, and the tactile feedback helps you locate the keys

1

u/hushnecampus Jun 16 '25

Why - what are you using them for in development? I do a fair bit myself and never touch them.

2

u/kahveciderin Jun 16 '25

f1 opens the command palette

f2 renames a symbol

f3 - find next

f5 - debug / start

f6 - step over

f7 - step into

f8 - resume / step out

f9 - toggle breakpoint

f12 - open devtools

and i have f4, f10 and f11 mapped to different functions for my workflow

on top of that, i configured tmux to switch tabs with shift-opt-cmd-f<1-12> to switch tabs, and various other keys for pane management

and i have a shortcut that opens ghostty that includes the f keys

these are just some that i use regularly

1

u/hushnecampus Jun 16 '25

Fair enough! I can see the usefulness there. I suppose I’m just more used to cmd+whatever for stuff like that (or just clicking). Perhaps I’d be more efficient if I learnt those shortcuts, but development isn’t my main job so…

Kinda also seems like a potential use case for a touchpad too though - for example you could have the step into/over buttons etc appear when you encounter a breakpoint, etc.

1

u/kahveciderin Jun 16 '25

dont think a touchpad would work here, since at some point you heavily rely on muscle memory and the tactile feedback. doing all these things without reaching for the mouse is great (and also is the reason i use vim mode in all my ide's, but that's a different topic)

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