macOS Tahoe beta 1 released

How does this work? I can't figure it out. The keys on the home row don't seem to work as expected after enabling it with VO-y.

Here are some things I've notice. the messages app has received a small tweek. the toolbar is at the end instead of the top. Pressing VO plus Seven reads the time and date with no gaps.

Update: it reads it normally as with previous versions. I have also notice the phone app. very cool.

I'm happy to report that audio ducking has been fixed! now the volume goes back to normal after a notification from VO has been read.

Has anything been touched in macOS Tahoe regarding work processing? Such as text, pages, etc.?
I are curious. 😇

heard of this feature, and not sure what it does or how it can be useful

The braille input and braille commander on mac, got to see someone using it seem really, really neet; although i'm honestly wundering, which is faster for typing? I myself can type pretty quickly with a keyboard, but just as quick and braille, although I have never done a test to see which is faster.
The screen sharing and controling other macs, if done well; might be a game changer. I.e, no third party app to control another's computer which... I've waited a long time for this. Testing it, though, might be a bit problematic. I do have two max, both of which are logged into my Apple ID but, i'm not sure if given both macs are logged in with the same id... One can screen share between the 2? Will find out, I suppose.

The Braille keyboard is really cool. For those that might be confused like I was initially, it works like typing on a Perkins Brailler. a is dot 7 or backspace, followed by dots 3, 2, and 1 assigned to s, d, and f respectively. The same is true on the right side, with j, k, l, and semi colon corresponding to dots 4, 5, 6, and 8 which is also enter. You can hold the space bar and perform Braille commands. This might make it easier for some people to control VoiceOver, particularly if you're familiar with chord commands but don't have and/or want to use a physical Braille display/keyboard.

Braille Access works entirely with your display, and there's no audio feedback unless you enable the setting to announce typed characters. Use dot 1 chord to go back, and dot 4 chord to go forward. Press dot 8 or enter on your display to select items. I think cursor routing buttons also work. I'm still not entirely sure what all the comands are, but this is very cool! The next logical step is to add speech support so you can use the Braille keyboard commands even if you don't have and/or want to use a physical Braille device. Apple has been doing a lot of interesting things since Ventura, and I'm really happy the platform is improving!

I've got a question for those of you who are more experienced with M-series Macs. Since I got my M4 Mini right after it was released, I haven't done major upgrades. I have Sequoia on the main volume and I made another for Tahoe. Is it possible to upgrade my Taho installation all the way to the public release, delete the Sequoia volume using Disk Utility, and then perform a full reset to start with a clean copy of Tahoe 26.0? I'd rather not have to upgrade my Sequoia installation, since that's a waste of time. Will this break my Mac if I do it the way I just described?

As for VoiceOver screen sharing, I'll have to wait until I can try this with someone. However, I'm not sure this is as great as I initially thought. It looks like it only works with the older screen sharing technology, not sharing via FaceTime. I believe you need to connect to another Mac on the same network, which makes this impractical. I hope I'm wrong, and if I am, please correct me, because I want to believe this is a great feature that has the potential to open all kinds of technical support, training, and system administration opportunities. Then again, maybe it isn't, in which case Remote Incident Manager still reigns supreme, if only we could get more people to use it.

I'm wondering if anyone noticed bugs that are fixed, like the typing ones or the bugs with web browsing, like the chat gpt one and the problems with caret navigation in safari with lists etc.
re: Screen sharing voiceover, is this something similar to NVDA remote? IF so, cool.
whatever that thing about facetime or not is, I'm glad it isn't, because if it was facetime and it's somewhat like NVDA remote, then having it use facetime will be annoying because a lot of places block facetime use, so having it blocked just because it uses it is annoying, especially when there are a lot of voice chat apps anyway so it's not really necessary to have that.
though considering it probably has screen sharing which uses VOIP like functionality it probably will be blocked anyway, hoping not, but probably is. Oh well I suppose.

What is that 12th category in VoiceOver utility used for? (Screen sharing and local and remote Mac)
Have you personally tried it?
Sounds interesting.

Sharing information that is not generally available to the public is a violation of the developer agreement. It's very rarely enforced, but as someone whose job depends on being in good standing with Apple, I'll stay clear of any discussions relating to these betas here or elsewhere. I'm also not going to install any of the betas just yet since I don't have time to play around with anything right now, but will be definitely installing the developer betas at some point before September.

Hello,

I do intend to submit these to the apple beta tracker when it launches, but for the community:
Unlabeled Buttons in Notification Area FB17887670 — macOS
When attempting to navigate the notification area, I encounter some unlabeled buttons. Due to the issues in Feedback ID FB17887252, I can not pinpoint where exactly this happens; news and Podcast notifications would be my best guess.

And, of course:
Voiceover Focus Issues in Notification Area: Feedback ID FB17887252
When I use VO+O to open the notification area, I receive inconsistent focus while navigating the notifications scrollbar.
1. Ensure notifications are present. I have 10 at the time of writing.
2. Press VO+O.
3. Interact with the scroll area.
4. Vo+right arrow through the notifications and observe inconsistent focus.
5. Vo+left arrow through the notifications to observe the focus issue.

Note: I have attempted this with the VoiceOver utility>navigation>grouping behavior set to “standard” and “bookend groups”.

Not a new bug in 26, but, hopefully we can get it fixed as I suspect live activities will live there.

This does not appear to be new in macOS Tahoe. I was able to find these options in the shipping version of Sequoia.

Not a useful contribution here, but I'm actually quite impressed. It could be confirmation bias, but it does feel snappier and, as yet, safari seems to be behaving itself. Journal app looks quite good, though, as with any apple app, it's visual first so we get those odd needs to drill down into various containers, rather annoying, doubt that's a bug though.

Here are other things I've notice. First, you now get a notification pop-up that let's you know that your battery is about to run low. Before you would get a Bannar pop-up, but now you do get a notification that says you have to plug-in soon before the battery dies out. that to me is awesome. unfortunately, the command to start dictation by pressing the FN key twice doesn't work anymore. however, you can still assign a different command. I have my command set as command D so that I can dictate a message quickly. in messages, the commands for filters has been changed. previously,recently deleted used to be under command control five, now it's command control six. You also have 2 options when deleteing a message. Delete, and delete and block. Before you had just delete.

Yeah, I also noticed I got a notification about my AirPods max having low battery, which is pretty cool.

Has anyone worked out how to use this new super charged spotlight? I know I can switch through options with command 1 to 4, but I"m not sure what the command things are. In the keynote he grabbed a picture and removed the background with some typed instructions.

Hi,

Not sure, as I use Alfred for all of the basic tasks.

So I ahven't worked out a good deal of it, but for text edit, I was wanting to save a file. So I fired up spotlight and typed "save" and with the down arrow I was able to find the save and save actions. VO informed me they were related to Textedit.

I'm not sure how command 1-4 works, or where you even heard about those!

I really like Mac OS. However,I have to say that Braille support has been truly abysmal in my experience. Random characters are inserted when using a Braille display. Many display commands do not work as expected. I'm deafblind with moderate hearing loss, so I can still use speech to a certain extent. I'd love to know if much-needed Braille support has happened.

Can someone check if the following Safari issue is resolved in the Tahoe beta?

Go to your Google Drive. Set list view, if it's not already selected. Then use up and down arrow to browse your files and folders. Does VoiceOver announce the file and folder names? It used to. But, for the past several releases, VoiceOver users hear, "More info (Option + →) list box," or just, "list box." This is not a problem when using Chrome.

I've sent a sysdiagnose. I've sent a screen video. I've contacted Apple accessibility support. If this issue is still present in Tahoe, then I'll just stay on Sequoia, because I doubt I'll be using a Mac for much longer.

I'd appreciate the status on another issue.

Open Textedit. Create a series of five or six very short paragraphs. That is, type a short sentence of six or seven words, type a period, and press enter to terminate the paragraph. The important thing it to keep each paragraph to a single line, no text wrapping. Repeat for five or six such paragraphs. Press Command+Up arrow to go to the top of the document, then press VO+Shift+PageDown to read each paragraph.

This used to work: VoiceOver would read the first paragraph, then VO+Shift+PageDown would read the next, and the next. But it broke recently, possibly in Sequoia, and now it behaves as if the document contains no text at all.

I have been reading all the little things that people have been noticing with some interest.
There is a long-standing bug particularly prevalent in Safari where even if all quicknav is turned on where hitting the H for heading for example will not take you there.
This happens particularly frequently after clicking on a link and then going back to the page.
I've reported this a couple of times but I'm wondering if it is present in the new Tahoe beta.
It is a random bug anyway so could be very hard to pin down.

Unfortunately, I continue to occasionally experience this bug on the current macOS Tahoe beta. I find I can reliably reproduce it by focusing on a text field, like a search field, and then pressing Return to load the page. If VoiceOver focus isn't first taken off the field before the page loads, neither single-key nor arrow-key Quick Nav will work until I focus on another text field, and then immediately navigate elsewhere on the page.

Was just reading about the developer options you posted earlier in this thread.

Do you need a braille display to access those, or will something like either the braille keyboard input or even the mantis Q 40 work to access them?

Sidenote, dictation should surely know what the word braille is. If you don't annunciate it clearly and say it fast, more likely it will get replaced with rail, real, Brown, etc. I've always hated that

Can anyone help confirm a bug with Eloquence and Vocalizer where they fail to properly read mixed-case words?
I want to file a report during the beta period, but unfortunately, I'm using a company laptop that doesn't allow beta installation.
Here's the issue I've observed:

When using Vocalizer (English US and UK voices), reading a mixed-case word (typically long function names like "TestStartApplicationControllerFrameworkWithoutInitializeEnvironmentConfig") works only if the word appears on its own line.
However, if the same word appears as a part within a line—e.g.:

func TestStartApplicationControllerFrameworkWithoutInitializeEnvironmentConfig(t *testing.T)

Vocalizer doesn't read the word naturally—it spells it out character by character.
Expected behavior: Vocalizer should pronounce the word by detecting the mixed case and reading it as separate word parts (e.g., “Test Start Application Controller Framework Without Initialize Environment Config”).

With Eloquence, the issue is slightly different. Whether the word is on its own line or in-line, it reads the entire identifier as though it's all lowercase, without any word separation.
Expected behavior: Eloquence should also recognize mixed case and read the word as if it were split into individual components, just like Vocalizer should.

This significantly impacts my ability to work, as I'm a programmer using a Mac. I reported this issue to Apple Accessibility about a year ago, but as of macOS 15.5, it still hasn’t been fixed.
Interestingly, this issue does not occur on iOS. The same long mixed-case identifiers are read correctly and naturally on iPhone with both Eloquence and Vocalizer.
If anyone else can reproduce this issue, I’d really appreciate it if you could also report it to Apple. The more reports they get, the better the chance of it being addressed.
Thanks!

I think this bug has been around for a while. I think I reported it to Apple in Ventura but might have been around for longer. I noticed that Eloquence was sort of pronouncing it but I couldn't get my head around what it was saying, so you've at least cleared that up.

It would definitely be worth someone reporting it as part of the beta if it is still happening. I agree it's incredibly annoying.