MENLO PARK – For anyone who has used WhatsApp on both iPhone and Mac, the visual disparity was jarring. The iPhone app received Apple’s Liquid Glass treatment in October 2025, followed by the iPad in the months after. The Mac app sat waiting, still wearing the older design language while the mobile versions moved on. That gap has now started to close.
WhatsApp has begun rolling out its Liquid Glass redesign to the Mac app, bringing a visual and structural overhaul that aligns the desktop experience with the updated iPhone and iPad interfaces. The update, currently reaching a limited set of users and expected to expand over coming weeks, touches the sidebar, the chat bar, the attachment menu, and the organization of locked chats and communities.
The most immediately visible change is the sidebar. The updated version uses the Liquid Glass aesthetic that Apple established with its latest operating system releases: translucent layers, softer edges, and a depth effect that shifts with the content displayed behind it. Alongside the visual refresh, WhatsApp has reorganized what the sidebar actually shows. Locked chats now have a dedicated section that requires authentication before access, matching how the iPhone version handles privacy-protected conversations. Communities, which previously required more navigation to reach, are now accessible directly from the sidebar. 9to5Mac first reported the rollout.
WABetaInfo, which has tracked WhatsApp’s development for years, described the effect in direct terms: “The update closes the design difference between desktop and mobile apps. All three platforms now follow the same design language that Apple set with its latest operating systems.”
That cross-platform consistency matters more in 2026 than it might have a few years ago. Apple’s Liquid Glass design is not just an aesthetic choice; it is an operating system behavior. Apps that adopt it feel native. Apps that do not increasingly look unmaintained. For WhatsApp, which competes on Mac against iMessage, Telegram, and Signal, keeping visual alignment with Apple’s own software is a credibility signal. The company has been steadily updating its iOS app with new features and design changes this year, as Eastern Herald reported when WhatsApp’s iOS updates were covered in June.
The chat bar has also been updated. The attachment menu, where users select photos, files, or other content to share, has been revised to match the style of the mobile version. Meta has not published a detailed changelog, so the full extent of the changes is not entirely visible from the outside. What is visible suggests a thorough visual refresh rather than a selective one.
The rollout is staggered. Not all Mac users will see the redesign simultaneously. WhatsApp is taking its standard staged approach, with the expectation that the update will reach all users over coming weeks. Users on the Mac App Store version should receive it automatically through the update process.
The Liquid Glass design first appeared in WhatsApp’s iOS app as part of the broader wave of Apple platform updates last October. The iPad version followed. The Mac adaptation was the final major platform to receive the treatment. Its later arrival reflects the typical order in which cross-platform app updates move: mobile first, desktop after.
What the Mac update does not change, at least not in this version, is the fundamental architecture of the WhatsApp desktop experience. The Mac app still operates independently of the phone rather than as a mirror of it. The Liquid Glass update is a design alignment, not a feature parity reset. For users whose primary complaint was the visual gap between their iPhone and Mac, that may be enough.
The locked chats redesign raises an authentication question. The new dedicated section requires authentication before access, which in principle adds a layer of protection for private conversations on a shared or work-accessible Mac. How that authentication integrates with macOS security, whether through system biometrics or password entry, has not been fully documented in the public rollout.
Meta has been consistent about treating WhatsApp as a serious cross-platform messaging product rather than a mobile-first app with a desktop afterthought. The Liquid Glass Mac update is evidence of that commitment. Whether it closes the gap users actually feel when they switch between devices depends on how the rollout completes over the coming weeks.
