macOSX Yosemite 10.10

OS X Yosemite 10.10: The Great Redesign

Released on October 16, 2014, OS X 10.10 Yosemite was the most dramatic visual overhaul since the birth of Mac OS X. It officially retired the 3D "skeuomorphic" look—glass buttons and leather textures—in favor of a flat, translucent, and modern aesthetic that bridged the gap between Mac and iOS 7.

A New Visual Language

Yosemite introduced the "Flat" design era to the Mac.

• Translucency: Windows and toolbars became semi-transparent, adopting a "frosted glass" look that took on the colors of your wallpaper.

• The New Dock: The iconic 3D glass shelf was replaced by a clean, 2D translucent rectangle.

• Typography: Apple switched the system font to Helvetica Neue, designed to look crisp and clean on the high-resolution Retina displays of the time.

Continuity: Your Devices, Combined

Yosemite was the birth of Continuity, a suite of features that made your Mac and iPhone feel like a single device:

• Handoff: You could start an email on your iPhone and instantly finish it on your Mac with a single click in the dock.

• Universal Clipboard: Copying text on your iPhone and pasting it on your Mac became a reality.

• Phone Calls & SMS: For the first time, you could answer cellular calls and send "green bubble" text messages directly from your Mac.

Dark Mode and Today View

• Dark Mode: Yosemite introduced a "Dark Mode" for the menu bar and dock, a feature that power users on Chasms.com had been requesting for years.

• Notification Center Widgets: The "Today" view was added to the Notification Center, allowing third-party developers to create widgets for stocks, weather, and more.

• Mail Drop: To solve the problem of large attachments, Yosemite introduced Mail Drop, which automatically uploaded large files to iCloud and sent a link to the recipient.