Apple Edge Light turns your Mac display into a smart ring light for video calls

Apple is adding one of those small changes that actually helps in day to day calls. With macOS Tahoe 26.2, there’s a new video effect called Edge Light that uses your Mac’s display to brighten your face on camera. It feels like a ring light idea, just built into the screen instead of sitting on your desk.

If you have ever joined an evening meeting and noticed your face looks dark while your screen is doing all the work, you already know the problem. This is the kind of thing that hits hardest on late calls, rainy days, or when you’re working from a room lit by one overhead bulb. Edge Light adds a soft light around the edges of the display so your face looks more evenly lit when the room is dim. It does not try to change your face or make you look artificial. It simply makes the camera view a little kinder.

The best part is that it stays out of your way. When you move your pointer near the edge, the light pulls back so you can still use menus and click things normally. That tiny detail matters, because nobody wants a feature that sounds good in theory but gets irritating after ten minutes.

You can also adjust it to suit your room. You get brightness control, and you can shift the tone warmer or cooler depending on your lighting. It helps when your room light is too yellow, too white, or just uneven throughout the day.

Edge Light works on Macs with Apple silicon. On Mac models introduced in 2024 and later, it can even turn on automatically when your Mac senses the room is low on light. That’s useful because most of us remember these settings only after someone says, “You’re looking a bit dark.” It also works across video calling apps, so you do not have to stick to one platform to use it.

How to turn on Edge Light during a video call on Mac

1. Start a video call and look at the menu bar for the Video menu icon.

2. Open the Video menu and select Edge Light to turn it on or off.

3. Open the options next to Edge Light and adjust brightness and warmth or coolness until it looks right in your room.

4. If you have a 2024 Mac model or newer, switch on the option that lets Edge Light turn on automatically when the room is dim and a call starts.