Apple today previewed macOS 12 Monterey, the latest version of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system.
macOS Monterey comes with new ways for users to connect, get more done, and work more fluidly across their Apple devices. SharePlay, a new feature in FaceTime, lets users share experiences together, and Shared with You makes it easy to discover and enjoy content shared through Messages right in Photos, Safari, Apple Podcasts, Apple News, and the Apple TV app. A major update to Safari features a gorgeous streamlined tab bar and powerful tab organization with Tab Groups, Shortcuts comes to the Mac to automate everyday tasks, and Focus helps users stay on task and reduce distractions. Additionally, Universal Control and AirPlay to Mac are new Continuity features that offer more ways to work effortlessly across Apple devices. macOS Monterey will support the broadest lineup of Macs in history, including the latest iMac, MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini, as well as Apple’s Intel-based Macs.
“macOS Monterey is packed with features that help Mac users get more done, connect with friends and family in amazing new ways, and work across Mac and iPad more seamlessly than ever before,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, in a statement. “We think our customers are going to love browsing the web with Safari’s new tab design, enjoying shared experiences with SharePlay in FaceTime, and using their Mac and other Apple devices together in new ways with Universal Control and AirPlay to Mac.”
Getting More Done with Mac
New tools in macOS Monterey are designed to help users get more done, stay focused, and collaborate:
• Already the world’s fastest browser, Safari now reimagines the browsing experience with a new tab design that lets users see more of the page as they scroll. A new tab bar takes on the color of the webpage and combines tabs, the tool bar, and the search field into a single compact design. Tab Groups offer a new way to easily save and manage tabs — great for planning trips, shopping, or storing the tabs users visit daily. Tab Groups also sync across Mac, iPhone, and iPad, so users can continue their project from anywhere and easily share tabs with friends and family.
• Shortcuts arrives on the Mac to help users automate everyday tasks and achieve peak productivity. Just like on iPhone and iPad, Shortcuts on Mac lets users quickly accomplish tasks with the apps they use the most. With a rich gallery of pre-built actions designed just for Mac, users can instantly share files, make animated GIFs, and more. Power users looking to take things further can use the Shortcuts Editor on Mac to customize shortcuts to match their workflows. Shortcuts is integrated throughout macOS, including the menu bar, Finder, Spotlight, and even hands-free with Siri — making it easy to run shortcuts no matter which app the user is in. Users can easily import existing Automator workflows into Shortcuts and be up and running right away.
• New features in Notes help users stay organized, collaborate, and create notes from anywhere. Quick Note is a new way for users to jot down notes on any app or website systemwide, making it easy to capture thoughts and ideas wherever inspiration strikes. Users can also add links from an app to their Quick Note to create context, even on a website in Safari or an address in Maps. As users work through projects in Notes with friends or colleagues, they can add mentions, see everyone’s edits in the new Activity View, and categorize their Notes with tags to quickly and easily find them in the new Tag Browser and in tag-based Smart Folders.
• With Focus, Mac users can stay in the moment by automatically filtering out notifications unrelated to their current activity. Users can signal their status to let others know when they are focusing and not available. When a user has Focus set on one device, it automatically sets across their other devices and can be customized based on their current activity — whether they are preparing for a presentation or wrapping up an assignment for school.
All-New Ways to Stay Connected
macOS Monterey provides meaningful new ways to connect and enjoy time with friends, family, and colleagues:
• FaceTime now includes a suite of new audio and video features that make calls feel more natural and lifelike. With spatial audio, voices in a FaceTime call sound like they are coming from where the person is positioned on the screen, while Voice Isolation ensures the user’s voice is crystal clear and uses machine learning to eliminate background noise, and Wide Spectrum allows all the sound in the area to come through so participants can hear everything. Portrait mode taps into the Apple Neural Engine in the M1 chip to blur the user’s background for a stunning video effect, and a new Grid View shows participants in same-sized tiles.
• SharePlay is a powerful set of system features that enables users to have shared experiences while on a FaceTime call. Users can share their favorite music, TV shows, movies, projects, and more with friends and family in real time — kicking off a shared listening party, watching movies and shows, collaborating in apps through screen sharing, and more. With an API built for easy adoption, third-party developers can bring their own apps right into FaceTime.
• Shared with You makes it easy to locate and enjoy all the great content that’s shared through Messages, including photos, videos, articles, and more, right from a Shared with You tab within Photos, Safari, Apple Podcasts, Apple News, and the Apple TV app.
New Ways to Work Across Apple Devices
Working across Apple devices is now better than ever with new Continuity features:
• Universal Control lets users work with a single mouse and keyboard and move between Mac and iPad for a seamless experience, with no setup required. Users can even drag and drop content back and forth between devices — great for sketching a drawing with Apple Pencil on iPad and placing it into a Keynote slide on the Mac.
Universal Control lets users work more seamlessly across their Mac and iPad.
• With AirPlay to Mac, users can play, present, and share just about anything — from the latest movies and games to vacation photos and presentations — from their iPhone or iPad right to their Mac’s stunning Retina display. The Mac’s high-fidelity sound system can also be used as an AirPlay speaker, so users can play music or podcasts on their Mac, or use their Mac as a secondary speaker for multiroom audio.
Additional New Features of macOS Monterey
• With the new interactive globe in Maps and an amazing, immersive, and detailed city experience, users can enjoy new ways to navigate and explore the natural beauty of the Earth on the Mac’s large, gorgeous display.
• Live Text uses on-device machine learning to detect text in photos, including phone numbers, websites, addresses, and tracking numbers, so users can copy and paste, make a phone call, open a website, and easily find more information. Visual Lookup also uses machine learning to help users discover and learn about animals, art, landmarks, plants, and more in photos. These features work across macOS, including in apps like Photos, Messages, and Safari.
• iCloud+ combines everything users love about iCloud with new premium features, including Hide My Email, expanded HomeKit Secure Video support, and an innovative new internet privacy service, iCloud Private Relay, at no additional cost.1
• AirPods Pro and AirPods Max deliver a theater-like experience with spatial audio on Macs with the M1 chip.
• Privacy features like Mail Privacy Protection let users choose whether emails can collect information about their Mail activity, and the Mac recording indicator now shows which app is accessing the Mac’s microphone.
• New accessibility features let anyone add alternative image descriptions right from Markup, and improved Full Keyboard Access and new cursor customization options provide more flexibility when navigating Mac.
Availability
The developer beta of macOS Monterey is available to Apple Developer Program members at developer.apple.com starting today. A public beta will be available to Mac users next month at beta.apple.com. macOS Monterey will be available this fall as a free software update. For more information, including compatible Mac models, visit apple.com/macos/monterey-preview. Features are subject to change. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages.
Lots of cool stuff. The continuity feature is potentially very useful
No hardware announcements?!? ALL of the predictions were 100% WRONG on that front.
As they are every year. This is a conference for software developers.
Wrong.
(But we’re used to it…)
Apple silicon was announced last year. An update, at least, would’ve been nice.
Ok, Mr. Wrong,
Try looking at any source for the history of the WWDC. The first was in 1983. The major introduction was Apple Basic, although there was a display of the Lisa. In 1984, there was some discussion of Macintosh, but it had already been announced by then. The conference had only software introductions for the next 19 years with no hardware until 2003 and the PowerMac G5.
2004 only introduced new displays. 2005 announced the Intel transition, but there was no new hardware, only software information for developers. 2006 was another exception, with one hardware announcement (Mac Pro) of particular interest to software developers. Otherwise, discussion of Mac Server software. In 2007, the Conference expanded to include iPhone software, but no hardware (iPhone had already been announced). In 2008, no hardware. In 2009, there were demonstrations of new MacBook Pros and the iPhone 3GS, but the focus was on them as development platforms, not consumer hardware. 2010, mostly software + iPhone 4. 2011, software only again.
2012 and 2013 were almost the only WWDCs in the entire 38-year series with a significant number of consumer hardware releases.
2014 was back to software only again with no hardware releases. Same in 2015 and 2016. 2017 had some hardware announcements again (upgrades, except for the iMac Pro). 2018 was back to software only, as was 2019. 2020 announced the Apple Silicon transition, but no hardware available to the public. That brings us to 2021 with no hardware, as usual.
In every one of those years since 1983, pundits predicted hardware releases and everybody castigated Apple for not announcing hardware at a software event, as if it were a huge shock.
So what you’re saying now is there HAVE been hardware announcements.
Exactly my point Mr. Dogmatical.
All these new features seem rather impressive to me but I guess it’s nothing special to the masses who stick with Windows and will likely never switch. I watched the entire event and there was plenty of interesting material to absorb. With Apple Silicon running on desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones there can be some amazing vertical integration that few other companies can rival.
Mostly software tweaks, total Meh…
I’m assuming SharePlay will require each participant to have the relevant subscription?
The only new thing I see here is Live Text. The rest is Google following (sorry MDN, Goose/Gander)
Google ha a desktop OS? Who knew?
The new features are not an OS, they are features. And other than Live Text (maybe even that) they follow Google’s already developed, and shipped, features.
Better?
Much better. Cook is a follower AGAIN! No wonder the worst WWDC yawner yet…