Apple announces macOS Monterey

Apple today showed what macOS Monterey, the latest version of the world's most advanced computer operating system, will look like. macOS Monterey gives users new ways to stay connected, increase productivity, and switch between Apple devices with greater ease.

SharePlay is a new FaceTime feature that users can share experiences with, and Shared With You makes it easy to find content sent from Messages and open it in Photos, Safari, Apple Podcast, Apple News, and the Apple TV app.

Safari launches an optimized tab bar and takes organization to another level with tab groups, shortcuts come to the Mac to automate common tasks, and focus reduces distractions to boost productivity.

Additionally, Universal Control and AirPlay to Mac add to Continuity's capabilities and offer new ways to switch between Apple devices.

macOS Monterey will be compatible with more Mac models than ever before, including the new iMac, MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini, as well as Intel-based Macs.

More productivity with your Mac

The new tools in macOS Monterey are designed to increase productivity, focus better and collaborate:
Safari was already the fastest browser in the world and will now revolutionize the way you enjoy the internet, with redesigned tabs to show more information as you browse.

The new tab bar is the same color as the web page and groups the tabs, toolbar and search field into one compact layout.

Groups Cards lets you save and manage your cards, great for planning trips, shopping, or saving your most visited cards. Tab groups sync across Mac, iPhone and iPad, making it easy to add content to a project on the go and share tabs with family and friends.

Mac users will now be able to use shortcuts to automate the things they do often and be more productive than ever.

Just like on the iPhone and iPad, Shortcuts on Mac let you quickly complete tasks with the apps you use most. With the collection of actions designed for Mac, users can instantly share files, create animated GIFs, and more.

The shortcut editor on Mac allows advanced users to customize shortcuts to suit their own workflows. And because shortcuts are built into all macOS, from the menu bar and Finder to Spotlight, and can even be activated with Siri, it's easy to perform shortcuts from any app. Users can also import Automator workflows into links and get to work right away.

With the new features of Notes, it's easy to get organized, work as a team and create notes from anywhere. Quick Notes allows users to jot down anything that comes to mind in any app or system-wide to jot down ideas on the fly anywhere, anytime.

It's also very easy to add links from an app to a quick note for context, even on a website in Safari or an address in Maps.

When working on a project in Notes with friends or colleagues, users can add mentions, see changes made in the new Tasks view, and insert tags to classify Notes and find them easily with the new Tag Browser and Smart Folders sorted by tags.

Thanks to Focus, Mac users can automatically turn off unwanted notifications to avoid distraction.

They can also use states to indicate that they are working and not available. When Focus is active, the status is synchronized across all of the user's devices and can be customized according to the activity to be performed, whether it is preparing a presentation or completing a class project.

New ways to stay connected

macOS Monterey gives users new ways to communicate and have fun with friends, family and colleagues:
FaceTime introduces a number of audio and video features with which calls are more natural and realistic.

Thank you to the spatial audio of FaceTime calls, voices sound as though they come from where the speaker is on the screen, while Voice Isolation sharpens the user's voice and uses machine learning to eliminate background noise.

Furthermore, Ambient Sound allows you to capture all ambient sounds so that participants do not miss a single detail.

La portrait mode uses the Apple Neural Engine built into the M1 chip and allows you to blur the background to create stunning video effects, while the new grid display shows all participants in same-sized tiles.

SharePlay is an advanced collection of system features that allows you to share experiences during a FaceTime call. Users can share music, series, movies, projects and more in real time. It's the perfect choice for watching movies or listening to music with family and friends, collaborating on apps by sharing your screen, and more. With a very simple API, third-party developers can integrate their apps into FaceTime.

With Shared with you It is very easy to find and enjoy the content sent by Messages, be it photos, videos, articles and much more. Everything appears on the Shared With You tab in Photos, Safari, Apple Podcasts, Apple News, and the Apple TV app.

New ways to move between Apple devices

Switching from one Apple device to another is easier than ever with new ones Continuity functionality:
Universal Control It lets you use the same mouse and keyboard and seamlessly switch between Mac and iPad, with no additional settings. It even lets you drag and drop content from one device to another. Users can use it, for example, to draw a sketch with Apple Pencil on iPad and include it on a Keynote slide on Mac.

With AirPlay per Mac, users can play content, present and share anything - movies, games, vacation photos or projects - from their iPhone or iPad to make it appear like never before on the Mac's stunning Retina display.

Your Mac's new hi-fi sound system doubles as an AirPlay speaker, making it possible to play music and podcasts on your Mac or use it as a secondary speaker to use multi-zone audio.

More macOS Monterey highlights

Map launches an interactive globe and allows you to explore cities in depth so that users can discover the natural beauty of the Earth on the spectacular Mac screen.

Live text uses built-in machine learning to detect text in photos, including phone numbers, websites, addresses, and tracking numbers. Therefore, users can copy and paste to easily call, visit web pages and find more information.

Thanks to machine learning, Visual search allows users to discover information about flora, fauna, art, emblematic places and much more from a photo. These features work on all macOS, including apps like Photos, Messages, and Safari.

iCloud + gives users everything they love about iCloud and enhances it with new premium features at no additional cost, including Hide My Email, extended support for HomeKit protected videos, and an innovative Internet privacy service called iCloud.

AirPods Pro and AirPods Max offer a cinematic experience thanks to spatial audio on Mac with M1 chip.

Privacy features like Mail's Privacy Shield allow users to define whether emails can collect information about their Mail activity, and the recording indicator on the Mac now shows which app is accessing the microphone on the Mac.
With the new accessibility features, anyone can add alternate image descriptions from Markup, and with the improved full keyboard access and new cursor customization options, the Mac is even more versatile.

Availability

The developer beta of macOS Monterey is available to Apple Developer Program members at developer.apple.com starting today.

The public beta for Mac users will be available next month on beta.apple.com. macOS Monterey will be available this fall as a free update.

Learn more, including supported Mac models, at apple.com/macos/monterey-preview. Benefits are subject to change. Some features are not available in all countries or in all languages.

1. ICloud + plans: 50GB with one camera supporting HomeKit Secure Video ($ 0,99 / month), 200GB with up to five cameras supporting HomeKit Secure Video ($ 2,99 / month), and 2TB with unlimited of cameras compatible with HomeKit Secure Video ($ 9,99 / month). Current iCloud storage subscriptions will be automatically upgraded to iCloud + this fall.