The following model of the Mac working system, macOS 15 Sequoia, arrives on Monday, September 16, bringing some attractive new options, constructing on these launched in macOS 14 Sonoma.
Sadly, there might be some who may run Sonoma who received’t be capable of replace to Sequoia. The compatibility listing of Macs which are capable of run Sequoia is somewhat smaller than that of macOS Sonoma, with a few 13-inch MacBook Air fashions from 2018 and 2019 that received’t be capable of set up the 2024 macOS. As well as, solely Macs with an M1, M2, or M3-series chip will help the brand new AI options known as “Apple Intelligence”.
You could be questioning whether it is value updating your Mac so you possibly can run Sequoia, or if sticking with Sonoma might be enough. Alternatively, your Mac could not be capable of run Sequoia, or it’d replace, however not be capable of supply the Apple Intelligence options. If the latter is true then chances are you’ll be questioning whether or not it’s value updating your Mac so you possibly can run Sequoia and the AI options, for assist discovering a brand new Mac learn our information to the Greatest Mac.
Right here’s a fast information to what macOS Sonoma and macOS Sequoia supply and the way they examine.
You may wish to learn in regards to the variations between iOS 17 and iOS 18.
Options in macOS 14 Sonoma
When macOS Sonoma arrived in September 2023, it did so with various cool upgrades to make life simpler on the Mac. Right here’s our decide of the spotlight options, a few of which you won’t even have found but!
Desktop Widgets
Interactive widgets will be positioned in your Desktop in Sonoma, permitting you to regulate podcasts, view the climate, arrange or fulfill reminders, management good units round your own home, add a fast notice, and loads of different helpful capabilities. The widget gallery (which opens once you click on on the time and date part on the high of the display screen) is house to all of the accessible widgets, all you want to do is drag them onto the Desktop and also you’re good to go.
Due to Continuity, you may also work together along with your iPhone widgets in your Mac desktop with out even having to put in these apps.
In case you’re apprehensive about muddle, then Apple has considered that too, because the widgets fade within the background once you use different apps. As they’re clear on this mode, they’ll additionally slot in with any shade scheme in your wallpaper.
Screensavers
Talking of the Desktop, in Sonoma, Apple additionally improved the screensaver and wallpaper choices, providing high-definition photos of attractive areas from around the globe. These photos slowly journey throughout the panorama till settling right into a nonetheless picture once you open the Desktop. A easy addition, however a reasonably one.
Video conferencing upgrades
In case your video calls and conferences lack pizazz, then the brand new Presenter Overlay will spark issues up. It’s restricted to M1-powered (or later) Macs although, so bear that in thoughts. If in case you have the required {hardware} although, you possibly can select from two modes – massive and small – with the previous having you within the middle of the display screen, with any slides you create displayed behind you, however nonetheless in view. If you need extra give attention to the data, then the small possibility makes you a floating head that may be moved round to make sure the info you’re presenting is readable by the opposite individuals.
In the event that they like what you’re doing, then they will use a hand gesture to set off confetti, provide you with a thumbs-up, or select from a spread of different celebratory animations.
Safari upgrades
Safari gained some further options in macOS Sonoma (though strictly talking, new Safari options will be loved on the present and former two variations of macOS as a result of Apple makes the Safari replace extra broadly accessible). The principle Safari replace was Profiles, which lets you arrange devoted environments, say work and residential, which have totally different extensions, search historical past, Tab Teams, cookies and favorites.
The model of Safari that arrived with macOS Sonoma additionally allowed you so as to add any web site to the Dock in order that it really works as an internet app. This protects you from having to open Safari and go to the location. So as to add a webpage to the Dock simply go to the webpage after which click on on the Share icon and select Add to Dock. Simply click on the icon within the Dock and also you’ll be there in a flash.
PDFs and the Notes app
An AutoFill for PDFs characteristic makes filling in PDFs even simpler because it suggests info out of your Contacts, resembling your deal with and cellphone quantity. You can even view PDFs in Notes, actually, you possibly can retailer a number of PDFs in a notice and navigate by them web page by web page.
One of many large modifications in Notes is that you may import notes into Pages to edit them, if you wish to flesh a notice out right into a full doc.
To edit a notice in Pages open the notice within the Notes app, click on on the share icon and select Open in Pages.
Recreation Mode
For Mac avid gamers, the Recreation Mode that arrived in Sonoma ensured that the Mac provides the sport CPU and GPU utilization precedence to ensure efficiency is pretty much as good as it may be. There’s additionally massively decreased latency for Bluetooth controllers and AirPods audio.
Different options
Apple additionally introduced enhancements and extra options to Messages, password sharing, autocorrect, safety and extra.
New options arriving in macOS 15 Sequoia
With all the above already constructed into macOS, the next options might be added to your Mac once you set up macOS Sequoia.
Use your iPhone in your Mac
One of many standout options of macOS Sequoia, for Macs with M1 or later chips (or T2-equipped intel Macs), is iPhone Mirroring. That is the power to function your iPhone instantly from the Mac desktop. Utilizing the capabilities of Continuity (a characteristic, first launched with Yosemite in 2014, that hyperlinks all of your Apple units), you’ll be capable of open apps, test notifications, and switch recordsdata between Mac and iPhone with out having to select up your iPhone in any respect. It is possible for you to to work together along with your iPhone even when you’re sitting at your Mac within the subsequent room.
Home windows tiling
Uninterested in having to manually resize home windows once you’re working with a number of apps open? macOS Sequoia to the rescue with its new home windows tiling characteristic. Now, once you drag a window to a facet on the display screen it would supply to mechanically regulate its dimensions to snap into 1 / 4 or half of the show. You can even obtain the identical organizational feat utilizing keyboard shortcuts. Look ahead to having a neater Desktop. This may simply be the characteristic we’re most wanting ahead to!
Video conferencing enhancements
The place macOS Sonoma added Presenter Overlay, macOS Sequoia brings Presenter Preview. This exhibits the presenter what might be shared with others on a name earlier than they will see it.
There are additionally new background replacements that may disguise the state of your room. Apple says that its superior layering system ought to make the mixing of the pictures fairly seamless, so that you don’t get all of the fuzzy edges and artifacts that may usually be seen on Zoom calls.
These options aren’t restricted to FaceTime, it is possible for you to to reap the benefits of them in different video conferencing apps.
Safari updates
Apple’s browser continues to enhance. Launching alongside macOS Sequoia might be a brand new Highlights characteristic that pulls up crucial and related info on a webpage once you arrive (though you want to have it set to U.S. English). Reader mode additionally will get a lift with a abstract displayed on the high of the web page, alongside a desk of contents you need to use to navigate by the web page.
Plus, a devoted Video Viewer will allow you to take management of movies on internet pages.
As common, the updates to Safari might be accessible for the earlier two variations of macOS, so Sonoma customers will nonetheless be capable of take pleasure in them.
Passwords app
As with iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia introduces a brand new password supervisor app that allows you to set up your logins, passkeys, codes, and Wi-Fi particulars, all from a single interface in your Mac. All of them securely sync along with your different units, so that you’ll all the time have the small print you want wherever you might be.
Apple has lengthy helped clients handle all their passwords and login info in iCloud Keychain, however 2024 is the 12 months that each one this info will develop into barely extra accessible in an app.
Gaming
Constructing on the foundations of the Recreation Mode launched in macOS Sonoma, for these with Apple Silicon-powered Macs, Apple is promising the arrival of recent AAA titles that may be performed on the Mac. Murderer’s Creed Shadows, Management, Sniper Elite 4, and Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown are among the many headline video games that might be accessible within the Mac App Retailer within the coming months.
Messages
As with iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, in macOS Sequoia you’ll have extra alternatives to format textual content in Messages – together with including numerous enjoyable animations, further Tapback updates–together with the power to react with any sticker or emoji, and the power to schedule messages to exit at a later time or date.
Maps
macOS will achieve the identical Maps tweaks as iOS and iPadOS. For customers within the U.S., this implies new topographical maps of 63 nationwide parks–an actual boon for hikers. These embrace detailed path networks and paths so that you’ll be capable of discover the very best route in your strolling journey. You can even plot your personal when you’d relatively strike out in a special path. No information but on when different international locations will get topographical maps for their very own parks.
Notes
In macOS Sequoia the Notes app will achieve the power to report audio notes and produce a transcription of what’s being stated (Apple Silicon solely).
There’s additionally a brand new Math Notes characteristic that may clear up equations and different calculations in actual time, with automated changes when you change any of the characters.
Highlights lastly come to Notes (glory be!), as does the power to create a collapsible part that may maintain your structure clear and manageable.
Different options
There are numerous different tweaks in macOS Sequoia, together with enhancements for the way AirPods work together along with your Mac, an replace to the Calendar that may deal with extra advanced expressions, a brand new Scene characteristic in Freeform that you need to use to maneuver by a doc, in addition to new good collections within the Pictures app.
For an intensive breakdown of what Apple has dreamed up for Macs, check out our macOS Sequoia superguide.
What are the Apple Intelligence options in macOS 15 Sequoia?
Apple launched Apple Intelligence at WWDC, which can carry a extra personalised AI expertise to Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. This contains writing instruments that may assist enhance your textual content, rewrite it in different kinds, and summarise lengthy textual content in seconds.
There’s additionally the power to create photos utilizing AI, together with a method to create photos primarily based in your contacts, so you possibly can ship family and friends personalised photos of them dressed as superheroes, having fun with a celebration, or in different situations.
There are additionally widespread enhancements to Siri, as Apple is bringing AI enchancment to its digital assistant. These enhancements embrace the incorporation of ChatGPT, though this might be protected by the brand new Personal iCloud Compute that can stop your information from being misused.
It ought to be famous that as a result of {hardware} limitations, solely the next M-series Macs will be capable of use Apple Intelligence:
- iMac from 2021 and later
- Mac Professional from 2023
- Mac Studio from 2022 and later
- MacBook Air from late 2020 and later
- Mac mini from late 2020 and later
- MacBook Professional from late 2020 and later
Which Macs are appropriate with macOS Sequoia?
Right here’s the official listing of Macs that can get the Sequoia replace:
- iMac from 2019 and later
- Mac Professional from 2019 and later
- iMac Professional from 2017
- Mac Studio from 2022 and later
- MacBook Air from 2020 and later
- Mac mini from 2018 and later
- MacBook Professional from 2018 and later
What’s the distinction between macOS 14 and macOS 15?
Clearly, the AI-centric options of Apple Intelligence coming with Sequoia might be a major enhancement for Macs, however since they’re restricted to solely the newer Mac fashions, with Intel-powered Macs disregarded, they aren’t the only purpose to replace. The truth is, when the Apple Clever options launch they’ll solely be in beta, so that is nonetheless a know-how in its infancy.
Fortunately, another spectacular options are coming in macOS Sequoia. The place macOS Sonoma introduced additions that helped personalize the Mac–together with screensavers, desktop widgets, and Safari Profiles–macOS Sequoia has a extra multi-device focus, with iPhone Mirroring and improved password integration by the Password app, there are additionally options like Home windows tiling for a extra tidy desktop and the gaming enhancements that ought to be a boon for gaming on the Mac.
It’s merely a bit extra and a bit higher, though the very best stuff is reserved for these with the latest Macs.
Ought to I improve my Mac to run macOS 15 Sequoia?
It’s not normally a problem upgrading the software program on a Mac, as Apple makes the method straightforward and sometimes painless. If in case you have an older Mac although, chances are you’ll must get a brand new mannequin with the intention to run Sequoia, otherwise you might be able to run Sequoia, however not reap the benefits of all macOS Sequoia’s standout options–resembling Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring and audio transcription in Notes–since all require not less than an M1 powered system. See: Which Macs can run Sequoia?
If in case you have an M-series Mac, relatively than an older Intel-powered mannequin, then macOS Sequoia ought to show a formidable improve that makes your Mac much more helpful than it’s already.
If you wish to improve your Mac to get all the brand new options in macOS Sequoia, be sure you try our greatest Apple offers web page to see when you can decide up a discount, or check out our offers round-ups for every mannequin: