macOS Sequoia: A Game-Changing Update with iPhone Mirroring and 164 New Features

macOS Sequoia review: iPhone mirroring is more useful than you think

Apple's macOS updates have been so dull lately, the most interesting part of last year's macOS Sonoma ended up being widgets. Widgets! Thankfully, macOS Sequoia has a lot more going on -- or at least it will, once Apple Intelligence rolls out over the next few months. For now, though, Sequoia delivers a few helpful features like iPhone Mirroring, a full-fledged Passwords app and automatic transcription in the Notes app. At the very least, it's got a lot more going on than widgets. Heading into WWDC earlier this year, I was hoping that Apple would let Vision Pro users mirror their iPhones just as easily as they can mirror their Macs. Well, we didn't get that, but iPhone Mirroring on macOS Sequoia is close to what I'd want on the Vision Pro. Once you've got a Mac (with an Apple Silicon chip, or one of the last Intel models with a T2 security chip) running the new OS, as well as an iPhone running iOS 18, you can easily pair the two using the iPhone Mirroring app. Once that connection is made, you'll see a complete replication of your phone within the app. It took me a few minutes to get used to navigating iOS with a trackpad and keyboard (there are a few new hotkeys worth learning), but once I did, I had no trouble opening my usual iPhone apps and games. If you're spoiled by the 120Hz ProMotion screen from an iPhone Pro, you'll notice that the mirrored connection doesn't look nearly as smooth, but from my testing it held a steady 60fps throughout games and videos. I didn't notice any annoying audio or video lag either. While it's nice to be able to launch my iPhone from my Mac, I was surprised at what ended up being the most useful aspect of this feature: Notifications. Once you've connected your phone, its alerts pop up in your Mac's Notification Center, and it takes just one click to launch the app it's tied to. That's useful for alerts from Instagram, DoorDash and other popular apps that have no real Mac options, aside from launching their websites in a browser. iPhone Mirroring is also a sneaky way to get in a few rounds of Vampire Survivors during interminably long meetings or classes. (Not that I would ever do such a thing.) While many mobile games have made their way over to the Mac App Store, there are still thousands that haven't, so it's nice to have a way to access them on a larger screen. Not every game works well on Macs -- it's just tough to replicate a handheld touchscreen experience with a large trackpad -- but mirroring is a decent option for slower-paced titles. I didn't encounter any strange framerate or lagging issues, and sound carried over flawlessly as well. I typically always have my phone within reach, even when I'm working at a desk. But picking it up would inevitably disrupt my workflow -- it's just far too easy to get a notification and find yourself scrolling TikTok or Instagram, with no memory of how you got there. With iPhone Mirroring, I can just keep on working on my Mac without missing any updates from my phone. It's also been useful when my iPhone is connected to a wireless charger and I desperately need more power before I run out the house. If you're the sort of person who leaves your phone around your home, I'd bet mirroring would also be helpful. The feature requires having both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi turned on, and the connection range is around 50 feet, or what I'd expect from Bluetooth. Thick walls and other obstructions can also reduce that range significantly. In my testing, I could leave my iPhone in my backyard and still be able to mirror it in my living room 40 feet away. Naturally, the further you get, the choppier the experience. Sure, Apple isn't the first company to bring smartphone mirroring to PCs. Samsung and other Android phone makers have been offering it for years, and Microsoft also has the "Phone Link" app (formerly Your Phone) for mirroring and file syncing. But those implementations differ dramatically depending on the smartphone you're using, they don't seamlessly integrate notifications and simply put, they would often fail to connect. Once you set up iPhone Mirroring, getting into your phone takes just a few seconds. It just works. And after testing the feature for weeks, I haven't run into any major connection issues. It's 2024 and Apple has finally made it easier to position Mac windows around your monitor. Now you can drag apps to the sides or corners of your screen, and they'll automatically adjust themselves. It's allowed me to quickly place a browser I'm using for research alongside an Evernote window or Google Doc. Similar to Stage Manager in macOS Ventura, the tiling shortcuts are a significant shift for Mac window management. And, of course, they're also clearly similar to Windows 10 and 11's snapping feature. Given that much of Apple's UI focus is on iOS, iPadOS and VisionOS these days, it's easy to feel like the Mac has been left behind a bit. I don't blame Apple for cribbing Microsoft's UI innovations, especially when it makes life easier for Mac users. Apple has offered lighting adjustments and portrait background blurring in video chats for years, and now it's using that same machine learning technology to completely replace your backgrounds. Admittedly, this isn't a very new or exciting feature. But it's worth highlighting because it works across every video chat app on your Mac, and since it's relying on Apple's Neural Engine, it looks much better than software-based background replacements. Apple's technology does a better job of keeping your hair and clothes within focus, but still separated from artificial backgrounds. And best of all, it doesn't look like a cheap green screen effect. You can choose from a few color gradients, shots of Apple Park or your own pictures or videos. Here are a few other upgrades I appreciated: You'd be forgiven for completely ignoring the last batch of macOS updates, especially if you haven't been excited about Stage Manager or, sigh, widgets. But if you're a Mac and iPhone owner, Sequoia is worth an immediate upgrade. Being able to mirror your iPhone and its notifications is genuinely useful, and it's stuffed with other helpful features. And of course, if you want to get some Apple Intelligence action next month, you'll have no choice but to upgrade. (We'll have further impressions on all of Apple's AI features as they launch.) Sure, it's a bit ironic that Apple's aging desktop OS is getting a shot of life via its mobile platform, but honestly, the best recent Mac features have been directly lifted from iOS and iPadOS. It's clear that Apple is prioritizing the devices that get updated far more frequently than laptops and desktops. I can't blame the company for being realistic - for now, I'm just glad it's thoughtfully trying to make its devices play nice together. (And seriously, just bring iPhone mirroring to the Vision Pro already.)

We found all 164 new features in macOS Sequoia

Quick Links Continuity Window tiling Video conferencing Safari Passwords Messages Notes Photos Apple Intelligence Other new macOS Sequoia features What are you excited to try in macOS Sequoia? macOS Sequoia is a significant update, even without Apple Intelligence available at launch. In fact, Apple lists exactly 164 new features -- yes, you read that right -- in its official guide for macOS Sequoia. If you want to get into the nitty gritty of Apple's latest Mac update, we've found and listed all 164 features and changes. Many are available today, and some are coming soon. Let's dive in. Continuity Highlighted by iPhone Mirroring, a new features will help your Apple devices work better together Close Continuity is the feature set that brings your Apple devices together, and it gets a boost with macOS Sequoia thanks to iPhone Mirroring. It lets you mirror your iPhone's display to your Mac, enabling remote control of your smartphone. You can do everything you could with your iPhone normally, and you can control the iPhone with your trackpad. Additionally, iPhone notifications can appear on your Mac after you set up iPhone Mirroring for the first time. iPhone Mirroring works with StandBy and supports drag-and-drop file sharing. You can even edit your iPhone's home screen while using iPhone Mirroring. Related How to use iPhone Mirroring in macOS Sequoia Want your iPhone notifications on your Mac? Now you can have that and more with iPhone Mirroring. Window tiling The popular Windows 11 feature finally makes its way to the Mac macOS Sequoia now supports window tiling and resizing, which means you can drag windows to the edges of the screen to snap them into place. This feature works with keyboard shortcuts for quicker window organization, and holding the Option key works as a way of previewing your changes. There's a green button and a menu bar option that shows you tiled window menu options, and window tiling also supports multiple displays. Video conferencing Presenter preview and play preview let you know exactly what you're sharing The new screen sharing preview in macOS Sequoia. To make sure you always know what you're about to show people on a video call, macOS Sequoia adds Presenter preview. This feature lets you see the specific app or window that will be shared with others through a video conferencing app. Similarly, Play preview shows you where your presenter notes and content will be shown in Keynote and other apps, so you aren't caught off guard without your notes. Related 4 reasons macOS is the best OS for video calls Video conference calls have become ubiquitous in 2023, and there's no OS better at them than macOS Sonoma. Other new video conferencing features macOS Sequoia adds OS-level background replacement; you can choose from a selection of color gradients and system wallpapers, or add your own background image. Safari Highlights tell you more about what's on your screen Close Safari 18 introduces a redesigned Reader mode, which can show a summary and a table of contents in some situations. A Video Viewer makes it possible to pull an instream video front and center for a more enjoyale experience. The new Reader icon also houses Safari Highlights, which show you helpful information about the content you're viewing on the page. Summary highlights provide a summary of a website before you read it. Movie or TV show highlights give you a quick way to find a movie or TV show from what you're currently viewing. Music highlights give you a quick link to a song or album when relevant. Location highlights let you find the location and get directions to a place, like a restaurant or landmark. Person highlights tell you more information about an important person on a website. Other new Safari features Distraction control makes it possible to hide items on a webpage by clicking an option in the Reader menu and selecting any content blocks you find distracting. Related I tried the upgraded Safari 18 beta without installing macOS Sequoia, and you can too You can run the next version of Safari on macOS Sonoma and Ventura today Passwords A new Passwords app serves as a one-stop shop for all your credentials After years of saving passwords in the System Settings app via the iCloud Password Keychain, there's now an official Apple Passwords app to store all your passwords and passkeys. This app also shows your Sign in with Apple credentials, Wi-Fi passwords, and verification codes. There's a menu bar app for Passwords to make finding your stored information easy. Other new Passwords features You can sort Passwords credentials alphabetically or by date created. Messages Text effects and formatting options bring your messages to life Source: Apple Messages for macOS Sequoia gains all the new tools that came to iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. The highlights are Text effects, Text formatting, and Send Later. Text effects add dynamic and animated effects to written messages, kind of like how full-screen iMessage effects work. Text formatting brings options like bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough to Messages. Send Later makes it possible to schedule a message to be sent later, and it'll be encrypted and stored on Apple's servers, so it'll be sent regardless of whether your Mac is powered on. Related How to use use custom emoji message reactions in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 The latest iOS and iPadOS update lets you react to messages with any emoji instead of just the basic six Other new Messages features You can now Tapback to a message with any emoji or sticker. Low Quality Image Mode now sends images in their original size or in a compressed form with minimal quality loss. iMessage will now send most images up to 100MB at full resolution. This will vary based on your device and network connection. Notes Audio recording, live transcription, and collapsible sections improve productivity Even without Apple Intelligence, the Notes app has a few new tools in macOS Sequoia that'll help your productivity and efficiency. Audio recording can be started directly from a note, and a live transcript of the audio is available, which is searchable and scrubbable. Math in Notes will autocomplete formulas in equations in your note body, and that goes for any macOS Sequoia text box as well. There are five Highlighter color options, and collapsible sections help you organize long notes. With PDF inline search, you can find words with an improved search experience, per Apple. Photos A redesigned Photos app brings new features to the Mac Although the redesign isn't as prominent as the one to hit iOS 18, the Photos app in macOS Sequoia has a new look. There are new Collections that help sort your media library, and you can choose from four Collection view options. The People & Pets page features groups of your favorite people automatically. Views like Recent Days and Trips provide new sorting options, and album attribution shows what albums a photo has been added to. Smart suggestions, featured photos, and creative stories further add to the fresh experience. You can also create your own Memories by typing a description. Other new Photos features Smart copy and paste edits help you use presets to edit similar photos quickly. Video speed control makes it possible to adjust the pace of high frame rate video. Apple Intelligence This is the highlight of macOS Sequoia for many, and it is coming next month Source: Apple Apple Intelligence isn't available now, but will come starting with macOS 15.1. Let's break down some of the features heading to macOS Sequoia over the next year. The following Apple Intelligence features are expected to ship with macOS 15.1 next month, to Mac computers with an M1 chip or newer. Writing Tools Close Writing Tools use generative AI to reimagine or summarize your written content with six options: rewrite, proofread, style, describe, summarize, and compose. These are available system-wide in macOS Sequoia 15.1, so you can use them in any app or text box you'll find. Siri The new Siri adds things like personal context understanding, product knowledge, on-screen awareness, and in-app actions. There is also conversational context, so Siri can remember things you've recently talked about. Siri has a more natural voice, and you can Type to Siri if you don't want to speak out loud. It'll understand you if you mix up words and correct yourself, too. In the Siri Keyboard, predictive text is improved and there are better suggestions. Focus Apple Intelligence will use Reduce interruptions and intelligent breakthrough and silencing to determine what notifications are really important. Mail Priority messages show you the most important emails at the top of the Mail app, and preview summaries appear below the subject line to add context. Long emails can be summed up with Thread summaries, and you can use Smart Reply to refine your responses. Photos Natural language search in Photos, custom AI-generated Memories, and the Clean Up tool are coming in a future macOS Sequoia update. Related I tried 5 new Apple Intelligence features in macOS Sequoia, here's how it went The flagship features aren't available yet, but I'm already impressed by the Apple Intelligence beta. The Apple Intelligence features below are expected to debut on a rolling basis over the course of the next year; exact release timelines are unknown. Image Playground The Image Playground app doesn't have a firm release window yet, but it's Apple Intelligence's new image generator. You can create images with people you know, with photos, with concepts, with characters, and with text. There are also suggested concepts to help spark your imagination. Quick previews let you see what your concepts will create before you choose them, and a preview history will save your concepts. There will be an Image Playground library to store your creations, and integration with Apple apps, like a Messages experience that will suggest concepts based on your conversations. You can pick illustration styles, sketch styles and animation styles to refine your concepts. Genmoji Source: Apple You'll be able to use generative AI to create emoji-style stickers for use in Mac apps. ChatGPT integration Siri will get ChatGPT integration at a to-be-confirmed date in a later macOS Sequoia update. Other new Apple Intelligence features Notifications can sort your Mac's pings with priority notifications and sum them up with notification summaries. These can be read aloud when using Announce Notifications. Smart Reply and message summaries are coming to Messages. Other new macOS Sequoia features Maps Hiking and walking directions with topographic maps are now available in Maps. Thousands of hikes can be downloaded to your device from Maps and all U.S. national parks are featured. Custom walking and hiking routes can be created or saved to the Maps app in macOS Sequoia. It's easier to Discover and save places with the new Places Library. AirPods You can respond to Siri announcements with AirPods by shaking your head. Personalized Spatial Audio now works with a new API to create an immersive gaming experience. In-game voice quality is improved, offering up to 13 bits and 48kHz while streaming or using voice chat while gaming on macOS Sequoia. Voice Isolation improves your microphone quality when using AirPods with macOS Sequoia. AirPods Pro and macOS Sequoia now provide reduced gaming audio latency. Accessibility Vocal shortcuts let you develop custom words or utterances that trigger shortcuts. macOS Sequoia now works with Made for iPhone Cochlear implants. Apple Account Sign in with Apple credentials can be shared with friends and family members in the Passwords app. Apple TV app The Apple TV app adds InSight, a feature that smartly shows information about what you're watching in real time. It also brings more dynamic subtitles, like those that automatically appear during action sequences with loud noises. Calculator Calculator adds Math Notes, Math Results, and Typed math to macOS Sequoia. You can now assign variables in Calculator and use those variables in expressions with Math Notes. Calculator keeps a history of past calculations that are storied and can be copied to the clipboard. You can hove your cursor over a number in Math Notes to adjust numbers on the fly with a slider. Values and equations will adjust in real time based on your changes. Unit conversions are now available when using the scientific calculator or Math Notes. Editable expressions show a full expression before it is manually solved, and can be deleted. Calendar You can view, edit, and create Reminders in Calendar while viewing a refreshed look at the day, week, and month views of the macOS Sequoia Calendar app. Family Sharing Family Sharing invitations now appear at the top of the System Settings app. macOS Sequoia can show recommended items for your family, such as a shared calendar, grocery list, or passwords list. Finder There's a new API that will allow cloud storage services to integrate with Finder for desktop and documents folder syncing. iCloud files can be selected to always remain downloaded on your Mac. Freeform Scenes can be set to distinguish certain areas of a board, which will help you navigate it easier or present content seamlessly. Snap to Grid will let you simply align blocks and freeform content to your board and improved diagramming adds magnetic connection lines, which are able to be anchored anywhere you'd like. You can now send a copy of your board to anyone, as many times as you need to. Handwriting recognition makes it possible to search, translate, and copy your handwritten work as text. You can click and drag on the canvas while pressing the spacebar on your Mac's keyboard to easily pan around your board for simpler navigation. Home With the Home app in macOS Sequoia, you can provide guest access for locks, pair Matter accessories without a hub, control robot vacuum cleaners, and view electricity usage and rates for select power companies. Some of these features are not available at launch. iCloud The System Settings app and iCloud page have been redesigned. Keyboard Stickers are now searchable. Stickers and Memoji work just like text, and can now be inserted inline. A new unified picker houses all your emoji and stickers. Podcasts You can share a link to a podcast from a specific time using the transcript. Privacy & security Privacy & security settings is now redesigned to show how much you're sharing with each app. Communication Safety will block viewing or sending sensitive content for children. Reminders Reminders now appear in the Calendar app. You can view recently-deleted reminders in a list. Grocery lists can be categorized with other languages. You can now see Subtasks in Smart Lists. Tips The Tips app now comes to macOS with support for sharing tips with friends. Translate In-ear translations can be played through your Mac's microphone, and you can respond with AirPods microphones for easier multilingual communication. The Translate app now supports Hindi. Wallet Apple Pay will work on third-party browsers for some sites. Weather The Weather app for macOS now shows a prominent Feels like temperature, and will show more information about wind gusts and directions. Home and work locations stored in Contacts can be found in Weather. What are you excited to try in macOS Sequoia? There's so much to unpack here, and plenty more coming soon We've covered a lot, from big changes in macOS Sequoia to smaller tweaks that most users probably won't even notice. The best Macs get small boosts all the time through macOS updates, and this year is no different. Apple Intelligence will be coming out on a rolling basis starting next month, but there's a lot to unpack even without it. Now, the only thing that's left for you to do is start trying things out for yourself. Related macOS Sequoia hands-on: Apple finally figured out how to snap windows macOS Sequoia is like macOS Sonoma, but with window snapping built-in.