Tonight, Apple announced the major new update for the Mac OS: macOS Sonoma (aka macOS 14). Your Mac will be getting all kinds of new features this fall — here’s what you need to know.
macOS Sonoma
This year’s major Mac update includes macOS Sonoma – Sonoma is a wine region in California. Again, this is an accurate reference to Apple’s home base, just as Ventura refers to a town, and El Capitan refers to a rock formation. Of course, Sonoma will have its own beautiful desktop and screensaver. But what’s new in this update?
widgets
Widgets on the Mac used to be a bit more hidden, but now you can go wild — just like on the iPhone and iPad. You can fill your entire desktop with it and it’s also interactive. It sometimes fades subtly and then blends into the background, so it doesn’t turn out to be fair when you need to focus on something. Also nice: Thanks to the Continuity functionality of your Apple devices, you can simply display your iPhone widgets on your Mac. As long as your iPhone is nearby and on the same Wi-Fi network.
video conferencing
Working from home has become more popular in recent years, but Apple has been left far behind when it comes to Teams and Zoom. New is the presenter overlay, where you position yourself in front of your presentation. Apple is also trying to spice up video conferencing with AI video effects (a true Apple fan already knows them from messages: confetti, fireworks, etc.). And you can also use the new stickers in macOS, also present in the just-announced iOS 17. By the way, all of this works in third-party apps as well.
Safari
Fluid isn’t happy, because Apple now also allows your favorite web pages to be turned into Mac apps — complete with notifications and a sweet spot in the Dock. Moreover, Apple is once again succeeding in the field of privacy. One of the innovations is that you can share passwords and passkeys via iCloud Keychain with people you trust. A welcome addition is Profiles in Safari: create a profile to use at school, work, or at home. This way you can separate cookies, favorites, and tab groups.
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When can you download macOS Sonoma?
Apple remains vague during WWDC with “available this fall”. If we look at the past years, we can conclude that the official release date is closer to late October and mid-November at the latest:
- macOS Ventura: October 24, 2022
- macOS Monterey: Oct 26, 25 2021
- macOS Big Sur: November 12, 2020
If you don’t want to wait for it, you can also start using the new macOS version in advance. Apple releases betas in the summer and everyone can try them out. If you still have a Spare Mac, you can test it. We do not recommend installing the beta on the Mac you use every day, as it may still contain bugs.
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