macOS Monterey (also known as macOS 12) is Apple’s latest operating system, released on October 25, 2021. It is a significant update to the operating system of Macs. Apple has added features like shortcuts, live text, and more tweaks to existing apps. Some of these new features are only available for M1 Mac owners.
This new update is free, and everyone can install it. But you will need an Internet connection for it. It might take around half an hour or more, depending on your Mac. To install the new updates, here are some of the steps:
- Go to system preferences in the Apple menu and click software update
- Then your Mac will check for a new update if it’s available.
- If there is a new update, we will need to download and install it afterwards.
- After the installation is completed, we need to restart our Mac; then, we will be able to see the new updates and operating system changes.
FaceTime Upgrade
One of the significant upgrades in this new macOS Monterey FaceTime is its unique visuals and audio features. Apple has added new and popular features like Portrait mode, grid view, spatial audio, voice isolations and many more.
People can apply portrait mode to their calls-adding blurry effects to the backgrounds. A new grid view also makes it easier to see everyone on the call at once. Also, in this new feature, people can invite android or windows device users to join by sending them a link.
Picture Source: https://www.apple.com/au/macos/monterey/
As for audio, macOS Monterey users can choose between voice isolation and a broad spectrum of microphone modes. In noisy environments, voice isolation is best to minimise background noise as it tries to block much-unwanted sound.
On the other hand, if music or sounds around us are as important as what we have to say, then a broad spectrum picks up all the noise from the background. Besides these two modes, macOS Monterey also has spatial audio, which helps individual voices sound like they’re coming from the direction everyone is positioned on our screen.
Other FaceTime features include Share Play which helps people to watch TV shows and movies together, listen to music or even share their whole screen or just a specific app with Share Play.
Picture Source: https://www.apple.com/au/macos/monterey/
Live Text
Apple live text is the next best feature available in macOS. We can copy, share, translate or look up text contained in any image. We can also click an address, and it will open in Maps. We can call, save, or message any number we see in pictures. We can also quickly learn about landmarks, works of art and many more with only a photo or an image we see online.
Universal Control
Fig: Universal Control
Picture Source: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT212757
This feature just got added in macOS Monterey 12.3. It requires a compatible Mac using macOS Monterey 12.3 or later and an iPad using iPad 15.4 or later. Universal Control allows the Mac cursor and keyboard to move between nearby Mac or iPad devices and work seamlessly between them.
This Universal Control is in its beta version (Still in development, so some features might not work as expected). To turn on these features, we must choose the Apple menu on Mac, go to system preferences, and then click displays. Click on the Universal Control button and select “Allow your cursor and keyboard to move between any nearby Mac or iPad”. On the other hand, open the setting app on your iPad and tap General, tap Airplay and Handoff, then turn on Cursor and Keyboard.
Focus Mode
Apple’s new focus mode helps people that get easily distracted by limiting the notifications and alerts on our Mac. We can only allow the notifications we want by clicking focus preferences and choosing the applications or statements like calls or messages we want to be notified. It is a handy tool, in my opinion.
This Focus mode will limit the notifications and allow others to know if we are busy or have already slept by automatically displaying our Status. We can also turn off this feature if we want.
Shortcuts
These shortcut features were initially available on iOS and iPad; now, they are also available on Mac. These shortcut features will help us create shortcuts to our favourite apps, split-screen two apps side by side with a single click and save time by turning something that will take multiple clicks into just one. We can use this from our menu bar, the finder, spotlight or Siri’s help. For example, we are telling Siri to open apps for you or telling you to open music or YouTube.
The great thing about this is that we can customise the shortcut bar however we want. We can just click and drag actions into the order we want and add the following available steps.
Safari
New macOS Monterey lets us customise our tap groups. Not only does it help to organise all those open tabs, but it also helps to make our safari window look neater. We can also name these tabs groups based on categories like games, news, and social and then add tabs to each.
The macOS Monterey also comes up with a close tab bar option that takes up less space on the page and takes on the colour of the site we are on. It tries to make the page visually attractive.
Picture Source: https://www.apple.com/au/macos/monterey/
Finder and emoji
Compared to older versions like Big Sur or Catalina, the Finder in macOS Monterey has few changes. While copying a file, the progress window is now a pie chart, and we can pause files if they take a long time and resume them later without corrupting them. Apple also upgraded its auto-completion engine to make it easier to find files.
Monterey has a lot more options to customise our Memoji than previous versions. From new different outfit colours and styles to hair and glasses. We can also use our Memoji for our Mac profile login, and they will react to us by doing headshakes, blinking eyes, and many other animations.
