Apple has just announced macOS 13 at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), codenamed Ventura. The upcoming update does not have any significant visual overhaul, but instead adds new features to existing apps that improve on collaboration, productivity, and brings passwordless security for users.
First up, we have Stage Manager, a new productivity tool that automatically organises your apps and windows for less distractions. The tool will organise any open apps onto the side of your screen while putting the app you are currently working on right in the centre. Moreover, you can group different windows from different apps together, so you can save specific configurations for several projects.
Messages also gets a whole list of new features that will bring many tools to the messaging app. Users on Messages will finally be able edit sent messages and even undo texts, the latter of which has existed on WhatsApp for quite some time while the former is currently in the works.
Users will have up to 15 minutes after sending messages to edit or recall them, with the option of recovering deleted messages up to 30 days after undoing them. SharePlay is also getting an update on Messages as users will be able to share SharePlay sessions right in the app’s threads.
Spotlight, the desktop search feature, is getting upgraded with rich results whenever you search for artists, movies, actors, and TV shows, businesses, and sports. Users will also be able to start a timer, create a new document, or run a shortcut straight from the app and use Live Text to search for text within images from both their photo library and the web. Live Text will also be able to scan for texts when you pause on a video.
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As for Safari, the browser will be getting a new collaboration tool which lets users share tabs and bookmarks, as well as send messages and start FaceTime calls straight from Safari, which will update in real time when somebody in your group adds new tabs. Apple is also introducing Passkeys into the browser, which are unique on-device digital keys that make signing-in simpler using biometrics such as Touch ID or Face ID. The Passkeys are synced across all your Apple devices and even enables iPhone sign-ins for supported websites or apps on non-Apple devices.
The Apple ecosystem’s Continuity also gets a new feature by way of using the iPhone as a wireless webcam for your Mac, though there are some caveats to using this, which we will go into further in a later article. This is in line with Facetime’s massive upgrade which takes advantage of Handoff to let you seamlessly switch over calls between your devices.
The developer beta for macOS Ventura is available now while the public beta will be made available next month. As always, Apple has not announced when the stable version will officially be released, but it is usually rolled out some time in the fall.
(Source: Apple)
