Screen Savers
Stunning new screen savers
New slow-motion screen savers of breathtaking locations from around the world look beautiful on your large Mac display. When you log in, they seamlessly become your desktop wallpaper.
macOS Sonoma Preview macOS Sonoma Preview
Come for the power.
Stay for the fun.
With macOS Sonoma, work and play on your Mac are even more powerful. Elevate your presence on video calls. Access information in all-new ways. Boost gaming performance. And discover even more ways to personalize your Mac.
Available 9.26
Screen Savers
Widgets on Desktop
Add widgets to your desktop
Place widgets on your desktop from the new widget gallery. And you can now play a podcast, turn off the lights, and more — right from a widget.
Access iPhone widgets on Mac
With Continuity, you can add your iPhone widgets to your desktop without having to install the corresponding apps on your Mac.
Widgets fade for better focus
When you open an app or window or use Stage Manager, widgets fade into the background so you can concentrate on the task at hand. Switch your wallpaper and the colors of the widgets instantly adapt.
Video Conferencing
Put yourself front and center
The new Presenter Overlay keeps you part of the conversation when sharing your screen. Choose from two overlays, large and small. The large overlay keeps the spotlight on you, with your screen framed next to you on a separate layer. You can move, walk, and talk in front of your content.1
Float over your shared screen
Use the small overlay to appear in a movable bubble over your shared screen, so it’s easy to be seen while showcasing your work. Move yourself around the screen and point to important details.
React with your hands
Add a reaction that fills the camera frame with fun 3D augmented reality effects like hearts, confetti, fireworks, and more. And you can share a reaction with just a hand gesture.2
New Screen Sharing picker
Easily share an app or even multiple apps when on a video call, right from the window you’re in.
Stay in frame
Control the composition of your video when using Studio Display or iPhone as your camera. Adjust the frame with zoom and pan controls or use Recenter to automatically place yourself in the center of the frame.3
Safari and Passwords
Create a profile
Keep your browsing separate for topics like Work and Personal with different profiles in Safari. Profiles help you separate your history, extensions, Tab Groups, cookies, and favorites. You can quickly switch between profiles as you browse.
Faster and more relevant search
Search in Safari is more responsive than ever and shows easier-to-read and more relevant suggestions.
Web apps come to your Dock
Use any website like an app.
Web apps come to your Dock
Add any website to the Dock as a web app, right from the File menu. Launch a web app to get an app-like experience with a simplified toolbar. Access web apps the way you would any app and receive notifications.
Password and passkey sharing
Share a set of passwords with your trusted contacts.
Password and passkey sharing
Create a group and choose a set of accounts to share. Passwords stay up to date for everyone in the group, and you can remove someone at any time.
Enhanced Private Browsing
Private Browsing now locks your private browsing windows when you’re not using them,4 completely blocks known trackers from loading on pages, and removes identifying tracking added to URLs as you browse.
Messages
Search filters
Find the message you’re looking for faster by combining search filters to quickly narrow your search.
Catch-up and swipe to reply
A new catch-up arrow* lets you jump to the first message you haven’t seen in a conversation. And now you can swipe to the right on any message to reply.
A new way to share and view locations
Share your location or request a friend’s location from the plus button. When someone shares a location with you, view it directly within your conversation.
All your stickers in one place
The new stickers drawer lets you access your Live Stickers and Memoji all in one place. Your stickers sync with iCloud so they are available on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices.
PDFs and Notes
Fill out documents faster with AutoFill
Enhanced AutoFill allows you to securely use your saved information from Contacts to fill out a PDF or scanned document faster.
Coming later this year
Flip through a PDF in a note
View a full-width PDF right in Notes and click between its pages. Keep more than one PDF in the same note for easy access to related documents.
Link related notes
Link related notes, like a trip itinerary and a list of recommended restaurants.
Link related notes
Quickly add links from one note to another. It’s a powerful way to connect research notes, reference a recipe, or even create wikis for your team.
Start in Notes and finish in Pages
Click the Share button to send work that you began in a note to Pages. Customize fonts, resize graphics, add video, and more to create stunning documents.
Keyboard
Gaming
More games for Mac than ever
Fan-favorite titles take gaming on Mac to new heights.
More games for Mac than ever
Upcoming and recently added games for Mac include Fort Solis, Stray, DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR’S CUT, SnowRunner, World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, HUMANKIND™, The Medium, Resident Evil Village: Winters’ Expansion, No Man’s Sky, Firmament, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Dragonheir: Silent Gods, ELEX II, and Layers of Fear.*
Level up with Game Mode
Game Mode automatically gives games top priority on the CPU and GPU of your Mac, lowering usage for background tasks. And it dramatically reduces latency with wireless accessories, like AirPods and your favorite controllers, for responsiveness you can feel.7
Privacy and Security
Communication Safety
Communication Safety now includes protections for sensitive videos and photos. And it extends beyond Messages to include content sent and received in the systemwide photo picker and third‑party apps.
Sensitive Content Warning
You now have the option to blur sensitive photos and videos before you choose to view them. This feature will be available in Messages and third-party apps.
Improved permissions
Even more control over what you share.
Improved permissions
Apps can let you choose which photos to share from within the app, while keeping the rest of your Photos library private. And allow an app to add an event in Calendar without the app being able to view your other events.
Lockdown Mode
The expanded Lockdown Mode increases security to help protect against sophisticated cyber attacks. Turn it on across all your Apple devices, now including Apple Watch.
And so
much more.
Accessibility.
Personal Voice6 helps users with speech loss create a voice that sounds like them, then use it with Live Speech to communicate in FaceTime calls and in-person conversations. Made for iPhone hearing devices can now pair directly with Mac,8 so users with hearing disabilities can take calls and have conversations more conveniently. Other updates include an easier way to adjust text size for reading comfort, an option to automatically pause animated images while browsing the web, and a new experience for learning how to use Voice Control.
Screen Sharing.
Tap into the full power of your Mac while working away from it. The new high-performance mode in the Screen Sharing app uses the advanced media engine in Apple silicon to enable highly responsive remote access over high-bandwidth connections.1
Reminders.
Grocery Lists automatically sort items into categories to make shopping easier. Change how items are grouped, and the list remembers your preferences. And new Column View organizes sections into columns across your screen, making it easy to visualize your tasks.
Mail.
See travel-related emails at the top of your search results as your trip dates approach. And add big emoji to your messages.
Visual Look Up.
Find recipes for similar dishes from a photo. And look up information on an object that appears in a paused video frame.
Photos.
The People album is better than ever at recognizing your favorite people and now includes the cats and dogs that are part of your family too.
Find My.
Share AirTag or Find My network accessories with up to five other people. Everyone in the group can see the item on a map and play a sound to pinpoint the location of a shared item when nearby.
Home.
Activity History lets you see who locked or unlocked the door — and when. It also shows recent activity for garage doors, contact sensors, and your security system.9 And Grid Forecast6 shows when a user’s electrical grid has relatively cleaner or less clean energy sources available so you can plan when to run appliances.
Music.
Invite friends to join your playlist and everyone can add, reorder, and remove songs. In Now Playing, you can use emoji to react to the song choices.
Coming later this year
Dictation.
Use Dictation and the keyboard together. Move fluidly between Dictation and typing without having to stop dictating.12
Siri.
Siri now works when you just say “Siri” as well as “Hey Siri.”13
See a full list of
what’s
new in macOS Sonoma.
macOS Sonoma is compatible with these devices.
- iMac 2019 and later
- Mac Pro 2019 and later
- iMac Pro 2017
- Mac Studio 2022 and later
- MacBook Air 2018 and later
- Mac mini 2018 and later
- MacBook Pro 2018 and later