All the new features in macOS Sequoia

macOS Sequoia is a pretty comprehensive update with some fantastic new features, like iPhone mirroring, window tiling and text message formatting. Although Apple Intelligence — the AI features coming to Mac, iPhone and iPad — will continue grabbing headlines for the next year, it won’t arrive until later in the fall. Plus, only Macs with Apple silicon will support Apple Intelligence

Still, macOS Sequoia brings some game-changing new features — and it’s out right now. Find it in System Settings > General > Software Update. It’s compatible with most of the same Macs as macOS Sonoma, dropping support for the 2018 and 2019 MacBook Air.

After you update, here’s the big list of things you can check out.

Over 25 new features in macOS 15 Sequoia

Table of contents: Everything new in macOS Sequoia

1. iPhone mirroring
2. Window tiling
3. Loads of new features in Messages on macOS Sequoia
4. New features in Notes
5. New features in Safari
6. Other new system features in macOS Sequoia
7. New features in other apps
8. What’s coming in future releases

iPhone mirroring

iPhone mirroring lets you use your iPhone on your Mac remotely. Right after you update, you’ll see the icon on your Dock. Click it to remotely connect to your phone. It works if it’s in your pocket, sitting in a bag across the room, or even in StandBy.

Scrolling on your trackpad or mouse will translate as a one-finger swipe gesture. If you have a regular mouse without multitouch, you can also click and drag to swipe. Hover your mouse near the top of the screen to bring up window controls and a toolbar. You can click on the Home Bar to go home, or you can click the Home Screen and App Switcher buttons in the top right.

From the View menu in the menu bar, you can make the screen larger (⌘=) or smaller (⌘−).

Notifications from your iPhone will appear on your Mac, even for apps that aren’t on the Mac. So if you get a Snapchat, you can click the notification banner to open iPhone mirroring and check it out. But unfortunately, opening a Snapchat will incorrectly assume that you took a screen recording.

Window tiling

You can tile windows on your screen to fill your screen pixel-perfect.

• Drag windows to the edge to fill the screen. The top edge will maximize a window, the left or right edges will fill those halves. The corners will fill that quarter of the screen.
• Drag a window by holding down the Option (⌥) key to instantly start tiling it.
• Hover your mouse over the green button in the top left to tile windows from a point-and-click menu.

By default, tiled windows have a small gutter around them. You can disable this in System Settings > Desktop & Dock. Scroll down to the “Windows” section and uncheck Tiled windows have margins. Here, you can also disable window snapping at the edge of the screen.

Dragging a window out of its snapped position will restore its original size.

I personally don’t use window snapping and tiling; I carefully arrange my windows on my screen by hand. But I can appreciate that this is important for a lot of PC switchers.

Loads of new features in Messages in macOS Sequoia

These are a bunch of new features coming to Messages, which you can read more about on the iPhone in our roundup article:

Format your text with bold, italics, underline and strikethrough from the Format menu in the menu bar or by right-clicking. You can also use standard keyboard shortcuts ⌘B, ⌘I and ⌘U.

Animate text from the Format menu. You can make text big, small, shake, nod, explode, ripple, bloom and jitter. Highlight a word or phrase to animate a specific part of the text. You can even use multiple different effects in the same message.

Schedule messages to send later if you want to send a text in the future, at a specific date and time. Click the + menu and select Send Later. Messages can be scheduled up to a week in advance. Messages you have scheduled will appear below the current conversation until they’re sent.

Right-click on a text message bubble (or hit ⌘T) and you’ll discover that you can Tapback with any emoji; you’re not limited to the basic six options. You can scroll the list to see some common emoji; or tap the emoji button to see the full emoji picker.

RCS messaging will be enabled when texting someone on a supported Android device. It’ll say “Text Message • RCS” in the text field. You’ll see typing indicators and read receipts (if they’re enabled). Over RCS, you can send high-resolution images and videos, voice memos, files and more.

New features in Notes in macOS Sequoia

The dedicated team behind Apple Notes continues to deliver rich features this year:

1. You can record voice memos with transcriptions.
2. Collapsible section headers make longer notes more browsable.
3. You can type out equations and calculations for solving longer-form math problems.
4. Highlight and color text in purple, pink, orange, mint and blue.
5. If you record a call on your iPhone, a transcription will sync to your Notes on your Mac as well in a new Call Recording folder.

New features in Safari in macOS Sequoia

All the new features coming to Safari on iOS are coming to the Mac, too:

The new page menu has a big blue button to enable Reader mode (if it’s available). It also lets you change the zoom level, find things on the page or configure website-specific settings. (You can find additional options that show up in the page menu on iPhone in the Mac’s menu bar. That keeps this menu from feeling too busy.)

Hide Distracting Items lets you make an annoying part of a webpage disappear. Find it in the Page menu. Click on an element on the page, then it’ll blow away into dust.

Information highlights will show up on certain pages. If you’re looking at a business, restaurant or point of interest known to Apple Maps, you’ll see a widget that tells you the operating hours, contact info and location. Click it to open in Maps. If you’re reading about a notable person, you’ll see a short bio; tap it to open in Wikipedia. Articles will have a short summary with key points. Click to show Reader mode.

An automatically generated summary and table of contents will appear at the top of an article in Reader mode. It’ll tell you the gist of a long article right at the top, and you can click on a section to jump to a specific part.

Other new system features in macOS Sequoia

iCloud Keychain now powers a new Passwords app that makes storing, looking up, editing or searching your saved passwords easier than ever.

AirPods gain new features such as nodding your head to respond “yes” or “no” to Siri and incoming calls, spatial audio for gaming and voice isolation on AirPods Pro.

macOS Sequoia also rearranges System Settings categories. The group of Notifications, Sound, Focus and Screen Time items move down in the sidebar below General, Accessibility, Appearance, etc. Apple also reorganized the Privacy & Security settings for easier use.

New features in other apps

Calculator has been visually redesigned with round buttons, similar to iOS.

Calendar now integrates with Reminders. Tasks with a specified date and time will appear in Calendar, and from Calendar you can create Reminders just like you can create new events.

Maps has local hiking trails for local and national parks in the United States and Japan. You can browse through recommended walking trails, seeing details such as distance, ETA and change in elevation. Piece together a custom route to plan your hike in advance. You can also save it for offline access on your iPhone and Apple Watch.

Chess has been updated with all-new graphics for the first time since Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, 20 years ago.

Photos has a big new design on iOS — while the Mac app is largely the same, the sidebar is reorganized into the same set of collections.

In Freeform, you can present specific areas of your board easier by creating scenes. A new diagramming mode lets you connect different objects on the board — and you can align them perfectly by snapping them to a grid. If you use a mouse, you can now easily pan around the board by clicking and dragging while holding the spacebar.

In Weather, if the “Feels Like” temperature is wildly different to the actual temperature, it’ll appear prominently alongside it.

The Home app lets you set up guest access, so you can selectively allow others inside. This could be handy if someone is watching your dogs while you’re on vacation.

Privacy settings are redesigned and easier to manage.

What’s coming in future releases of macOS Sequoia

Apple Intelligence features will be released in macOS 15.1, expected to arrive in October. That includes:

• Writing tools can help you proofread, change tone and summarize text.
• Notification summaries will give a brief overview of a busy text conversation.
• The image clean-up tool in Photos lets you erase elements from a picture by circling it.
• Siri can understand you if you stumble over your words, and has a new visual design.

Additional Apple Intelligence features will be rolled out in later updates:

• A more capable version of Siri will be able to see your screen and take action on your behalf inside the apps you use.
• A personal context of information based on your conversations and data inside your apps will help Apple Intelligence and Siri understand your life.
• Image Playground is a tool in Messages, Notes and other apps for creating images.
• Genmoji lets you create custom emoji based on a description or based on a person in your Photos library.
• Swift Assist will help programmers in Xcode write functions or add features to their code.

A couple other features are coming later as well:

• Mail will automatically sort your inbox into categories for Primary, Transactions, Updates and Promotions.
• If you have a Vision Pro, you’ll be able to use Mac Virtual Display in a giant ultra-wide mode.
• A future update to iPhone mirroring will let you drag and drop images and files between your iPhone and Mac.
• Robot vacuum support is coming to the Home app for remote control and automations.

Other software updates

Check out articles on Apple’s other software releases: