Window snapping and tiling is a new way to quickly organize your Mac desktop. It lets you throw the two apps you’re working on side by side so you can focus on them.
Window snapping proves more versatile than fullscreen mode, which the Mac has had ever since OS X Lion. Fullscreen mode has a few compromises. For one, fullscreen mode only supports two windows side-by-side. And while you’re in fullscreen mode, you can’t have any other apps visible — fullscreen apps exist in a separate space from everything else.
With window snapping, you can have your Mac windows tiled in halves, quarters or a mix. You can use gestures or keyboard shortcuts, or control the tiling from your Mac’s menu bar. Keep reading or watch our video to learn how the cool Mac productivity feature works.
How to use window snapping and tiling on the Mac
Even if you have plenty of screen real estate, how you use that space matters. Open too many windows at once, and things can get complicated fast. With snapping and tiling, which Apple introduced in macOS 15 Sequoia, you can get a handle on all your open Mac windows.
To use it, first make sure you are running macOS 15 Sequoia or later. To check your version, go to the menu in the top right and click About This Mac. To update, open System Settings > General > Software Update.
macOS 15 Sequoia runs on all Apple silicon Macs, along with the last few Intel models: MacBook Air (2020 or newer), MacBook Pro (2018 or newer), Mac mini (2018 or newer), iMac (2019 or newer), iMac Pro, Mac Pro (2019 or newer) and Mac Studio.
Table of contents: How to use window snapping and tiling on the Mac
- Drag a window to the edge of the screen
- Drag a window while holding Option
- Choose from the Window menu or window buttons
- Restore a window to its original size (and position)
- Window tiling keyboard shortcuts
- Turn off margins, and other settings
- More Mac features
Drag a window to the edge of the screen
Animation: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Just like in Windows on a PC, the Mac now lets you tile windows by throwing them to the edge of the screen. Click on the window title bar and drag it all the way to the edge you want.
- Drag to the left or right edge to fill the left or right half of the screen.
- Drag to any of the four corners to fill that quarter of the screen.
- Drag to the top of the screen, in the middle, to fill the entire screen.
You can still place windows along the edge without tiling; tiling only activates when your cursor hits the edge.
If you don’t like this feature, ou can disable it in System Settings > Desktop & Dock by turning off “Drag windows to screen edges to tile” or “Drag windows to menu bar to fill screen.”
Instant window snapping while holding the Option key
Animation: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
If you want a faster way to activate window tiling on a large desktop display, you can hold down the Option (⌥) key. With Option held down, click the window title bar to instantly tile the window without dragging your cursor to the edge.
This may interfere with another common Mac keyboard shortcut. Option-clicking on a window is traditionally used to switch applications while hiding the previous one. If you accidentally Option-click on a title bar, you’ll hide the previous application while tiling the other one.
If you don’t like this setting, you can disable it in System Settings > Desktop & Dock by disabling “Hold ⌥ key while dragging windows to tile.”
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
If you don’t like the drag gestures or the Option key shortcut for window snapping on Mac, you can still enter window tiling mode manually.
From the Window menu in the menu bar, you will see all the same options. Fill will maximize the window; Center will put it dead-center on the screen. The Move & Resize submenu gives you all the options for tiling, with additional options — Top and Bottom halves of the screen. The five different “Arrange” options put the active window in one half, and lets you instantly pick a second window to go in the other half.
If you hover your cursor over the green button in the window title bar, you’ll see a quick palette of the most common options presented visually. It’s easier to access, but doesn’t have all the same settings.
Restore a window to its original size (and position)
Drag a window out of its tiled layout and it’ll return to the same window size it had before.
However, it won’t return to the same position on the screen. To do that, you can go to Window > Move & Resize > Return to Previous Size or hit Control-Globe-R.
Window snapping keyboard shortcuts
A faster way to rearrange windows, if your hands are already on the keyboard, is with these keyboard shortcuts:
- Globe-Control-◀︎▶︎▲▼ fills the active window on the left, right, top or bottom half of the screen.
- Globe-Control-Shift-◀︎▶︎▲▼ fills the active window on half the screen, with a second window on the opposite half.
- Globe-Control-Option-Shift-◀︎▶︎▲▼ fills the active window on half the screen, with two other windows in the opposite corners.
- Globe-Control-F maximizes the current window on the desktop.
- Globe-Control-C centers the current window on the desktop.
- Globe-Control-R restores a window to its previous size and position before tiling.
Turn off window margins
If you don’t want tiled windows to have a gutter or margin around them, you can disable that setting. Windows will be tiled pixel-perfect on the screen. In Settings > Desktop & Dock, scroll down and disable “Tiled windows have margins.”
More Mac features
After checking out window snapping, check out other new features in macOS Sequoia:
