Each year, the best Macs get even better with a new macOS update, with a preview first hitting the scenes in the summer. This year, that update is macOS Sonoma. Currently in developer beta, it is the follow-up to last year’s macOS Ventura, which delivered productivity-boosting features like Stage Manager. macOS Sonoma, though, isn’t about groundbreaking new features. Rather, this update is designed to tweak the core features of your macOS experience and make them fun to use.
In taking macOS Sonoma for a spin for a short day, I really do love what it does, and I’m looking forward to the final release come October. Simple things like lock screen savers that become the desktop wallpaper, widgets on the desktop, and new video conferencing features all make a difference in my day-to-day usage of my Mac.
And I can’t forget the features that catch macOS up with Windows and other browsers, either, like profiles in Safari, and the option to use any website like an app. I’m usually not a person that likes using my Mac, but these features sure to make my Mac seem fun and useful again.
It all starts with the screen savers and lock screen
Right after installing the macOS Sonoma developer beta to my Mac Mini M1, the first thing I did was enable the new screen savers. I will mention “fun” a lot when referring to macOS Sonoma, but this is really the first fun thing about the new operating system. These can usually can be really boring, but Apple just spiced it up with collections of slow-motion screen savers.
In picking the new Cityscape wallpaper collection from the macOS Sonoma settings to enable these screen savers, sitting at my Mac Mini’s lock screen after logging in and coming back from a breakfast snack was like taking a ride in a helicopter. I choose the “New York” option, and I was pleasantly surprised with the slow movements of this lock screen saver taking me over the Manhattan skyline northward, towards the Empire State Building.
With the clock on the lock screen now moved to the top, and the login box to the bottom, all those movements blended right in with the rest of the screen. Best of all, when I logged back into my Mac and went to my desktop, the screen saver warped to become my wallpaper right where I left it.
Widgets were in a really awkward place on Macs. You’d have to click on the right side of the screen to get to them. This is really not convenient to quickly peek at the information that Widgets provide. It’s why macOS Sonoma does what Mac OS X Tiger used to do with the dashboard — bring these widgets more front and center. Except this time, instead of their own space, you can place them right on your desktop. It’s something you have to see to believe, and it’s really cool to see in action.
Now, you can drag these widgets anywhere on your desktop and have them blend with your wallpaper while you go into another app to work. You even can use and sync the widgets you have on your iPhone thanks to Continuity. I added widgets for the weather, batteries, and news. I placed them on the left side of my screen right near my peripheral vision.
This proved useful to keep track of my AirPods’ battery level, how the temperate was charging throughout the day, and even quickly peeking at headlines. Some of these widgets are interactive and have actionable content, too, like the reminders widgets which lets you check things off a list right from your desktop. Talk about productivity! Not even Microsoft can make widgets seamlessly blend like this in Windows 11.
Video calls get more fun
When I’m on my Mac, I spend the most time on FaceTime calls. I’m happy to see that macOS Sonoma makes FaceTime calls and video conferencing as joyful as ever. The operating system has new tricks for sharing your screen that makes it seem like you’re actually presenting your content to colleagues in person. There are also fun new reactions that definitely will spice up your virtual calls the next time you’re chatting with your friends, family, or colleagues.
I took these new video conferencing features for a spin on a FaceTime call with my colleague, Mahmoud Itani. He shared his screen with me, and it was cool to see himself front and center and overlaid when sharing a Safari session with me over FaceTime. Instead of being a small box in the corner of the screen, he was overlaid in front of the Safari window, like he was giving an actual presentation. On my end, it looked like something out of VisonOS Apple’s new operating system for the Vision Pro headset.
And that’s not all! There’s also a new option for 3D augmented reality effects that you can trigger. Mahmoud made a heart shape, and FaceTime showed hearts. And when I did a thumbs up for him there was a shower of fireworks on the video feed. These all live under the new Reactions menu at the top menu bar. Though I didn’t try it, you can get additional controls when using an iPhone with Continuity Camera, too. You can control the composition of the video, adjust the frame with zoom and pan controls, and recenter now, too. All of this helps make macOS the place to be for video conferencing for students with Macs, enterprises with Macs, and anyone.
Safari catches up with Edge, Chrome, and other browsers
The last part of my hands-on time with macOS Sonoma looked at Safari. It’s now a browser that more closely competes with Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. It’s getting features that these browsers long had, like an easy way to use a website as an app, enhanced private browsing, and support for profiles.
The new option to add profiles proves useful for me here at XDA where we use Google apps. I created a profile for work, so I can access my work Gmail separately from my personal email. I also opened the apps that I use for work in that session, while keeping my personal social media apps in my personal profile. This is something I’m really used to on Microsoft Edge, and it’s nice to see that Safari has it now too.
Other than that, I love the option to lock a Private Browsing session with my password. This ensures that when I’m going rogue and browsing those sites, or even looking for a present for someone, my browsing history won’t fall into the wrong hands or fall victim to shoulder surfing. I can see this becoming really useful in enterprise scenarios.
Finally, we come around to using a website as an app in Safari. I already do this a lot with Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, which prompts you to install a website like YouTube or Twitter as a web app, and I’m happy to see this process is now easier in Safari. Just a simple click of the File menu followed by Add to Dock, and you’re good to go. I know Twitter on Mac is currently in a messy state, so I used this feature to create a Twitter web app, and I loved how clean it looks and how fast it works.
There’s more to try!
There’s a lot more that’s new in macOS Sonoma, and I really can’t get into it all in just one post. Smaller things like search filters in Messages, the stickers draw in Messages, and improvements for PDFs in notes, all will help make my Mac easier to use. And even though I am not a Mac gamer, there’s even the Game Mode, which will give games CPU and GPU priority. I’m looking forward to playing with macOS Sonoma more and can’t wait for the final release.