Here are the top eight features of macOS Sequoia coming this fall. And yes, that’s my iPhone being mirrored on my Mac. From built-in window tiling, change your background, iPhone mirroring, upgrades to the Notes app, calendar and reminders, and more. The macOS Sequoia Public Beta is available now for everyone to try. Try betas at your own risk, but macOS Sequoia will be available to everyone this fall.
1. iPhone Mirroring in macOS
The biggest new feature is iPhone mirroring in macOS. Just click the symbol in the dock, and it will automatically connect to your iPhone as long as it’s on the same iCloud account, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled. Now, you can use your iPhone right on your Mac. Even third-party apps like Instagram can be tinted, as I’m using the tinting option in iOS 18. You can open Instagram, scroll it on your Mac, answer DMs, and leave your iPhone in another room or in your pocket, all while managing it from your Mac.
If you want to go home using iPhone mirroring, just click the home bar at the bottom of the iPhone. You can also swipe if you’re using a trackpad with two fingers. If you need to search, you can do so right from the bottom. Notifications will pop up from your iPhone directly on your Mac. While you’re using iPhone mirroring, your iPhone will remain locked. If you unlock it, it will stop the mirroring. To resume, you just need to lock your iPhone screen again, and the mirroring will resume.
2. Window Tiling in macOS
Window tiling is now built into macOS. If you long-click on the green button on a window, you can choose to move and resize the window, or fill a range. For example, if you want to fill the left 50% of the screen with one window, you can do that. And if you have multiple windows open, you can rearrange them into a grid view. You can even drag a window to the left or right side of the screen and it will automatically tile, filling up 50% of the screen.
3. Improved Screen Sharing
You now have more controls when sharing your screen on your Mac. For example, if you’re sharing a window, you’ll see a preview of what you’re about to share in the menu bar. You still have the presenter overlay, but macOS Sequoia adds a new feature that lets you overlay yourself on top of the screen sharing. Additionally, you can recenter your camera angle with the menu bar control.
4. Built-in Background Replacement
Now, you can replace your background directly in macOS. No need to do this in individual apps. You can choose from different backgrounds or use one of your own. You can adjust the zoom level and recenter yourself around the background image. This makes calls much easier by handling background replacements at the system level.
5. Enhanced Video Controls in Safari
When you play video embedded on a webpage, you’ll get more controls over that video. A new video viewer option allows you to focus on the video itself, and you get access to HTML video controls such as changing the playback speed, airplaying the video, or watching it in picture-in-picture mode. This works on multiple websites, including news sites.
6. Safari Highlights and Summaries
In Safari, you now get highlights and summaries. For instance, when you’re on a website like a restaurant or hotel, Safari will automatically highlight useful information such as addresses and contact info. Additionally, longer articles can be summarized, and if the article is really long, you might even get a table of contents alongside the summary.
7. Improvements to the Notes App
One of the big new features in Notes is voice transcriptions. As you record a voice memo, Notes will transcribe it live. This is super useful if you’re in a lecture or meeting and want both an audio recording and a text version of the conversation. You can also use the transcript for further actions, like summarizing with AI. Notes now supports math problem solving too. If you write a math problem, it will give you the answer directly in the app. Currency conversions are also supported.
Additionally, you can now collapse content under headings, making long notes much easier to navigate. More color options for text, highlights, and more have also been added, making the Notes app even more powerful.
8. Integrated Calendar and Reminders
If you’ve always wanted to manage reminders in the same place as your events, macOS Sequoia makes this possible. When you create a new event in the Calendar, you can also create a new reminder directly from there. Reminders will still sync with the Reminders app on your Mac, and if you change the date of the reminder, it will automatically update in both places. You can even hide reminders from the calendar view if you prefer a cleaner interface.