macOS Monterey 2021
Key Features and Enhancements
Spatial audio
Creates a sound field that helps conversations flow as easily as they do face to face. Your friends’ voices are spread out to sound like they’re coming from the direction in which they’re positioned on the call.
Portrait mode
Inspired by the portraits you take in the Camera app, Portrait mode in FaceTime blurs your background and puts the focus on you.
Voice Isolation mode
This microphone mode spotlights your voice by using machine learning to identify ambient noises and block them out. So a leaf blower outside or a dog barking in the next room won’t interrupt your call.
Wide Spectrum mode
This microphone mode brings every single sound into your call. It’s ideal for when you’re taking music lessons or want your friend to hear everything that’s happening in the space you’re in.
Grid view
Let's see people in your Group FaceTime calls in the same-size tiles and highlight the current speaker so it’s easy to know who’s talking. You’ll see up to 18 faces in the grid at a time.
FaceTime links
Invite your friends into a FaceTime call using a web link you can share anywhere.
Calendar integration
Generate a web link for a FaceTime call while creating an event in Calendar, so everyone knows exactly where to meet and when.
Join FaceTime on the web
Invite anyone to join you in a FaceTime call, even friends who don’t have an Apple device. They can join you for one-on-one and Group FaceTime calls right from their browser instantly — no login necessary.
SharePlay: Watch together
Bring movies and TV shows into your FaceTime calls and enjoy rich, real-time connections with your friends while watching the same videos.
SharePlay: Listen together
Share music with your friends right in your FaceTime calls.
SharePlay: Share your screen
Share your screen to bring web pages, apps, and more into your conversation on FaceTime.
SharePlay: Synced playback
Pause, rewind, fast-forward or jump to a different scene — everyone’s playback remains in perfect sync.
SharePlay: Smart volume
Dynamically responsive volume controls automatically adjust audio so you can hear your friends even during a loud scene or climactic chorus.
SharePlay: Shared music queue
When listening together, anyone in the call can add songs to the shared queue.
SharePlay: Multiple device support
Connect over FaceTime on your Mac while watching videos on your Apple TV or listening to music on your HomePod.
SharePlay: Connect through audio, video, and text
Access your group’s Messages thread right from the FaceTime controls and choose the mode of communication that matches the moment.
macOS 12 Monterey
macOS 12 Monterey, unveiled in June 2021 at WWDC, is an upcoming version of macOS that’s set to be released in the fall. Compared to macOS Big Sur, macOS Monterey is a smaller update, but there are still many notable new features that improve the Mac experience.
Universal Control is perhaps one of the biggest updates, allowing a single mouse, trackpad, and keyboard to be used across multiple Macs and the iPad to move content between devices. There’s also a new AirPlay to Mac option for AirPlaying movies, games, photos, and more from the iPhone or iPad to the Mac, plus the Mac can be used as a speaker for multiroom audio.
Safari has an updated tab bar that better blends into the background and Tab Groups for grouping your open tabs to make it easy to swap between different tasks without having to lose your open tabs. Tab Groups sync across all of your devices and can be shared.
FaceTime supports spatial audio so voices sound like they’re coming from where the person is positioned on the screen, and Voice Isolation cuts out background noise. There’s also a Wide Spectrum sound mode for when there are multiple call participants in the same room. Portrait Mode blurs out the background behind you, much like the iPhone photos feature.
With the new SharePlay feature, users can watch movies and TV shows, listen to music, and share their screen with friends and family in real-time all using FaceTime, with support also available for third-party apps. Shared With You in Messages keeps track of content people send you, saving it in Photos, Safari, Podcasts, News, and Apple TV.
The iOS Shortcuts app expands to the Mac with macOS Monterey, so all of your iPhone shortcuts (and more) will be available on the Mac. Apple has designed a gallery of pre-built shortcut options, and the Shortcuts app is integrated throughout macOS for running shortcuts from the menu bar, Finder, Spotlight, Siri, and more.
Focus, also available on iOS, is designed to help you stay on task with modes for Work, Personal Life, and more, plus customizable options. Focus basically filters out notifications unrelated to your current activity and lets people know you’re unavailable. Focus set on one device syncs across all devices.
There’s a Quick Note option in the Notes app for jotting down notes in any app or while visiting any website, and Quick Note supports links from various apps. Notes have new collaborative features with mentions, an Activity View with edit history, and tags for organization. The Maps app has an interactive globe that can be used to explore different locations on Earth.
With Live Text, Macs use on-device machine learning to detect text in photos, which can be copy-pasted or otherwise interacted with just like typed text. Visual Lookup uses machine learning to provide details on animals, art, landmarks, plants, and more in photos, with these two features available across macOS.
