Apple’smacOS Sonomais full of great features, including many that Apple raved about when it unveiled the operating system at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June 2023. If you want to get the most out of macOS Sonoma, it helps to know a few handy tips and tricks to improve your experience.
From rapidly hiding windows and showing the desktop to saving websites to your Dock for quick access, thismacOSrelease is bursting with clever extras that make a big difference in day-to-day usage. Here, we’ve collected eight of the best tips and tricks that will make using macOS Sonoma better than ever.
Look picture perfect
Continuity Cameralets you use your iPhone as a webcam on your Mac. In macOS Sonoma, Apple has tweaked this system to give you even morecontrol over Continuity Camerahow it works and how you look on-screen.
For instance, you may manually position yourself in the frame during video calls. To do so, ensure Continuity Camera is running, then select theFaceTime iconin your menu bar. DisableCenter Stage, then mouse over the video preview – you’ll see a zoom scale. Drag this to zoom in and out, or click and drag elsewhere in the preview to move the center of the frame. SelectRecenterto reframe yourself in the middle of the image.
You can also change the depth of field by choosing theFaceTime iconin the menu bar, then selecting theDropdown arrownext to Portrait. Here, you can drag the slider to change the strength of Portrait mode’s depth of field effect.
Expanded Visual Look Up
Visual Look Up allows you to find more information about the contents of your images and videos. In macOS Sonoma, Apple has expanded it in a number of useful ways. You can now find recipes for food in your photos, for instance — just open the Photos app, right-click an image containing food, then pickLook Up Foodin the context menu.
Similarly, you’re able to find directions to a store, learn the meaning of signs, and decipher the symbols on laundry tags, all by using Visual Look Up in the Photos app. It even works for the contents of still frames in your videos.
Video wallpapers and screen savers
This year, Apple introducedvideo wallpapers and screen saversthat seamlessly merge into each other: when your screen saver begins, the camera starts from your background image and flies through the air or underwater. When you end the screen saver, the video slows down and settles into a new still image. It’s a great little addition to the operating system.
Enabling or disabling this feature might seem a little confusing, though, as the wallpapers it works with have both stationery and moving versions. To enable video wallpapers, open theSystem Settingsapp and selectWallpaperin the sidebar. Pick aDynamic background(indicated by a play icon), then enable theShow as screen saver toggle. You can also do this by going toSystem Settings > Wallpaper, where you need to enable theShow as wallpaper toggle.
Desktop widgets
While widgets have been in the Notification Center for years, macOS Sonoma saw them make the jump to your desktop. The bestdesktop widgetsare interactive, letting you tick off reminders or play podcasts without having to open the widget’s associated app.
After you’ve got some widgets on the go, you can amend how they look and work by openingSystem Settingsand choosingDesktop & Dock > Widgets. From here, you can change the widget style so that they either retain their full color or go monochrome when you have another app open.
UnderShow Widgets, untick theOn Desktop checkboxto hide widgets when you have other apps open (they reappear when you show your desktop), or tick it to permanently show them. And if you enable theUse iPhone widgets checkbox, you can add widgets from apps that are installed on your iPhone, but not your Mac, putting more options at your fingertips.
Quickly show your desktop
Showing your desktop used to be a little fiddly in macOS — you either had to minimize all your apps one by one, or pressCommand+Mission Control (orCommand+F3), which isn’t the easiestkeyboard shortcutto reach.
Now, things are much simpler. OpenSystem Settings and go toDesktop & Dock > Desktop & Stage Manager. Next toClick wallpaper to reveal desktop, chooseAlwaysfrom the dropdown menu. This means you may simply click your wallpaper and all of your open windows will move out of the way. To disable it, just pickOnly in Stage Managerfrom the dropdown menu.
Save websites as apps to your Dock
Sometimes, you might wish a website worked more like an app that you could quickly access on your Mac. Luckily, macOS Sonoma has introduced a way to make that happen. First, visit the site you want to save in Safari (it doesn’t work inother web browsers) and clickFile > Add to Dock. Give the web app a name and selectAdd. This adds it to the Dock.
While you can remove the website from your Dock, it’ll still be accessible in Launchpad in case you want to readd it to the Dock. If you want to change the app’s settings, open the web app, then Select its name in the menu bar, thenSettings. Here, you can change its name and web address, adjust its privacy settings, and more.
The best candidates for websites to save to your Dock are those you would use like apps, such as Pinterest or games. For websites that you’re likely to read for a while before moving on — such as news websites — the appeal might not be as strong, but you still have the option to save them as apps if you like.
Share passwords and passkeys with contacts
Sometimes, you’ll share a website or app account with other people. Instead of insecurely sending passwords to each other over email ormessaging apps, there’s a new feature in macOS Sonoma that makes things much easier and safer.
OpenSystem Settingsand selectPasswordsin the sidebar, then enter your Mac account password. Click the + button, then chooseNew Shared Group. Enter a group name and add members. Group members must be running macOS Sonoma,iOS 17or iPadOS 17.
Now, choose the passwords you want to share by ticking the checkbox to their left. When you’ve selected every password that you want to share, selectMove. If you want to add more passwords later, clickSystem Settings > Passwords, select your group, then choose+ > Move Passwords to Group.
This makes the passwords accessible to anyone in the group, saving everyone time. To stop sharing a password, enter your group, select theibutton, then select theDropdown menu next to Group. Instead of your group’s name, pickMy Passwords > Move to My Passwords.
Mac gaming’s star is rising high at the moment, with our reviewer dubbing the latest14-inch MacBook Pro“a proper gaming laptop” and more and more AAA games making the jump to macOS. To help with this new status quo, Apple has introduced a fresh feature to macOS Sonoma that gives things a lift.
It’s called Game Mode, and the idea is it improves performance by stabilizing frame rates and prioritizing your games over other tasks. It’s enabled every time you launch a full-screen game — whether it’s in exclusive full-screen mode, a maximized window, or something else — so there’s not much you need to do in that regard.
However, sometimes you might want to manually disable or enable it. To do so, ensure Game Mode is running by looking for theGame controller iconin your menu bar while a full-screen game is running and selecting it. Then chooseTurn Game Mode Off. Your preference is remembered, so Game Mode will still be disabled the next time you run the game.
