With the discharge of macOS Monterey, Apple’s oldest platform is embarking upon its newest journey across the solar. And whereas this latest replace brings with it an entire host of options, from Focus mode to FaceTime enhancements, it additionally places into stark reduction among the Mac’s shortcomings—particularly when in comparison with iOS.
Apple’s been working exhausting to get its platforms in sync and, to the corporate’s credit score, lots of the new options that it rolled out this yr have arrived on each platforms—even when not in simultaneous releases. (SharePlay and redesigned Recollections in Photographs are missing from the preliminary Monterey launch, regardless of already popping out for iOS.)
Whereas consideration typically focuses on locations the place iOS continues to be catching as much as the Mac, that avenue runs each methods. There stay locations the place iOS gives options that the Mac doesn’t; even some options which were round for some time now. And although the Mac may be nearing 40 years outdated, that doesn’t imply it could’t nonetheless study some new tips.
When Apple first added the Share sheet in iOS, it was a reasonably restricted function, however within the final a number of years, it’s ended up changing into a crucial piece of infrastructure on Apple’s cellular working system, permitting you to not solely share knowledge with others, but in addition between apps, and even through Shortcuts.
On the Mac, by comparability, the Share sheet is…type of current? It doesn’t exist in most apps, and the place it does—reminiscent of Safari—its options are primarily restricted to sending hyperlinks to different apps on the system. To be honest, there have lengthy been different simple methods of shifting knowledge round on the Mac, and the Share menu was initially iOS’s means of dealing with all these inter-app communication choices that its sandbox mannequin didn’t allow.
Apple
However the Share menu has ended up rising and changing into more and more helpful on iOS, partly as a result of it acts as a central clearinghouse for sharing knowledge that’s shortly and universally understandable. There isn’t actually any single analogue to that on the Mac, and whereas Apple doesn’t should do away with all of the instruments which can be already on the platform, it might be helpful if it might beef up the model of the Share sheet in macOS so as to add options extra akin to iOS—reminiscent of the power to run Shortcuts.
iPadOS 15 introduced widgets to the Residence display of Apple’s pill line, echoing a transfer made on the iPhone in iOS 14. However on the Mac, widgets stay banished to column simply offscreen, as a part of (peculiarly sufficient) Notification Heart—the place they’re all too typically forgotten.
This isn’t the Mac’s first flirtation with widgets, in fact. For a very long time, the Mac hosted widgets in a separate display layer known as Dashboard, which would seem to 1 aspect of (or later overtop) the desktop. However Dashboard ultimately went the best way of the iPod basic, disappearing for good just a few years in the past.
Widgets on macOS can’t be positioned on the desktop like they’ll on iPadOS.
Apple
With widgets seeing a resurgence on Apple’s cellular platforms, now’s the time to maneuver them entrance and heart on the Mac: allow them to lastly seem on the desktop, the place individuals would possibly really get some use out of them. Having knowledge in your Mac’s menu bar is good, but when the brand new MacBook Professional has proven us something, it’s that menu bar area is at a premium—and it’s hardly a very good residence for the sort of wealthy experiences you may get with a widget.
This appears a wierd place for the Mac, which has a ton of energy and area at its disposal, to stint. It’s not exhausting to think about having climate, or picture, or shortcut widgets sitting on our Mac desktops—the larger query is why aren’t they already?
The unkindest Shortcuts
Monterey sees the Mac debut of Shortcuts, which has existed on iOS for a number of years now. Whereas this can be a welcome addition to macOS, which has its personal long-running (if considerably outdated) automation instruments like AppleScript and Automator, the Mac model of Shortcuts continues to be lacking out on some options to make it, properly, Mac-like.
Even fundamental options, like having the ability to simply seize chosen textual content on display, or get the identify of an open doc, can contain cumbersome workarounds like falling again to AppleScript. And a few Mac options, like the power to simply create or swap to totally different desktop areas, have by no means been out there in any automation device.
A few of that is unsurprising, provided that the Mac model of Shortcuts has been ported over from iOS and continues to be adapting to its new life on Apple’s oldest platform. However given the Mac’s lengthy historical past of automation, it does generally really feel like extra consideration is lavished on the brand new child on the block. That stated, Apple has publicly acknowledged that Shortcuts is just the start of a multi-year automation story on the platform, so there’s good purpose to hope that the Mac will catch as much as its little siblings—not less than on this division.
