What’s coming in macOS 11

What does macOS 11 have in store?

It’s official: macOS 11 Big Sur has been unveiled, and it’s well on its way to the public. Recently announced at online-only WWDC 2020, the next macOS will bring some pretty major – not to mention, exciting – improvements to the operating system that powers the best Macs.

Where its predecessor, macOS Catalina, only had minor improvements over macOS Mojave, macOS 11 Big Sur is expected to roll out the biggest changes to Apple’s operating system in years. Chief among them is the migration to Appledesigned silicon. This has been rumoured for years, but this, along with macOS Catalyst, will finally bring support for every iOS and iPad app to the Mac operating system. Apple also promises that it will lead to greater efficiency and power.

Alongside some stability improvements, we’re also getting a massive redesign in the look of native macOS apps with macOS 11 Big Sur. Apple finally giving apps like Messages, Mail, Photos, Calendar and even Finder a fresh, much more compact and streamlined design. Of course, we’re also getting cool new features that are more in line with those on the upcoming iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, with macOS Big Sur bringing widgets. This should make your whole Apple experience a much more harmonious and unified experience. Other key changes include:

Safari

This is supposedly the biggest update the browser has received since it was first introduced. This new version of Safari will bring a host of new features to the table including Intelligent Tracking that can give you a Privacy Report on each website you visit, Save Passwords to track your passwords and make sure they haven’t been compromised, Extensions support for WebExtensions API and a new Extensions category in the App Store, and native translation capabilities.

Sidebar in Mail and Photos

The Apple Mail and Photo apps have been out of date for a while now, but Apple has brought new designs to a lot of the biggest Mac Apps, with the most notable ones being the new sidebars in Mail and Photos.

Control Center on Mac

One of the best things about iOS is the super convenient Control Center that lets you change settings at a glance. macOS Big Sur brings that to the Mac, and it’s easily accessible in the Menu Bar, so that you can easily change settings without digging through the preferences app.

If you want to download and install macOS 11 when it becomes publicly available later this year, you’re going to want to make sure your Mac is actually able to run it. And, unfortunately macOS system requirements have been announced:

• 12-inch MacBook (2015 and later)

• MacBook Air (2013 and later)

• MacBook Pro (Late 2013 and later)

• Mac mini (2014 and later)

• iMac (2014 and later)

• iMac Pro (all models)

• Mac Pro (2013 and later) While there’s no actual release date yet, we should see the macOS 11 Big Sur available to the public in either September or October 2020 if Apple follows its typical release schedule.

“Where its predecessor, macOS Catalina, only had minor improvements over macOS Mojave, macOS 11 Big Sur is expected to roll out the biggest changes to Apple’s operating system in years.”