Mac secrets revealed

With hardly an app or pane untouched, we unlock what’s hidden in macOS Monterey’s menus to help us work, relax and play

With thousands of teams of Apple’s engineers working on macOS Monterey, the list of new and changed features is long enough to fill a short book.

To complicate matters, some of the key enhancements slated to appear, like Universal Control, are still on their way, and others aren’t supported on all the Macs that can run macOS 12.

Few parts of macOS and its bundled apps have escaped change. Even long-neglected tools like

QuickTime Player and Disk Utility have been refreshed and improved. In many cases, these latest improvements are concealed behind new menu commands or controls far that are far from obvious.

Our tour starts with the apps you use most, Mail and Safari, which are rich in new features when you know where to look. After those it’s time to concentrate better using Focus and a host of new tools to help you get on with what you’re doing, whether it’s writing a report or watching a movie. Collaboration and communication follow in FaceTime, Messages and related features. Next up is the new Shortcuts app, with a suite of tips to make it more usable.

We end with a varied assortment of neat ways to get more from your Mac, and other tips to make best use of what macOS Monterey has brought.