During the WWDC 2022 keynote address, Apple announced the next iteration of their Mac operating system, macOS 13 Ventura. In this article, we take a look at what we know so far is coming in macOS Ventura.

Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering told us…

“macOS Ventura includes powerful features and new innovations that help make the Mac experience even better. New tools like Stage Manager make focusing on tasks and moving between apps and windows easier and faster than ever, and Continuity Camera brings new videoconferencing features to any Mac, including Desk View, Studio Light, and more.

With helpful new features in Messages, state-of-the-art search technologies in Mail, and an updated design for Spotlight, Ventura has so much to offer and enriches many of the ways customers use their Macs.”

So let’s see what is coming in macOS 13…

System Settings

Apple has redesigned the System Preferences and called it System Setting in macOS 13. There is a new sidebar design in System Settings, already familiar to iPhone and iPad users, designed to make it easier to navigate settings and configure your Mac. here is the full list…

• Refreshed design - System Preferences gets a refreshed design that’s easier to navigate and a new name: System Settings.

• Simpler navigation - The sidebar makes it easy to move through different settings panes, so you can quickly configure your device — without having to drill into and out of views.

• Organised by category - Settings are organized by category, such as Appearance, Control Center, and Desktop. And similar categories are grouped close together — providing more consistency across macOS, iOS, and iPadOS.

• More spacious panes - With more space in each settings pane, it’s simple to find the settings you want right away.

• Powerful search - If you don’t know where to find an option in System Settings, you can search for it by dragging from the top of the window to reveal the search field. Options that match your search appear in the sidebar.

Spotlight

Talking of searching, Apple has improved Spotlight in macOS Ventura. Now you will be able to find images in Photos, Messages, Notes, the Finder, and the web right from Spotlight. You can even use Live Text to search for an image based on the text inside it. Here is the full list of new features in Spotlight in macOS 13…

• Preview files with Quick Look - Press the Space bar on a result to view files in Quick Look.

• Quick actions - Use Spotlight to quickly take action. Start a timer, turn on a Focus, find the name of a song with Shazam, run any shortcut, and more.

• Rich results - Brings together all the information you’re looking for in one rich result. Available for contacts, actors, musicians, movies, TV shows, businesses, and sports.

• Image search - Spotlight uses information from images in Photos, Messages, Notes, and the Finder to enable searching by locations, scenes, or even things in the images, like text, a dog, or a car. but only on local files on the device. Also, note that Live Text photo search is available in English, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Ukrainian.

• Web images search - Spotlight allows you to search for images of people, animals, monuments, and more from the web. Only available in German (Germany), English (Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, UK, U.S.), Spanish (Spain), French (France), and Japanese (Japan).

Privacy And Security

• Lock Hidden and Recently Deleted albums in Photos - The Hidden and Recently Deleted albums are locked by default and can be unlocked using your login password or Touch ID.

• Rapid Security Response - Get important security improvements to your devices even faster. This isn’t a standard software update. These improvements can be applied automatically between normal updates — without a restart.

Safari

Apple’s browser, which they claim is “the world’s fastest browser” gets a number of improvements. here is the list…

• Shared Tab Groups - Share a set of tabs with friends. Everyone can add their own tabs and see the Tab Group update instantly as you work together.

• Tab Group start pages - Tab Groups have dedicated start pages that you can customize with a background image and favourites.

• Pinned tabs in Tab Groups - Customise your Tab Groups with pinned tabs for each group.

• New web extension APIs - Enables developers to create more kinds of Safari web extensions.

• Web push notifications - Adds support for opt‑in notifications from Safari pages on macOS.

• Extensions syncing - See available extensions from your other devices listed in Safari preferences. Once installed, an extension will sync so you only have to turn it on once.

• Website settings sync - Settings you’ve set for specific websites, like page zoom and automatic Reader view, will sync across devices.

• New languages - Added support for Turkish, Thai, Vietnamese, Polish, Indonesian, and Dutch.

• Web page image translation - Added support for translating text in images using Live Text.

• Additional web technologies support - Gives developers more power and control over styling and layout of web pages to enable more engaging content.

• Strong password editing - Edit strong passwords suggested by Safari to adjust for site‑specific requirements.

• Wi-Fi passwords in Network Preferences - Find and manage your Wi‑Fi passwords in Network Preferences. Reference and share passwords or delete old ones.

and talking of passwords, Apple announced Passkeys…

Passkeys

Apple is now on a mission to replace passwords for good, by introducing Passkeys. Passkeys has been designed to replace passwords with an easier and safer sign‑in method that is end-to-end encrypted and safe from phishing and data leaks. This makes passkeys stronger than all common two‑factor authentication types. They also work on non‑Apple devices.

Nothing secret is kept on a web server, so you don’t have to worry about website leaks compromising your accounts. Passkeys are end-to-end encrypted and sync across your Apple devices through iCloud Keychain. Passkeys never leave your device and are specific to the site you created them for, making it almost impossible for them to be phished.

You can use Touch ID or Face ID to authenticate. A digital key is created, and can't be phished. It works in Apps and on the web and Apple have worked with Fido Alliance, including Google and Microsoft, to work across platforms.

Apple Mail

With macOS Ventura, Apple’s email client, Mail gets a number of new features including improved search, undo send and scheduled send. Here is the full list…

• Smart search corrections - Intelligent search improves your results by correcting typos and using synonyms for your search terms in English

• Smart search suggestions - See a richer view of shared content and more from the moment you begin to search for email messages.

• Missing recipients and attachments - Get notified if you forget to include an important part of your message, like an attachment or a recipient, but only if you are using English

• Undo send - Easily unsend an email message that you just sent before it reaches the recipient’s inbox but you only have 10 seconds to hit the Unsend button, before it’s too late.

• Scheduled send - Schedule an email to be sent at the perfect moment.

• Follow-up - Move sent email messages to the top of your inbox so you can quickly send a follow‑up but only works if you are using English.

• Remind me - Never forget about an email that you opened but didn’t get back to. Select a date and time to be reminded to have messages resurface in your inbox.

• Rich link - Add rich links that give your email messages more context and details at a glance.

Messages

You can now edit a message you just sent or unsend a recent message altogether. And you can mark a message as unread if you can’t respond there and then and want to come back to it later. Here is the full list of new features coming to Messages with macOS Ventura…

• Collaboration invitations - Send an invitation to collaborate on a project in Messages, and everyone on the thread will automatically be added to the document, spreadsheet, or project. Compatible with Files, the Finder, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, Notes, Reminders, and Safari, as well as third‑party apps.

• Collaboration updates - When someone makes an edit, you’ll see activity updates at the top of the Messages thread. Click the updates to get back to the shared project.

• Messages Collaboration API - Developers can integrate their app’s collaboration experiences with Messages and FaceTime, making it easy to initiate and manage collaboration from the places where you’re communicating with your collaborators.

• Shared with You API - Developers can build a Shared with You section into their app, so when someone sends you a video or article that you don’t have time to check out at the moment, it will be easy to find the next time you open the app.

• Edit a message - You can edit a message for up to 15 minutes after sending it.

• Undo send - Unsend any message for up to 15 minutes after sending it.

• Mark as unread - Mark messages as unread when you don’t have time to respond but want to be sure to reply to the sender later.

• Recover recently deleted messages - You can recover recently deleted messages for up to 30 days after deleting them.

• SharePlay via Messages - Share synchronised activities like movies, music, workouts, games, and more with friends while chatting in Messages.

Photos

With macOS 13 you can now share photos and videos seamlessly with up to five other people, so everyone can collaborate on the family’s collection and enjoy more complete memories. With iCloud Shared Photo Library, family memories are in one place for everyone to enjoy at any time, even if you’re not the one who snapped the shot or edited the photo. First, let’s look at the list of new features in Photos…

• Duplicate detection - Photos identifies duplicates in a new sidebar item, so you can quickly clean up your library.

• Lock Hidden and Recently Deleted albums in Photos - The Hidden and Recently Deleted albums are locked by default and can be unlocked using your login password or Touch ID.

• Copy and paste edits - Copy the edits you’ve made to a photo and paste them onto a batch of photos.

• Sort people alphabetically - Sort your People album alphabetically.

• New Photos picker in system apps - A new Photos picker makes it easy to import photos and videos into system apps from your Photos library. Search your library to find just what you’re looking for.

• Tap to restart a video in Memories - When a video is playing in a memory, you can restart the video and play it from the beginning while the music continues to play.

• New memory types - New memory types for This Day in History and children playing.

• Apple Music in Memories - Apple Music subscribers can add any of the tens of millions of songs from the Apple Music library to enjoy on their devices.

• Turn off featured content - Disable Memories and Featured Photos in Photos and the Photos widget.

Now let’s come back to the new features in Photos that relate to iCloud Shared Photo Libraries…

• Share a photo library with your family - Share a separate iCloud photo library with up to five other people.

• Smart setup rules - Share all your past photos, or use setup tools to contribute specific photos based on start date or people.

• Smart sharing suggestions - Contribute photos manually or use smart sharing suggestions in a new sidebar item.

• Collaborate on the collection - Everyone has equal permissions to add, edit, favourite, caption, and delete.

• Relive more complete memories - Enjoy shared photos in Memories, Featured Photos, and the Photos widget.

Stage Manager

Stage Manager automatically organizes your apps and windows in a single view on any Mac, so you can stay focused while easily moving between tasks. You can switch between apps and windows seamlessly with a simple click. Or click anywhere on your desktop to quickly get back to a file or folder. and make different groups of apps for specific tasks or projects. And arrange, resize, and overlap them in your ideal layout. Here is the full list for the new Stage Manager…

• Centre app - Focus on the app you’re working with without going full screen. The app is positioned prominently in the centre, at a size that makes it easy to work with.

• Fast access to windows and apps - The window of the app you’re working in is displayed prominently in the centre, and your other apps and windows are arranged on the left side in order of recent use. Switch easily between apps and windows by simply clicking them.

• Updated apps on the side - View updated information for apps that you’re not working with off to the side, such as new messages and email, so you can stay up to date.

• Group apps together - Drag and drop windows from the side or open apps from the Dock to create app sets that you can always click to get back to.

• Access to desktop - Click the desktop to get back to it so you can find that file you’re looking for.

• Mission Control integration - Use all the Mac tools you’re familiar with, including Mission Control to get an overview of all your open apps and switch to the app you’re focusing on.

• Spaces integration - Create different spaces dedicated to specific interests or apps that you need to work with in full screen.

• Easy mode switching - Easily move back and forth between traditional windows and Stage Manager to use the method that’s best suited for the work you need to do.

FaceTime

With macOS Ventura, Handoff comes to FaceTime. You will be able to move a FaceTime call from one device to another with just a click. So you’ll always be able to join a call from the right device. Here is a list of the new features in FaceTime…

• Handoff in FaceTime - Move FaceTime calls seamlessly from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad, and vice versa. When you hand off a call, your connected Bluetooth headset transitions to the new device simultaneously.

• Collaboration - When you’re collaborating in Files, the Finder, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, Notes, Reminders, Safari, and supported third-party apps, you can start a FaceTime call with your collaborators with a click.

• Live Captions in FaceTime - See automatically transcribed dialogue integrated into your FaceTime video calls. With speaker attribution, it’s easy to follow along with group conversations. This feature is in Beta and is only available in English (Canada, U.S.) on iPhone 11 and later, iPad with A12 Bionic and later, and Mac with Apple silicon. It’s not clear at the time of writing as to whether this will be in the release version of macOS Ventura in the autumn.

Continuity Camera

Another new feature in macOS 13 is Continuity Camera. With this feature, you will be able to use the camera system in an iPhone with your Mac to do things never before possible with a webcam. Simply bring your iPhone close to your Mac and it automatically switches to the iPhone as the camera input. And it works wirelessly, so there’s nothing to plug in. Here is the full list…

• Use your iPhone as your webcam - Use the powerful iPhone camera system as your Mac webcam to do things that were never before possible with a webcam. It works wired or wirelessly, and your Mac can automatically switch to using iPhone as a camera input when you bring it close to your Mac.

• Use your iPhone as your Mac microphone - Select iPhone as your Mac microphone. It works wired or wirelessly and can automatically switch as you bring your iPhone close to your Mac or move it away.

• Portrait mode - With Continuity Camera, Portrait mode is now available on any Mac. Portrait mode blurs the background to keep the focus on you.

• Center Stage - With Continuity Camera, Center Stage is now available on any Mac. Center Stage adjusts the framing as you move to keep you centred in the frame.

• Studio Light A stunning video effect artfully dims the background and illuminates your face, so you won’t need to clutter your desk with external lighting. Studio Light is great for difficult lighting situations, like backlit scenes in front of a window.11

• Desk View - Using the Ultra Wide camera on iPhone, Desk View lets you show what’s on your desk during a video conference. It mimics an overhead camera and lets you share your desk and your face at the same time, with no need for a complicated setup.

Note that this will only be available on iPhone XR and later.

Freeform

Freeform is a productivity app so that you and your collaborators can bring ideas to life. Plan projects, collect inspiration, brainstorm with your team, or draw with a friend. Share files and insert web links, documents, video, and audio.

With Freeform you will be able to collaborate in real-time by inviting collaborators, share a link, and start working together instantly. As others add their thoughts, you can see changes on the canvas in real-time.

• Flexible canvas - Freeform’s canvas is perfect for diagramming new projects, aggregating important assets, or just brainstorming on a board limited only by your imagination.

• Fully collaborative - With real-time collaboration, you can view others’ contributions as they add content and make edits, just as if you were together, standing in front of a real whiteboard.

• Rich communication - Freeform leverages the Messages Collaboration API so you can start a session from FaceTime and see updates from your collaborators right in your conversation in Messages.

• Rich multimedia support - Embed images, video, audio, PDFs, documents, and web links. You can add virtually any kind of file to the canvas and preview it inline, without leaving your board.

At the time of writing Apple is saying that Freeform will come in an update later this year. So it may be like Universal Control was in macOS Monterey.

Accessibility

There are a number of new features to help Macs be as accessible as possible. Here is the full list coming in macOS Ventura…

• Background sounds for Mac - Background sounds are now available on Mac. You can play calming sounds, such as ocean or rain, to mask unwanted environmental noise and help minimize distractions.

• Buddy controller - Combine inputs from multiple game controllers into one so your care provider or friend can support you in getting to the next level in your game.

• Live Captions (Beta) - Transcriptions are generated automatically in real-time for users who are deaf or hard of hearing so they can follow along more easily with conversations, audio, and video.8

• Live Captions in FaceTime (Beta) - See automatically transcribed dialogue integrated into your FaceTime video calls. With speaker attribution, it’s easy to follow along with group conversations.8

• New languages and voices for VoiceOver and Spoken Content - VoiceOver and Spoken Content are now available in over 20 additional languages and locales, including Bengali (India), Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. You can also select from dozens of new voices optimized for assistive features.

• Text checker for VoiceOver - Discover common formatting issues such as duplicate spaces and mistakenly capitalized letters in documents and email before sharing with others.

• Type to Speak with Live Captions on Mac - Type out your response and have it spoken out loud in real time when you use Live Captions during a phone call or FaceTime call or with any video conferencing app on your Mac.

• Voice Control spelling mode - Dictate names, addresses, or other custom spellings letter by letter using Voice Control spelling mode. This will only be available in US English.

Please note that Live Captions will only be available in English (Canada, U.S.) on iPhone 11 and later, iPad with A12 Bionic and later, and Mac with Apple silicon.

And Many More…

• Clock App - The Clock app you know and love from iPhone and iPad is now on Mac. See the local time in different time zones around the world or set an alarm that plays a ringtone at a specific time. Ask Siri “What time is it in London?” or “Wake me up tomorrow at 7 a.m.”

• Weather - Click forecast modules for details about air quality, local forecasts, and more. Get hourly forecasts for the next 10 days, with minute-by-minute precipitation intensity over the next hour. And receive government notifications about severe weather events like tornadoes, winter storms, flash floods, and more.

• Notes - Lock a note using just your Mac login password, eliminating the need to remember a separate password. New, customizable filters in Smart Folders enable organization based on creation date, attachments, checklists, and more.

• Apple News: My Sports - Follow your favourite teams and leagues and get the best stories from hundreds of national and local publications. You can also watch highlights and get the latest scores, schedules, and standings right in your news feed.

• Reminders - Save, create, or share lists as templates to reuse them for routines, packing lists, and more. Pin your favourite lists for easy access. Today and Scheduled Lists now group items by time and date, making it easier to view and add reminders. And an all‑new Completed Smart List lets you view all of your completed reminders in one place, along with details like the time they were completed.

• Live Text - Pause a video on any frame that contains text to use familiar interactions like copy, translate, look up, share, and more. This will be available in English, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Ukrainian text.

• Home - The redesigned Home app makes it easier to navigate, organize, and view your smart home accessories in one place, and updates to the underlying architecture make it more efficient and reliable. This requires all Apple devices that access the home to be using the latest software. Sharing a home and receiving Home notifications require a home hub. Only Apple TV and HomePod are supported as home hubs. Support for the Matter home connectivity standard lets you choose and connect even more smart home accessories and will be coming in an update later this year. Matter accessories require an Apple TV or HomePod running as a home hub.

• Maps - Plan multiple stops along your route in advance. Look up directions on your Mac and see them on your iPhone when you’re ready to go. And see the correct fare when you add a destination, whether you’re paying with cash or a transit card.

• Memoji - Express yourself with new Memoji stickers and customization options like nose shapes, headwear, and hairstyles that represent more natural hair textures and curl patterns. And new Memoji contact sticker poses bring even more personality to your Contacts app.

• Focus - When you’re setting up a Focus, you can now select apps and people you want to receive notifications from by either allowing them or silencing them. And draw boundaries in Apple apps like Calendar and Messages by hiding distracting content with Focus filters.

• Dictation - Dictation automatically punctuates text with commas, periods, and question marks as you speak. This will be available in Cantonese (Hong Kong), English (Australia, Canada, India, UK, U.S.), French (France), German (Germany), Japanese (Japan), Mandarin Chinese (China mainland, Taiwan), and Spanish (Mexico, Spain, U.S.). You can also insert emoji with just your voice and this will be available on Mac with M1 and later. Requires download of speech models. Available in Cantonese (Hong Kong), English (Australia, Canada, India, UK, U.S.), French (France), German (Germany), Japanese (Japan), Mandarin Chinese (China mainland, Taiwan), and Spanish (Mexico, Spain, U.S.).

• Siri - An updated design provides more focused results so you get just the information you’re looking for.

When Will macOS Ventura Be Available

Beta versions are already being released to approved Apple Developers. It is expected the first public beta will be released in July and that macOS 13 will be released in September or October this year.

What Do You Think?

There you have all there is to know currently on what will be in macOS Ventura. Please be aware that Apple says on the small print that features are subject to change. Some features, applications, and services may not be available in all regions or all languages.

Which features stand out for you? Obviously, this will be different for those of us who use Apple computers exclusively for audio, whilst others use Macs for audio and other duties. Either way, do share your constructive thoughts and observations in the comments below.