The 7 Best New macOS Ventura Features From WWDC 2022

Apple announced plenty of new changes coming to macOS at WWDC 2022. The new iteration of macOS is called macOS Ventura and will be released in fall 2022. Here are some of the new features coming in the update.

1. Stage Manager

One of the new features to be added in macOS Ventura is Stage Manager. This feature will automatically organize all your open apps on the side of the screen, while centering the one you’re working in. Users can also drag icons directly from the desktop to the minimized app windows to import files quickly.

Stage Manager can be directly activated from the Control Center and allows you to solely focus on the task at hand. This should be quite helpful for increasing your productivity.

2. Spotlight Updates

Spotlight also comes with new features in macOS Ventura—it can now find images in your photo library and search for text inside images. You can also bring up a quick preview of a file found in Spotlight during a search, allowing you to confirm you have indeed found what you were searching for.

3. Passkeys

Apple has introduced a new passkey feature with macOS Ventura that allows users to use Face ID and Touch ID account authentication on websites instead of a password. This passkey replaces passwords for account creation and login, reducing the chances of your password being compromised in an online data leak.

Apple says that passkeys are much more secure than passwords, since you don’t enter the password on the website and logging in is just a matter of entering a username and authenticating. Passkeys are stored in your iCloud Keychain and are end-to-end encrypted, which also allows them to be used on your iPhone and other iCloud devices.

4. Mail Updates

The Mac Mail app has gotten some updates, too. Searching in the Mail app now includes complete previews, instant suggestions, and typo corrections. You can also schedule an email to send in the future, as well as undoing any sent email (only for a short time period after it’s been sent).

5. Shared Tab Groups in Safari

Safari brings a new tab-sharing feature called Shared Tab Groups, which allows users to see what tabs their friends are viewing in real-time. You can also share your tabs with friends and family, visible from the Safari menu bar. Safari also supports Passkeys now, which will allow password-less sign-in on different websites.

6. FaceTime and Continuity Camera

macOS Ventura expands on Apple’s Continuity, through which you can hand off different apps between your Apple devices. Ventura will let you “hand-off” FaceTime calls between iPhones and Macs whenever you bring your iPhone near your Mac.

Another new feature announced is the ability to use the iPhone’s camera as a webcam in place of the one on your Mac. This should allow you to have much higher quality video calls, especially compared to the standard 720p FaceTime camera on most Mac models. You can also activate Portrait mode during your FaceTime call for an even better quality video.

And a cool new feature lets you share your desk view alongside your face using only your iPhone’s ultra-wide camera. This is called Desk View and it has some very interesting applications, to say the least. It should be very helpful in sharing projects or sketches, although we still need to see how it works in practice.

In an effort to bring more high-performance gaming to the Mac, Apple has introduced a new Metal 3 API for macOS Ventura. This brings faster loading for graphics, allowing developers to create a better connection between Mac’s storage and graphics processor.

Another new feature to this is MetalFX Upscaling, which allows games to run better by rendering at a lower internal resolution before getting upscaled and displayed. Gaming should be a breeze on Apple’s new MacBooks, which run on the new M2 processor, with better performance than its predecessor.

When Will macOS Ventura Be Available?

macOS Ventura follows Apple’s usual WWDC schedule for releases. The Developer beta is available immediately for developers to test and update their apps. This will be followed by a Public Beta, available in July. The final release will be in fall 2022 and will be available on most Macs released after 2017.

Bringing macOS Closer to iOS

Apple’s recent macOS versions have bought it closer to its mobile counterparts, both design-wise and feature-wise. macOS Ventura is no different, with features like Continuity and Universal Control enhancing the unified experience across all of Apple’s devices.