At WWDC21, Apple announced a host of exciting features for macOS Monterey that we can’t wait to try out. They include everything from AirPlay for Mac to Live Text recognition, and we believe there's something for everyone in the upcoming version of macOS.

Here are the top macOS Monterey features that we’re excited about…

1. Universal Control

At the moment, Universal Control is as good as it gets for those who want macOS and iPadOS to be unified: you can use a single keyboard and mouse to control both an iPad and a Mac.

In practical terms, you’ll find yourself dragging and dropping files from an iPad to a Mac and vice-versa. You can even move the cursor from your Mac to the iPad and back, as if the other device is merely a second screen.

Features like this give people a big reason to stay in the Apple ecosystem.

Related: The Evolution of iMac: From 1998 to 2021 and Beyond

2. AirPlay for Mac

This is a feature that I’ve always wished for. You can finally send videos from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac. This means that the huge 27-inch iMac in your house can stream movies from tinier Apple devices.

This use case may not appeal to everyone, but it’s great to have regardless. You’re far more likely to be signed in to various streaming sites on your phone than on your Mac, so this gives you an easy way to put the big display to good use quickly.

The Mac also works as an AirPlay speaker, so you can simply stream audio from your iPhone to the Mac for improved sound quality.

3. Shortcuts for Mac

Shortcuts for Mac.

Shortcuts, the hub of automation on iOS and iPadOS, is coming to macOS Monterey. We can’t wait to see what people do with the ability to automate several tasks on a Mac.

Related: How to Make a Shortcut on Your iPhone

What’s more, Automator on Mac will continue to be around for now, and you can import Automator scripts into Shortcuts too. It’ll be far easier to create and edit large shortcuts on a Mac because scrolling up and down to make tiny changes is faster with a trackpad or mouse.

This is why we think Shortcuts will be widely used on Macs as well.

4. Safari Tweaks

Safari has a fair few new features on macOS Monterey, too. Safari is already well-known for offering excellent privacy-related features, such as tracking prevention, and its battery efficiency is excellent, too.

But with Monterey, Safari will gain some UI tweaks that make it a lot more appealing.

Tabs have now been moved to the same row as the address bar, which frees up precious screen space. You can also group a bunch of tabs to avoid ending up with thousands of open tabs that are hard to sort.

The Tab Bar will also match the color of the webpage you’re on, for an aesthetically pleasing look.

5. Recording Indicators

Recording indicator in macOS Monterey.

iOS 14 introduced an excellent recording indicator that appears as a tiny orange or green dot whenever an app uses the mic or camera. This feature is coming to macOS Monterey, too.

An orange dot will appear in the Control Center on the Mac too. If you’re wondering why Mac doesn’t get the green dot when an app uses the camera, it’s because there’s a green light next to the webcam that glows whenever the camera is in use.

Still, Apple should consider those of us who have a USB webcam connected to a Mac mini. A camera use indicator in the Control Center will help in these cases for sure.

Related: How to Use a Mac mini as a Server

6. Focus Mode

macOS Monterey also gets the Focus mode that’s coming to iOS 15 and iPadOS 15. You can use this to minimize distracting notifications when you want to get work done.

It’ll automatically mute annoying pings from social media apps, and display a status message inside the Messages app. You can even create different focus modes to allow different groups of apps and contacts.

7. Quick Note

You can quickly launch Quick Note to jot down important points while using other apps. These notes will appear in the Notes app, and the Quick Note window also remembers the context of what you’re jotting down.

For instance, if you paste some text from a website, it’ll add a link to that page in your new note. These notes are automatically categorized in a folder in the Notes app on Mac, which also has some other lovely new features, such as the ability to tag notes using a hashtag.

This makes notes easy to find. If you’re using a shared note, you can also now tag people and track changes using the Activity tab.

8. Live Text

Live Text feature in macOS Monterey.

Live Text is Apple’s version of Google Lens. It can capture text from any picture and it lets you copy and paste this text anywhere. It also recognizes phone numbers and addresses inside pictures.

This means that with an extra tap, you can call or text the phone number inside a photo, an image on a website, or any other picture with previously unrecognizable text in it. You can even use it to open an address in the Maps app.

9. Mail Privacy Protection

There’s finally a great reason to use Apple’s Mail app over its competitors. If you enable Mail Privacy Protection, Mail now automatically hides your IP address from senders and doesn’t let them use invisible pixels to learn when you’ve opened their emails.

This means that people emailing you can’t figure out your location or get read receipts, which is great for your privacy.

10. Spatial Audio

Apple is adding Spatial Audio support to macOS Monterey. If you have a pair of AirPods that support this technology, you’ll get a surround sound experience in apps such as FaceTime and Music.

This feature will also work well while watching movies, but the catch is that it works only with AirPods Pro and AirPods Max and only on Macs with the M1 chip.

The Unification Is On

The features we’ve heard about for macOS Monterey strongly point towards a more unified experience coming to Apple’s software. Plenty of features will be available across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and we haven’t ever seen this level of feature parity across Apple's operating systems.

This will create a more consistent experience across various Apple products, and should allow people familiar with an iPhone or iPad to quickly figure out how to use a Mac.

By limiting features such as Spatial Audio to M1 Macs, Apple has begun subtly nudging people towards an upgrade and it’ll be interesting to see how this pans out in the coming years.