Sonoma

macOS Sonoma (macOS 14) is the 20th version of the macOS operating system. It follows macOS Ventura (macOS 13) and was released to the public on September 26, 2023.

macOS 14 Sonoma adds several new features to the operating system and several bundled applications. It maintains a similar look and feel to previous macOS versions with a few tweaks to bring it closer to iOS. It supports the same interactive widgets as iOS, and you can now place them on the desktop instead of hiding them in the notification center. You can add widgets for any app installed on your iPhone or iPad and do not need to have the app installed on your Mac. Sonoma also includes a redesigned lock screen that closely resembles the one in iOS and iPadOS.

The Safari web browser also receives several noticeable new features. You can now create browsing profiles with separate bookmarks, cookies, and browsing history, keeping your personal web browsing separate from your work or school browsing. You can pin web apps directly to the dock, which will open in a simplified window instead of a full browser window. You can also securely share saved passwords and passkeys with family members, and when a password is updated, the changes will sync automatically.

Other new features to the operating system and bundled apps include:

• Improved autocorrect and predictive text system-wide, using a new machine learning language model.
• A new Presenter overlay in the FaceTime app that shows your face in the corner when sharing your screen.
• New search filters in the Messages app that make it easier to find text within specific conversations, as well as a Catch-Up feature to quickly jump to the first unread message in a long thread.
• Facial recognition in the Photos app has been expanded to recognize cats and dogs, and will automatically generate photo albums of your pets.
• A new Game Mode that optimizes CPU and GPU performance for 3D graphics and reduces input latency while playing games.

Like previous versions of macOS, Sonoma drops support for several older models of Intel Macs. It supports the iMac Pro released in 2017, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac Mini models released in 2018 or later, iMac and Mac Pro models released in 2019 or later, and all models of the Mac Studio.