Apple fans have been bombarded with a slew of new features this fall, from a flurry of Apple hardware and software upgrades to brand-new Apple Watches, iPhones, Apple Pencils and new editions of all of Apple’s flagship software.
And while we were all busy getting lost in a sea of NameDrops, Double Taps and Telephoto Lenses, Mac OS Sonoma brought some interesting, albeit smaller, updates that didn’t get the pomp and circumstance that they deserved this year.
Most excitingly, Mac OS Sonoma’s update brings features that iPhone users have enjoyed for several years (and some that iPhone users first saw in iOS 17).
Here are a few exciting Mac features I was most intrigued by that make my phone and computer work better together. For more, check out how to fix the most annoying iOS 17 features and the Mac keyboard shortcuts you need to know.
Widgets come to your desktop
You can select all sorts of widgets to add to your desktop.
You can also drag and drop widgets from your Notification Center to your desktop. If you want to add widgets to your notification center, all you need to do is scroll to the bottom of your notification center and click Edit Widgets. You remove widgets from your notification center in the same way you would from your desktop.
You can also add your iPhone widgets to your Mac’s desktop, even if you don’t have the widget’s corresponding app downloaded to your computer. To enable this, you will need to go to System Settings, then scroll down to Desktop and Dock,. and from there scroll to the Widgets section. Once in the widgets section, simply toggle the Use iPhone Widgets option on. Your iPhone widgets will be available from the widget browser that appears when selecting Edit Widget on your desktop or notification center.
Auto-sorting grocery lists
I’m a pretty organized person, but to be honest, I’ve never turned to Apple’s Reminders app for help with this. The app didn’t make much sense to me and I traditionally have opted for third-party organization apps. While these new reminders features aren’t enough to sway me away from my preferred organization apps, there are some additions that have gotten me to make use of the app.
The reply function, which can help organize text threads, finally makes its way onto Macs
The biggest feature that I had been missing was the reply function. Essentially, this function allows you to swipe across on a message and reply directly to that specific message. I’ve found this feature particularly helpful when making complicated plans or in noisy group chats.
All you have to do to use the reply function is swipe two fingers to the right until you can reply to the message. If you don’t want to swipe, you can click the message you wish to reply to with two fingers and select Reply from the drop-down menu.
For more, here’s the best MacBook of 2023.
