GIFs are fully supported in the same way they are on your iPhone. Memoji on the Mac might seem underrated, but it’s a great way to showcase emotions or respond with a sticker. This way, when you say, “Congrats,” it won’t just say “sent” with confetti below, but you’ll see the confetti effect. The best news? Memoji, Memoji Stickers and effects are finally arriving on the Mac. The latter serves as a backup for your iMessages and uses iCloud storage. Search is also enhanced, allowing you to find specific documents and Messages dating back in time, thanks to Messages in the Cloud. It’s handy and a great way to show off Memojis or contact photos. The ability to pin a contact, like on iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, is on Big Sur as well. You still have the Messages app split into two core sections: The left has all of your messages, and the right spotlights the one you’ve selected. Essentially, Apple imported Messages from iOS and iPadOS to the Mac, and it’s a tremendous experience. Redesigned Messages is what we’ve been craving. We’ll let you judge, but check out the photos.įor the most part, the design changes streamline macOS and help it fit in better with iOS and iPadOS.
For starters, they’re more rounded, which is similar to iOS and iPadOS, but some of them just look entirely different. You’ll also notice that since the top menu bar is nearly fully translucent, it lets your desktop shine through more.Īrguably, the larger point of discussion is the new icons for nearly every stock app on the Mac. It especially cleans up the printing interface. It’s clean, has larger buttons and puts the focus on helping you leave the window faster. Similarly, when you save or export a document, you’ll see a new interface that reminds us of the share sheet on iOS and iPadOS. That’s why we saw the new Sidebar interface on the iPad that looks more like a computer. Apps for iPad and iPhone will be able to be turned into Mac apps with ease.
Apple has made it clear that the Mac (and macOS) isn’t going anywhere, but the ecosystem is going to work even better together.
There’s also a lighter casting on all the windows that makes the edges more see-through and helps you navigate or find your desktop a little quicker.īut, most importantly, it equalizes the palette of colors across macOS, iOS and iPadOS. It’s a sleeker design that feels in line with the rest of the experience of the Mac. But now in Big Sur, they’re noticeably rounded. Up until now, any corner of any window in macOS has been square with subtle curves. It can be jarring for some at first, but we’ve quickly fallen into a groove.
Big Sur is essentially a full redesign of the user interface.