Apple will release macOS Monterey, the next major version of its Mac operating system, on October 25, the company announced today. The software will also ship on the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros that Apple is releasing next week.
Compared to the major redesign Apple gave macOS last year with Big Sur, Monterey is a low-key release, not unlike iOS 15. One of the major new features is Shortcuts support, which originally appeared in iOS 12 back in 2018. Shortcuts doesn’t immediately replace Automator or AppleScript, but it will most likely become the go-to way to automate complex tasks on Macs. Other major features include Universal Control, which allows you to use a Mac’s keyboard and trackpad to seamlessly control multiple Macs or iPads, and a Focus mode that adds more granularity to the Do Not Disturb feature.
Monterey will run on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs, though it won’t run on everything that currently supports macOS Big Sur. The OS drops support for a handful of 2013 and 2014-model Intel Macs, as well as the first iteration of the 12-inch MacBook from 2015.
Here’s the full support list:
- Early 2015 and later MacBook Air
- Early 2015 and later MacBook Pro
- Early 2016 and later MacBook
- Late 2015 and later iMac
- Late 2014 and later Mac mini
- 2017 and later iMac Pro
- Late 2013 and later Mac Pro
Not all Macs will support all of Monterey’s features—some require a Mac with an Apple T2 chip or an Apple Silicon Mac. We’ll break down which Macs support which features when we post our typical in-depth review of macOS Monterey next week.
