Apple Introduces macOS Big Sur with a Beautiful New Design

macOS Big Sur includes the biggest Safari update ever and powerful enhancements to Messages, Maps, and privacy

CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apple® today previewed macOS® Big Sur, the latest version of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system. macOS Big Sur introduces a beautiful redesign that is entirely new yet instantly familiar. Safari® is packed with new features, including a customizable start page, elegantly designed and more powerful tabs, quick and easy translation, and a new Privacy Report. The updated Messages app lets Mac® users send and receive more personal and expressive messages, and easily keep track of and interact within group messages. Maps also offers an all-new experience with immersive features for exploring and navigating the world.

“macOS Big Sur is a major update that advances the legendary combination of the power of UNIX with the ease of use of the Mac, and delivers our biggest update to design in more than a decade,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “With its modern and clean look, huge improvements to key apps including Safari, Messages, and Maps, and new privacy features, we think everyone is going to love the breakthrough experience that macOS Big Sur offers.”

Biggest Design Upgrade Since the Introduction of Mac OS X

macOS Big Sur delivers a spacious new design that makes navigation easier, while putting more controls at users’ fingertips. Everything from the curvature of window corners to the palette of colors and materials has been refined, and new features provide even more information and power. Icons in the Dock have been thoughtfully designed to be more consistent with icons across the Apple ecosystem while retaining their Mac personality. Buttons and controls appear when needed, and recede when they’re not. The entire experience feels more focused, fresh, and familiar, reducing visual complexity and bringing users’ content front and center.

The customizable menu bar features an all-new Control Center, delivering quick access to controls from the desktop. An updated Notification Center includes more interactive notifications and redesigned widgets that come in different sizes, providing users with more relevant information at a glance. And a new design for core apps brings more organization to multiple open windows and makes interacting with apps even easier.

A Faster, More Personal, Privacy-First Safari Experience

In the biggest update to Safari since its original launch in 2003, the world’s fastest browser is even faster, providing industry-leading speed¹ and battery life.² Safari’s fast JavaScript engine helps it outperform other browsers on Mac and PC, and Safari loads frequently visited sites an average of 50 percent faster than Chrome.¹ Tabs have been entirely redesigned to make navigating with Safari faster and more powerful by showing more tabs onscreen, displaying favicons by default to easily identify open tabs, and giving users a quick preview of a page by simply hovering over the tab.

Safari brings new features for greater personalization while browsing the web. Users can customize the new start page with a background image and sections like their Reading List and iCloud® Tabs. With built-in translation, Safari can detect and translate entire webpages from seven languages with just a click.³ Users can further personalize their experience with improved support for extensions, and the Mac App Store® makes it easy to discover and download great Safari extensions with a new category that includes editorial spotlights and top charts.

Privacy has always been built into Safari, and a new Privacy Report delivers added visibility into how Safari protects browsing activity across the web. Users can choose when and which websites a Safari extension can work with, and tools like data breach password monitoring never reveal your password information — not even to Apple.

Powerful and Expressive Messages

Messages on the Mac includes new tools to better manage important conversations and share expressive messages. Users can now pin their favorite conversations to the top of their messages list for fast access, and search has been entirely redesigned — organizing results into links, photos, and matching terms — to help users quickly find what they are looking for.

Message effects let users add personality to their messages with balloons, confetti, and more. Users can now create and customize their Memoji™ on the Mac, and express themselves with Memoji stickers to match their mood and personality. And with a new photo picker and #images, it’s easy to quickly share images, GIFs, and videos.

New group messaging features streamline interactions with family, friends, and colleagues. Inline replies enable users to respond directly to a message, and now they can direct a message to an individual in a group conversation by simply typing their name. And users can now set a photo or an emoji for their group conversation that’s shared with all members of the group.

All-New Planning Tools with Maps

Completely redesigned for macOS Big Sur, Maps brings new features for exploring the world. Discover places to visit and things to do with Guides from trusted resources, or create custom guides of favorite restaurants, parks, and vacation spots that can be shared with friends and family. Get a 360-degree view of a destination with Look Around, and browse detailed indoor maps of major airports and shopping centers. Cycling and electric vehicle trips can now be routed on a Mac, and sent directly to iPhone® to have when on the go.

Industry-Leading Privacy

Privacy is at the core of the Mac experience, and macOS Big Sur offers users even more transparency and control over their data. Inspired by the convenience and readability of food nutrition labels, new privacy information detailed in the Mac App Store will help users understand the privacy practices of apps before downloading them, including the types of data the apps might collect — such as usage, contact information, or location — and whether that data is shared with third parties for tracking.

World-Class Developer Tools

Apple’s developer community of more than 20 million use the Mac to create amazing experiences for iOS, iPadOS®, macOS, watchOS®, and tvOS®. Xcode® 12 makes developing great apps for macOS easier than ever. SwiftUI™ gets a major upgrade so that developers can write entire apps with shared code across all Apple platforms, while easily adding custom Mac features like Preferences windows. And SwiftUI is used in even more places, powering the new widgets for Mac, iPhone, and iPad® using shared Swift® code.

Mac Catalyst™, which debuted with macOS Catalina last year, has made it easy for developers to bring their iPad apps to the Mac. And in macOS Big Sur, Mac Catalyst apps automatically inherit the new look, while giving developers powerful new APIs and total control over the look and behavior of their apps.

Developers can now also offer Family Sharing for their in-app purchases and subscriptions, and with support for the WebExtensions API, developers can easily bring extensions built for other browsers over to Safari.

Availability

The developer beta of macOS Big Sur is available to Apple Developer Program members at developer.apple.com starting today, and a public beta will be available to Mac users next month at beta.apple.com. macOS Big Sur will be available this fall as a free software update. For more information, including compatible Mac models, visit apple.com/macos/bigsur-preview. Features are subject to change. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages.

¹Testing conducted by Apple in June 2020 using JetStream 2, MotionMark 1.1, and Speedometer 2.0 performance benchmarks. Tested on production 1.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i5-based 13-inch MacBook Pro® systems with 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, and prerelease macOS Big Sur, and Windows 10 Home, version 2004, running in Boot Camp®. Scores represent browsers that completed the test. Tested with prerelease Safari 14, Chrome v83.0.4103.97, and Firefox v77.0.1 on macOS, as well as Chrome v83.0.4103.97, Microsoft Edge v83.0.478.45, and Firefox v77.0.1 on Windows Home, with WPA2 Wi-Fi network connection. Page load performance tested using snapshot versions of 10 popular websites with prerelease Safari 14 and Chrome v83.0.4013.61 on prerelease macOS Big Sur and simulated network conditions. Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection, and other factors.

²Testing conducted by Apple in June 2020 on production 1.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i5-based 13-inch MacBook Pro systems with 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, and prerelease macOS Big Sur. Systems tested with WPA2 Wi-Fi network connection while running on battery power, with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75 percent. Prerelease Safari 14 tested with HD 1080p content; Chrome v83.0.4103.97 and Firefox v77.0.1 tested with HD 720p content. Not all features are available on all devices. Performance will vary based on system configuration, application workload, and other factors.

³Translation will be available in beta supporting English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese.

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Apple’s five software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and iCloud. Apple’s more than 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

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