What’s new in macOS Ventura?
A whole lot, it would seem.
Including a lot of much-loved iOS features that are now on macOS.
Hey friends, I’m Tasia Custode and welcome back to my YouTube Channel where I share tech
tips and app reviews.
Today I’m sharing the best macOS Ventura tips and tricks!
Let’s go!
Before we begin, if you haven’t upgraded to macOS Ventura yet there are a few things
you should do prior to upgrading.
I made a video outlining 5 crucial steps, so be sure to watch that video first, before
upgrading.
Right off the bat, something I think is a big difference in Ventura is that system preferences
is now system settings.
So here’s what this looks like.
In your dock, or from your apple menu in the top left, you may notice system preferences
has been replaced by system settings.
When we click on this, your new system settings window looks a little bit more like what we’re
used to seeing on iOS, rather than macOS.
But while we’re in these system settings, why not explore one of my favorite Ventura
features?
macOS Ventura now has background sounds.
This is wild.
From our System settings, click on accessibility.
Then, toggle on the background sounds option.
So what this is doing is masking background noise and unwanted distractions by playing
sounds to help keep you focused, like running water or rain or calming sounds like that.
So, we toggle on background sounds and now if I’ve got my volume on properly, you should
hear the sound of a calm running stream.
And if you don’t want a stream, you can click on ‘choose’ and in this pop-up select
the background sound you’d like from this list.
So maybe I want rain or ocean.
This sounds weird, but I love this when I’m scripting.
I can’t have music playing because I will literally sometimes start typing out song
lyrics instead of my script - whoops - so with background sounds, I can simply have
something playing, rather than just my normal ears ringing and me getting generally distracted
by the dog.
Or cat.
Or really any of the 75 things that distract me during my day.
But, moving on.
Another noticeable addition to Ventura is stage manager.
This is just a new way to manage windows on Mac.
It’s kind of really similar to how I use hot corners to quickly switch between apps.
From your control center - which you can get to right from the top right of your menu bar
- you’ll have a new stage manager option.
The first time you click on stage manager, you’ll be given a quick tutorial on how
it works and what it’ll look like.
So, we can click to turn on stage manager to show you what this looks like.
When you have multiple apps open, you will have them on the lefthand side and the current
window or app you’re in will be moved to center stage if you will.
Just click on one of the apps on the side to bring that app to the center and send the
other to the side.
Now, if you want to have more than just one app open, you can do that too.
Rather than click on the app on the side, you’ll actually just drag it to the center
of your screen as well.
So now, these two apps are kind of grouped together.
So, if you click on another app on the side, you’ll notice both those apps shrink back
to the left and the app you’ve clicked on comes up in the middle for you.
Remember, you can toggle this on or off as you see fit just by using your control center
toggle in the menu bar.
Now let’s move on to some new apps, starting with the clock app.
You can get to your clock app from your app menu, or from finder or just using command
space and searching for the clock app.
Either way, once you click on it, your clock will open and you can do all the same things
the clock app that you can on iOS.
So, you can obviously tell time.
Duh, it’s a clock.
Or you can set a timer, set an alarm, use stopwatch, and view world clocks.
It’s really just like you’re used to on iOS, but now on Mac.
But that’s not the only app that’s come to Mac.
We’ve now got an all-new weather app on macOS Ventura too.
So again, there are multiple ways to get to the weather app, but once you open it, it’s
just like you have on iOS.
In fact, whatever cities you have set on your iOS device, you’ll have automatically populated
on your Mac weather app as well.
And you can click on certain features and get more detailed weather view which is really
handy.
No need to google the weather, just pull up your app on Ventura.
Now this next Ventura feature is one for all the Mail users out there.
You can now schedule emails, just like you can on iOS.
I know, I don’t use Apple Mail, but I am a woman of the people and this is a macOS
video after all, so here we go.
From your Mail app, once you’re ready to send, just click on the little dropdown arrow
to the right of the send option.
This will give you the option to send the email at a pre-determined time or to send
later and pick a custom time you’d like the email to be sent at.
But you can also undo send in Mail now as well.
Again, just like we can do on iOS.
So there’s actually nothing we have to toggle on for this, it will happen right away for
us.
When we go to send an email, right away on the bottom there is an option to undo send.
If you click on that option, the email will pop back up for ya to make whatever changes
you need to make.
I believe you have 10 seconds to do this by the way.
If you wait longer than that, that option to undo send will go away and your email will
be sent whether you like it or not.
But moving on - you probably know where this is going now.
You can also undo send in your messages app, just like we can on iOS 16.
So, in Messages, once you’ve sent that message you want to retract - just right click on
the message and click on undo send.
You will have this option for up to 2 minutes by the way.
After 2 minutes, there is no takebacks.
And by the way, if they already read the message - well, they already read it.
This is an undo send, not a total mind wipe.
But there is yet another iOS Messages feature that has made its way to macOS Ventura.
You can finally edit your messages woohoo.
So again, let’s say we’ve just sent a message and whoops, spelling mistake as usual.
We’ll just right click on the message and select edit.
Then we’ll edit it to what we were actually trying to say, and voila.
The message has been edited.
You can edit a message up to 5 times within the first 15 minutes I believe.
And your message will be marked as edited so those in the chat know you’ve edited
the message.
You can actually click on where it says ‘edited’ and you’ll see the revision history of the
message.
Finally!
Another cool update to messages is that you can now filter messages.
So, from the messages app you can click on view at the top, and now you’ll have the
ability to filter messages by all messages, known senders, unknown senders, or unread
messages.
This is so helpful if you get a ton of messages in a day and need to quickly sort through
the backlog.
So I feel like that was 10 macOS ventura tips and tricks, but I’ve probably saved one
of the biggest features for a little bonus.
You can now use your iPhone as a webcam.
This is what Apple calls their continuity camera.
In order to do this, you will have to be running not just macOS ventura, but iOS 16 as well.
Both your mac and your iPhone need to be signed into the same Apple ID by the way, and your
bluetooth and wifi need to be toggled on as well.
On your Mac, all you have to do is open up any app that has access to the camera, so
like FaceTime or as an example we can use QuickTime.
So in the recording options, or it may be in the settings section depending on what
app you’re using, you should have a new option to use your phone’s camera.
So we see my phone here - yours would be there.
Obviously.
You wouldnt have my phone.
So, just select your phone as the camera option.
And just like that, your phone is connect as the camera.
This means you could obviously set this up stationary, or you could mosy around your
office if you wanted or if you want to show something to those on the call, you have complete
access to the front and back cameras of your phone.
How cool is this?
But wait!
There’s more!
When you’re using your iPhone as a camera for your Mac you’ll have a few other options.
Up in our trusty control center, there are a few cool video effects we can use.
So, we can toggle on center stage, which adjusts the camera to keep you centered as you move
in the frame.
I love this.
Or, you could select portrait - another one we’re familiar with from iOS where it’ll
soften your background.
And you can also toggle on studio light effect for a blinged out lighting experience without
needing an actual extra light.
This is so great for iffy lighting situations.
But there’s another feature with continuity camera.
Can you believe?
It’s called Desk View and this might blow your mind.
So from our control center, in those effects, let’s click on desk view.
Now what this is doing is exctly what it sounds like.
We’re going to be able to show a desk view.
So you can use the slider on the bottom of the screen to shrink or expand the edges of
a guide box.
So, you’ll want to set this to where your desk ends.
Then, click on desk view.
Boom, there’s now a desk view where I could showcase tech items to you or a cool 11 figurine.
So, obviously, this video quality is not great - but I’d imagine that will improve in the
future.
It’s more of just a cool show and tell feature.
So, that’s what I think are the best macOS Ventura Tips and tricks.
There are lots more I didn’t even get to, but there just isn’t enough time to go over
EVERYTHING!
But remember, I’ve got links below on what to do before you upgrade to Ventura.
Enjoy!
So that’s what’s new in macOS Ventura.
What are your favorite macOS Ventura features?
Let everyone know in the comments below.
As always, thanks so much for watching, if you liked this video, I want to know so give
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Thanks for watching, and see ya next time!