(Credit: James Martin/Apple)
Every June, Apple introduces a new version of macOS (and much more) at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). Like in past years, we expect its latest desktop OS version to go into public beta a few weeks after the announcement and release fully in the fall.
Rumors about the next version of macOS are already rampant. Bloomberg says to expect a major visual overhaul (codenamed Solarium) for the first time in many years. I also expect that Apple will call the next version of macOS something other than macOS 16. Bloomberg reports that it's going to be macOS 26. Whatever it is, I hope it’s easier to type than “Sequoia.” We'll have to wait for the keynote on June 9 to find out all these details.
In the meantime, below are a dozen features I hope to see in the next version of macOS to help it keep pace with Windows 11. I've been testing and reviewing macOS for several decades (and I consider it an excellent OS overall), but these improvements would be very welcome.
1. Built-In Clipboard History
With macOS, you can only paste the most recent item that you copied to the clipboard. If you want to reuse an item that you copied earlier, you need a third-party utility like my favorite, CopyClip, or any of a dozen alternatives you can download from the Mac App Store. Windows has had built-in clipboard history for ages.
2. Default Folder Color Options
When I create folders with macOS, they're always a blindingly bright blue color—and they stay blindingly bright even in Dark Mode. For a real-world filing cabinet, I can buy folders in any of a dozen colors. Why can’t Apple give me the same freedom of choice with Finder folders? Yes, there are workarounds, but macOS should make this a simple option.
3. A Dynamic Island
High-end iPhones have a Dynamic Island at the top of their screen that can display alerts and report on activity. MacBooks have only a notch with a camera. There’s no good reason why your MacBook should lack the conveniences of your phone. The macOS Notification Center is always informative, but it can still be distracting. A more focused Dynamic Island—at least as an option—would make for a more pleasant experience.
4. Face ID
Speaking of the MacBook camera notch, it’s time to bring Face ID to macOS as an optional alternative to Touch ID. For desktop Macs that don’t have a built-in camera, it ought to be possible to log in to macOS with a nearby iPhone.
5. A Hide and Silence Everything Button
Sometimes I want to concentrate on what I’m doing in one app, with no distractions from anywhere else. If I want to silence all notifications, I can go to the Control Center, click on Focus, then choose Do Not Disturb. And if I want to hide everything on my desktop, I can do so from Stage Manager. But all this would be easier with a combined Hide and Silence Everything button on the menu bar. In true Apple style, the button could be customizable, with options to hide or show different kinds of items like apps or documents.
6. Menu Bar Icon Management
It’s time for macOS to include built-in icon management for the menu bar. Unless you’re using a gigantic external monitor, it’s all too easy to keep adding icons to the menu bar until some disappear behind the notch, leaving no straightforward way to access them. You can buy third-party menu bar-management apps like Barbee or Bartender 5, but macOS should find a way to solve this issue natively.
7. An Option to Use Your Apple ID as Your Login Name
One minor annoyance with macOS is that you need to set up a username for your macOS account that’s different from the Apple ID you use for iCloud services and your iPad or phone. For most users, it makes sense to use only your Apple ID on your Mac. Windows users, by default, use a Microsoft ID to log in to their system, with an option to set up separate accounts with different usernames—this is one of the few ways Windows can be simpler than macOS.
There are advantages to the current double-name system on a Mac. It lets you set up a Mac with only a username, without linking it to an Apple ID. Or you can set up multiple accounts that each have a separate username, desktop, and home folder—but still use the same Apple ID. Multiple macOS accounts with the same Apple ID can be useful for testing, or for separating work and play, but life would be simpler for most users if they had only one login name and password to remember.
8. Printing From Screenshot Previews
Every morning, I open an online newspaper viewer, find the puzzle page, and press Cmd-Shift-4 to make a screenshot of one of the puzzles so that I can print copies for everyone in my family. This would be a lot easier if macOS let me print the screenshot directly from its initial pop-up window. That window currently lets me only add the image to other apps or email it. As such, I have to wait for the system to save the image to my desktop, open it in the Preview app, print it from there, and then delete it from my desktop.
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)9. Search Everything From Contacts
If you right-click on a Contact name in the Contacts app, you get a menu with an item “Spotlight [contact name],” so you can search for that name in your files and on the web. But you might want to see the mail messages and text messages that you exchanged with said contact. The menu should include these choices, and Apple should open the menu to third-party developers so that you can search in Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or anything else.
10. Self-Destructing Messages
Apple’s Messages app handles the basics fine. But if I want to send a message that destructs after a few seconds, I need to switch to an alternative like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. I would prefer to keep things simple and use Messages for everything.
11. Settings Panels for Sound and Time Machine
One advantage of the long-gone System Preferences app was that the pane for Sound settings included the option to show or hide the speaker icon in the menu bar. You can’t find this option on the Sound pane of the current System Settings app—you have to go through the Control Center pane to access it. I want a menu bar option for both the Sound and Control Center panes. I would also like similar changes for the panes that control Time Machine and other features. Menu bar options belong on the same pane as the feature that the menu bar icon controls.
(Credit: Apple/PCMag)12. Windows-Style Keyboard Functionality
Windows has a major advantage over macOS in terms of keyboard shortcuts. On a Mac, the most efficient way to access most menu items is via the mouse. You can use the keyboard, but it’s complicated and non-intuitive. In contrast, Windows makes every menu item easy to access via your keyboard. For example, you can type Alt-F to open the File menu and then the first letter of the menu item you want to choose. For some items, you need to type a different letter from the first, and Windows has an option that underlines this “accelerator key.”
Microsoft 365 on Windows goes even further. In Word, Excel, or any other Office app, you can simply tap the Alt key, and an array of white-on-black letters appears in the apps' Ribbons so you can reach any visible feature with a single key. There’s no good reason why macOS can’t do this as well. It would save time and potentially reduce the muscle strain and injuries that result from excessive mouse or trackpad movements.
Stay Tuned for More WWDC Coverage
We probably won’t get most of these features in the next version of macOS, but there’s always hope for the future. Stay tuned for all the software announcements from WWDC; we'll have full coverage of everything Apple unveils. We also plan to publish an in-depth preview of the latest OS version once it's public.