Some big macOS Monterey features aren’t coming to Intel Macs
While there are a lot of great new features in macOS Monterey, some of these features are only for Macs with an M1 chip. People with an Intel Mac will have to make do with a stripped-down version of Monterey.
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Intel Macs get stripped-down version of macOS Monterey
On the official macOS Monterey page, the fine print confirms that only Macs with Apple’s own M1 chip can access all of the new features. This includes the Macs that have been on the market since November 2020.
All previous models have an Intel chip and are missing a lot of new features. These are:
- Videos with portrait mode in FaceTime for a beautiful background blur
- The new Live Text feature, which can copy, search and translate text from photos
- An interactive 3D globe in the Maps app
- Detailed maps in the Maps app of cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and London (more cities to follow in the future)
- Text-to-speech in multiple languages, including Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish
- Offline on-device keyboard dictation
- Unlimited keyboard dictation (previously there was a 60 second limit)
Apple has not stated why these features are missing. Other video calling services such as Zoom and Google Meet have long offered a portrait mode and Google Maps has had a 3D globe for years. The lack of these features in macOS Monterey is therefore striking to say the least.
More about macOS Monterey
macOS 12 has been given the name Monterey and focuses on relatively small improvements, which make the operating system for Apple computers a bit better and nicer to use. This includes a makeover for Safari and Universal Control – a feature that makes collaboration between multiple Apple devices (such as your MacBook, iPad and iMac) a lot easier.
Just because Intel Macs don’t get support for all the new features doesn’t mean they won’t get the update. Read here which Macs will receive an update to macOS Monterey.
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