macOS 11 Big Sur launches November 12

Today, Apple announced that macOS 11 Big Sur will launch on all supported devices on November 12. The operating system update was first announced at the company’s annual developer conference in June and has gone through various beta testing phases since then.

Big Sur mainly lays the foundations for Macs based on Apple Silicon. Apple says the update was designed to maximize the performance of the company’s new M1 system-on-chip and that the combination will allow iOS and iPadOS apps to run natively on M1-powered Macs, although the developers iOS / iPadOS will make them be able to not benefit from it if they want to.

Big Sur introduces a noticeable visual overhaul of the user interface and many apps, including an iOS and iPadOS-style central notification panel on the desktop. Parts of Big Sur, like a new version of Safari, have already been made available to users running Catalina.

A new version of Messages adds many features seen in last month’s iOS update for iPhones: pinned conversations, online replies, @ mentions, and more. Users can also create memojis on the Mac for the first time.

Meanwhile, the Maps app benefits from a lot of features we’ve seen on the iPhone before (it’s a trending, here), including interior maps, guides, and Google Street View’s Look Around feature.

With this release, Apple will complete its major annual operating system updates. iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS all got big versions earlier.

Big Sur will be available as a free update for supported Mac users and will replace the last major update, macOS Catalina. It’s also the first update to be called macOS 11 rather than macOS 10 or Mac OS X. Keep an eye out for our review in the coming weeks.

Here’s the full list of Macs that can run Big Sur:

• MacBook Air 2013 and later
• MacBook 2015 and newer
• Late 2013 and later MacBook Pro
• 2014 and later Mac Minis
• IMac 2014 and later
• 2017 and later iMac Pros
• Mac Pros 2013 and later