macOS Big Sur 11.5.2 is here, but it doesn’t seem to do much

Today, Apple released a new version of its Mac operating system, macOS Big Sur. The new update is titled macOS Big Sur 11.5.2, but there are no new features or major security updates. Instead, macOS 11.5.2 focuses on “bug fixes”. In fact, here are Apple’s release notes for the latest version of Big Sur, in their entirety:

macOS 11.5.2 includes bug fixes for your Mac.

As you can see, the release notes don’t specify which bugs have been fixed and don’t mention any new features. Apple maintains a support page where it also details security updates in a given version. But it’s bare for this version. “This update does not have any published CVE entries,” he says.

While Apple often (but not always) releases software updates for several or all of its platforms at the same time, macOS was on its own today, at least in terms of public releases. Today we also saw new major beta versions of iOS 15, watchOS 8, macOS Monterey, and more.

macOS 11.5.2 follows macOS 11.5.1 (which contained security updates) and macOS 11.5 (which also consisted largely, you guessed it, of bug fixes and security updates). We probably won’t see any significant new macOS features until macOS Monterey arrives later this year.

Among other things, this upcoming major release is expected to include various new ways to integrate a Mac with an iOS or iPadOS device, like Universal Control. This will facilitate new ways of controlling macOS and iPad devices with the same mouse and keyboard.