Guides

After lagging behind for years, Messages for macOS Big Sur has finally been fully updated and now has all of the capabilities that its iOS counterpart enjoys. In addition to bringing Memoji and Screen Effects up to speed, you can now pin conversations and, respond to specific messages within a thread, and "mention" other members of the conversation, which are all new features included in the recent iOS 14 update. Here's how to use these three new features in Messages on macOS Big Sur:

If you are a fan of Memoji and you use the Messages app on your Mac, then you've probably been disappointed that it has always lagged so far behind its iOS version and doesn't have Memoji (along with a lot of other features). Finally macOS Big Sur addresses this, bringing Messages for macOS up to par with its iOS companion. Now you can create Memoji on your Mac and share them as stickers (though you still can't record yourself as a Memoji and send it). Here's how:

macOS Big Sur comes with a lot of changes in both appearance and function, including that of the Notification Center. Whereas iOS 14 let you add widgets to iPhone's Home Screen, Big Sur lets you add widgets to your Notification Center, giving you access to a lot more information with a simple click. Here's how to personalize your Notification Center on your Mac running macOS Big Sur:

Many iPhone users may not have noticed a new feature that quietly arrived with iOS 14.2 - the Personal Update. It's a useful feature in the morning to get a picture of what you have going on that day. Just say, "Hey Siri, what's my update?" or something similar, and Siri will tell you:

While iPhone and iPad have had a system-wide dark mode since iOS 13 and many third party apps have their own dark or night mode settings, there are still instances where the screen remains bright. One such instance that you've probably noticed is the Google search results in Safari, which can suddenly seem blindingly bright if you're in a dark setting and using dark mode. Before Apple developed its true dark mode people would use the "Smart Invert" and "Classic Invert" to emulate a dark mode.