Apple yesterday released the first beta of macOS Monterey 12.1 with some interesting news. The main thing, besides tweaking some minor details, is the SharePlay is coming to Mac. A movement that occurs shortly after the appearance of this feature in iOS 15.1 and iPadOS 15.1, officially released a few days ago.
SharePlay yes, Universal Control soon
SharePlay, which we saw announced at WWDC21, is a really cool feature. Currently only Apple apps work with this feature, but like more and more apps are updated we can share more experiences during our video calls. In a developer advisory, Apple communicated the following:
“SharePlay is now available on iOS 15.1, iPadOS 15.1 and tvOS 15.1, giving people the ability to share synchronized experiences right in their FaceTime calls. You can submit your SharePlay compatible apps today.
“It’s also enabled in macOS 12.1 beta, so you can now create SharePlay experiences on all Apple platforms using the GroupActivities permission, without needing the SharePlay development profile. “
So this is the starting point for you to play, entertainment, streaming and many other applications can be integrated in the service to provide a much more personal interaction in the possibilities of a FaceTime call.
A development that does not rush and that delivers the quality that we expect.
Meanwhile, and changing the subject, Universal Control is still in development. This feature, which allows us to use the mouse and keyboard of one of our devices to control the others, continues display the message “later this fall”. Due to the dates that we are in and the state of the versions in development, we can dare to say that it will be in an upcoming beta of macOS 12.1 as well as the betas of iOS and iPadOS 15.2 where we will see this feature.
Fall is ending in eight weeks, so ending that beta cycle and starting another seems, with the information we currently have, unlikely. The wait is getting a little long, it’s true, but everything indicates that soon we will be able to enjoy one of the features that surprised us the most during WWDC21.
Beyond the urge that we can all have to try to use Universal Control, it is true that we must recognize Apple for the choice it makes. Could released the feature weeks ago and it won’t work Like it should be. This is something that we see more and more in the world of software development and in my opinion, it is something that we should not see.
After some hasty launches, it looks like Apple has made the decision to present the software when it’s ready and fully tested. Yes, we all want it to happen now, but most of all we want it to work flawlessly once it happens. In this sense, I think the path taken by Apple is interesting, maybe longer, but more correct. However, we will soon take advantage of universal control.
Imagen | Ben collins
