Since time immemorial, macOS has had the ability to boot into a guest user account. Thanks to him, we were able to lend the Mac to someone who needed to use it for a while, ensuring that our files were out of their reach. But in 2022 this guest account is no longer useful. And in a way, Apple itself has also quietly admitted this.
We all have our computer at hand, always and anywhere
I dare say this because newer versions of macOS like Monterey have this guest account disabled by default, whereas for many years in the past it was just the opposite. What could be the reason for this discreet change? I think there are several reasons.
First of all, the guest account was born at a time when accessing a device was much more difficult. Desktops and laptops were all there was, and carrying a laptop in our backpack wasn’t very common. Therefore, it was normal that at a friend or family member’s house, we would ask to use the computer in case of a small emergency.
But nowadays we all carry an iPhone in our pocket (or any other smartphone). An iPhone permanently connected to the Internet, capable of accessing web pages or services via applications. And let’s not say if we add to this the iPad that we can take with us at that time. We no longer need to borrow anyone’s computer because we always carry one with us.
The vast majority of situations requiring the use of a friend’s Mac can be covered by a browser’s incognito mode
Second, and in case we still need to use a computer (perhaps we want the convenience of a large screen and a physical keyboard), the vast majority of situations can be covered with private browsing mode in Safari, Chrome or Firefox. As soon as you close this private browsing window, all the data and credentials you used there are gone. Neither you touch what your friend has on his computer, nor does he keep track of what you did there.
Today, the macOS guest account can be defined precisely as a “private mode” of the system, in which everything you do disappears as soon as you log out and you do not have access to administrator functions such as the installing programs or changing settings. And since everything stays in the browser, it’s even redundant.
Ultimately, many younger generation users have never used this guest account. For them, it’s a function that goes unnoticed and they don’t even bother to learn what it is. Between that and the fact that Apple no longer enables it by default, it looks like something whose days are numbered. At least as a function visible to the end user.
That’s why I wouldn’t be surprised to see how guest mode eventually goes away in a future version of macOS. It may not do it completely, but it hides it or limits it in some way. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to keep a function that no one uses and that can’t even be tied to the built-in cloud services syncs.
