When Apple announced macOS Ventura at WWDC 2022 in June, its most visible update was Stage Manager, a new window management feature.
Like some of the other window management features macOS offers, Stage Manager lets you clean up apps running on your desktop. This is a handy little feature for those who value organization and find comfort in sorting and will no doubt be appreciated once it’s rolled out to all users this fall.
However, the announcement has divided Mac users. Some find the feature confusing, especially when it’s added alongside (rather than replacing) any of the other window management features macOS offers, such as Mission Control, Spaces, and Split View. For me, though, Stage Manager is the window management feature that supersedes the need for any of the others.
Stage Manager makes your Mac look like a Mac desktop should
We’ve all seen the photos Apple uses when marketing macOS at its conferences and on its website. The apps running on the desktop are perfectly organized, with nice aspect ratios, size and overlap between the few apps running on the screen.
Stage Manager, like a fake friend, tells you what you want to hear: “You’re perfect, and so is your desk.”
However, we all know that the desktop that Apple shows us is not real.
It’s like looking at a staged apartment or house; it’s pretty, but real houses don’t usually look like that. Once we start doing real work on our Macs, apps quickly pile up everywhere and it starts to look more like a hoarder’s desktop than anything else.
Mail running in Stage Manager on macOS Ventura (Image credit: Joe Wituschek/iMore)
As much as I’ve always tried to keep a tidy desktop, it was a process that required too much work: minimizing apps, distributing them across multiple desktops, and even using Split View, all in the name of trying to juggle productivity and the aesthetics at the same time.
Fortunately, macOS Ventura’s Stage Manager is here to take what was once an impossibility and make it a reality. It can take a cluttered desk and organize it in a way that’s visually relaxing, making you think you’re a lot more organized than you actually are. Of course, it’s a farce—chaos at work is inevitable—but Stage Manager, like a fake friend, tells you what you want to hear: “You’re perfect, and so is your desk.”
Stage Manager is Stacks for applications
Remember Stacks? Probably not, but Apple touted the feature when it was originally released with Mac OS X Leopard. It organized the files into a folder in your dock. Then came Desktop Stacks with macOS High Sierra, which took all the files on your desktop and organized them into small stacks sorted by type, date, or Finder tags.
Desktop Stacks solved a major problem for many users who found themselves with tens, if not hundreds, of files on their desktop. Finding a single file required someone who was basically a Where’s Waldo speed runner or some serious help from Spotlight, Apple’s built-in search functionality. Apple put some smarts into the desktop organization to make it easier to at least get to the stage of the file you were trying to hunt down without having to do anything. It also brought a lot more peace to your desktop and made it look more put together than a madman’s computer.
(Image credit: Joe Wituschek/iMore)
When I think of Stage Manager, I can’t help but make the comparison and feel that the feature is simply Desktop Stacks, but for applications. And that’s not a bad thing.
Apps, just like files, can quickly clutter our desktops. Apple’s other window management features, while offering productivity gains, never solved the appearance problem. I could use multiple desktops, but that just meant things would look rubbish on two desktops instead of one.
Stage Manager solves this visual problem while keeping things organized in a way that makes a lot of sense. Because I can group apps into their own stacks, I can organize my workflow in ways that allow me to display the group of apps that I know are related and that I tend to need at the same time or for the same function. It allows me to keep my entire workflow just a glance away instead of buried under a mountain of other apps.
Can I still use multiple desktops, app shortcuts, and Split View? For sure. But I’m using it less and less.
It’s my favorite new Mac feature in years
I’m trying to think of another Mac feature that has won my heart the way Stage Manager has. Having a clutter-free desk brings a sense of focus and calm to my digital world that I’ve had to give up my laptop for…forever.
If I really thought about it, I’d have to say that the only other Stage Manager-level “feature” that brings me joy is when Apple redesigned macOS with Big Sur a few years ago. It’s certainly not perfect (I’m looking, Mac notifications with your little close button), but the Mac had needed a visual overhaul for years. The upgrade made the Mac feel fresh and new, like getting a new computer without having to pay for it. Of course, if you want a new computer and want to pay for it, you can check out our list of the best MacBooks of 2022.
But of course, Big Sur is an entire version of the operating system rather than a single feature, so Stage Manager is somewhat independent. My only complaint is that my work computer still needs to run macOS Monterey, so I’m stuck without my beloved feature for eight hours a day. At the end of the working day, however, I return to the bliss of the desk.