When Apple announced macOS Ventura at WWDC 2022 in June, the 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 the apps running on your desktop. It’s a handy little feature for those who value organization and find order in order, and will certainly be appreciated when it rolls out to all users this fall.
However, the announcement was divisive among Mac users. Some find the feature confusing, especially when it’s added (rather than replaced) alongside other macOS window management features such as Mission Control, Spaces, and Split View. For me, however, Stage Manager is the window management feature that makes all the others obsolete.
Stage Manager makes your Mac look how a Mac desktop should look
We’ve all seen the photos Apple uses to market macOS in its keynotes and on its website. The apps running on the desktop are perfectly organized, with pleasing aspect ratios, sizes, and overlap for the few apps running on the screen.
Like a fake friend, Stage Manager tells you what you want to hear: “You’re perfect, and so is your desktop.”
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 beautiful, but real houses don’t usually look like this. Once we start doing actual work on our Macs, apps quickly pile up everywhere and it looks more like a hoarder’s desktop than anything else.
As hard as I tried to keep a tidy desktop, it was a process that required too much work — minimizing apps, spreading them across multiple desktops, and even using Split View — all in the name of trying to be productive and aesthetics at the same time.
Thankfully, macOS Ventura’s Stage Manager is here to make what used to be impossible a reality. It can organize a cluttered desktop in a visually soothing way and make you think you’re a lot more organized than you actually are. It’s a sham, of course — 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 desktop.”
Stage Manager is Stacks for Apps
Do you remember Stacks? Probably not, but Apple welcomed the feature when it originally launched with Mac OS X Leopard. It organizes files into a folder in your dock. Then along came Desktop Stacks with macOS High Sierra, which took all the files on your desktop and organized them into neat little stacks organized by type, date, or Finder tags.
Desktop Stacks solved a major problem for many users who found themselves with dozens if not hundreds of files on their desktop. Finding a single file required someone who was basically a speedrunner in Where’s Waldo, or serious help from Spotlight, Apple’s built-in search feature. Apple put some cleverness into organizing the desktop to make it easier to at least get into the ballpark of the file you wanted to look for without you having to do anything. It also brought a lot more quiet to your desktop and made it look more put together than a madman’s computer.
When I think of Stage Manager I can’t help but make the comparison and feel that the feature is simply desktop stacks but apps. And that’s not a bad thing.
Apps, like files, can quickly clutter our desktops. Apple’s other window management features, while offering productivity gains, have never solved the appearance problem. I could use multiple desktops, but that just meant things would look like garbage on two desktops instead of one.
Stage Manager solves this visual problem while keeping things organized in a meaningful way. Because I can group apps into their own batches, I can organize my workflow to call upon the group of apps that I know are related and tend to need at the same time or for the same function. It allows me to keep my entire workflow at a glance instead of being buried under a mountain of other apps.
Can I still use multiple desktops, app shortcuts, and Split View? Secure. But I find myself using them less and less.
It’s been my favorite new Mac feature for years
I’m trying hard to think of another Mac feature that has captured my heart as much as Stage Manager. A tidy desktop brings a sense of focus and calm to my digital world that I’ve had to live without on my laptop forever.
If I Yes, really Thinking about it, I have to say that the only other “feature” that gives me stage manager-level enjoyment is that Apple redesigned macOS with Big Sur a few years ago. It’s certainly not perfect (I’m looking at you, Mac notifications with your tiny close button), but the Mac has needed a visual makeover for years. The update made the Mac feel fresh and new, like getting a brand new computer without having to pay for it. Of course, if you want a brand 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 more of a full version of the operating system than a single feature, so Stage Manager kind of stands alone. My only complaint is that my work computer still has to run macOS Monterey, leaving me stuck eight hours a day without my beloved feature. However, by the end of the workday, I’m back to desktop fun.
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