This Dock concept is exactly what we want to see from macOS 14

Pretty please, Tim.

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WheneverAppleis getting ready to announce new software we all have hopes and dreams for what it might bring to the table. The impending macOS 14 announcement is absolutely no different and we can’t wait to see what Apple shows off atWWDC23on June 5. But we just really hope that this concept is a glimpse of what’s to come.

That concept shows us a new type of macOS Dock that appears to take more than a cue from thebest iPhonefeature in recent years — theDynamic Islandon theiPhone 14 Pro.

Do we want this new Dock and nothing else? Absolutely not, but there’s no denying that something like this would be an excellent start to Craig Federighi’s walkthrough come dub-dub-day next month.

It’s ALIVE!

The Dock today is fine, but it’s far from what anyone would call active or exciting. It lets us open apps and switch between them. Sometimes it shows icons with badges that tell us how many unread emails we have or how many things are left undone in our task managers. But what if the Dock did more? The Dock could dosomuch more.

Enter designer Janum Trivedi.

What if the macOS dock and its icons were more dynamic and fluid?Made a little demo that shows message previews, live music, download progress, and more.Pretty happy with how this turned out! pic.twitter.com/YpzrWU5klAMay 2, 2023

Trivedi shared a short concept video to Twitter and it’s everything we want from a Dock upgrade in macOS 14. We see icons that make way for more live and interactive content, like playback controls in the Music app. There are also what appear to be unread chats or favorites that appear when the Messages app icon is clicked and you can even seeSafarimaking way for what appears to be some kind of download progress display. It’s all just so interactive.

We think this is a great start for the kind of thing that macOS 14 could offer, but we still hope for much more.

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There are so many things wrong with macOS Ventura today that it’s difficult to know where to start. Actually, no it isn’t, we’d start by undoing the System Settings situation and going back to something that works. An interface closer to the old System Preferences would do us just fine, but we’ll just settle for a window that can be dragged to make more space for whatever options are displayed at the time.

What else? We’d look toWindows 11for better windowing options, for example. There are plenty of third-party apps out there that make it easier to manage and tile app windows but macOS should do a better job of it on its own.

Finally, it’s time for Siri to get smart. We’ve seen how capableChatGPTis and what it can do really does put Siri to shame. Apple’s focus on privacy isn’t helping here of course, but asMicrosoftlooks to integrateOpenAItech in more ways, maybe it’s time Apple followed suit. We’re not 100% on what that could look like, but with so many Spotlight replacements maybe it’s time that Apple gave that some love.

Just imagine havingChatGPT-like functionality baked right into Spotlight! Whether that will ever happen remains to be seen, but with AppleWWDC2023 right around the corner, one can hope.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn’t looked back.

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