What are everyone’s thoughts on Stage Manager. I’m not the biggest fan at the moment - at least on the Mac. I don’t see the point. I would have liked to have seen more Windows 11ish window management.
The more I think about it, the more I’m intrigued. For the iPad, it’s interesting and a step forward. For the Mac, it seems like a nice option. If I can use it in just one desktop, it’ll actually help me clear up a bit of space.
On Desktop 1, I use Safari, Mail, Omnifocus, Music, Messages, Slack, and the Calendar. I wouldn’t mind having auto-hide functionality as I navigate between these. But I don’t want it on my other desktops, which are much more single-purpose for big creative tasks.
The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, as they say. Or the proof of the window management will be in the swiping?
I like the idea. The main downside will be the loss of screen estate on the left hand side, but easy access to multiple documents and sets of apps seems useful to my workflow. I’ve also rarely used the desktop for anything, but perhaps this gives it a renewed purpose. On the iPad it’s a game changer. As they say in the MPU podcasts, having continuity across the Mac and iPad will be helpful in particular to non-power users.
Is there anything specific in Win 11 you would like to have seen on Mac? I know they have snap layouts, but that’s possible with third party solutions already.
You can have the open windows on the left hand side auto hide, which I really like.
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I guess I really just don’t like how you lose so much screen space by not being able to have your app open in full screen. I’ve become really good at using spaces and swiping. Stage Manager is an interesting concept, I’m just not sure if it will be for me.
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I have a 2020 iPP so my iPad won’t support it. But I’m not sure how useful it would be on my 11" screen. I frequently use two instances of Files side by side or one full screen app and another in slideover. So far I’ve never needed more than that.
It would be handy with an external monitor, but as I’ve mentioned elsewhere so would full screen support (- StageManager) on older iPad Pros. I do think it validates iPads as a production device for one segment of computer users.
I’m still waiting for screen management ala Minority Report and Tony Stark. 
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It’s coming along with Calculator for iPad.
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Moot point on iPad – mine isn’t an M1.
Would be cool to play with on macOS if it’s fully usable from the keyboard. If it isn’t, it’s immediately useless to me. If it is, I’d like to see whether or not it replaces my current workflow with multiple desktops given that it seems to match the use case of multiple grouped sets of windows.
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Dude, that’s so 2014!
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Ha Ha, it’s a beginning. I score it Minority Report v0.5, Tony Stark v0.1
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When Apple comes out with their “Tony Stark Studio” at WWDC 2027, they’ll run ads with the tagline, “What’s a keyboard?”
“We’ve removed the keyboard…courage.”
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I’m satisfied with my current setup. Minority Report used Sneakernet 
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Yeah, but the Gesture Based UI and the 120-inch screen were cool.
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I think I’m in the camp of many podcasts that I’ve listened to over the last 24 or so hours, in that this is a feature that will have massive appeal to general non-power user customers that can’t be bothered to learn about Launchpad or Mission Control, and it’s a good way to have unity between the two software systems. It easily extrapolates functionality between them, and will make iPad more appealing for some Mac users, and vice versa.
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I had 5 minutes with it this morning, on my MBA, and for casual things I liked it so far (5 minutes, remember).
I was moving between browser windows, Reeder, and System Settings and liked the flow.
The reduced windows size was fine because I was just browsing around.
I love how it removes icons off the desktop, which means that I might go back to using my desktop for temporary storage (I like this functionally, but can’t stand clutter).
For people who value a clean interface, this is superb (as a first-release beta) in my very initial opinion.
I am the same, however I just use a couple of spaces and really don’t need any management really of windows. I assume that is just the way I work and probably am lucky in that. I have the swipe up to see all the windows or whatever in an app set but I never use it, like hot corners: I am not even sure if I still have them set to something. I enjoyed the WWDC but really there was so little there relevant to me. I liked the M2 thing overall of course and better battery life and cooling, that sort of thing. Otherwise though it was very cool, nothing to do with me I might say.
I think it would benefit from a keyboard shortcut to turn on and off. I find it useful for some things but not others.
I have found that using Stage Manager in conjunction with spaces and full screen apps has been working for me. At first I thought Stage Manager was across all spaces but it seems to be limited to one…unless I’m missing something.
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I published an article with my thoughts on it.
My biggest issue currently is that it hides the desktop files and makes it difficult to use drag and drop. So, if I have a, image on desktop and I want to attach it to a document. I have to first click on the desktop, drag the file to the shelf on the left, wait for the app to flash and open (it takes 2-3 seconds), and then I will be able to drop off the file.
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