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Window Snapping on macOS

Windows 11 has new window snapping options that have drawn a lot of interest, yours truly included. But what you might not know (I learned only a few months ago) is that similar options are available natively in macOS. I don’t know how long the left and right snapping options have been hiding behind a hover on the green traffic light” control, but they are handy.

The window tiling options that appear on a hover on the green traffic light.
How long have you been hiding there? Holding Option will change these to Move Window” rather than Tile Window”.

The default action tiles the window to a Split View within Mission Control and has you select a second one to fill the screen. However, I was pleasantly surprised that by holding the Option key it changes to Move” rather than Tile” and windows stay on the current desktop.

Two windows moved to either sides of the screen with the macOS snapping options.
The result after moving the two windows to either side of the desktop.

The same options are also available via the Window” menu bar item, though without a default keyboard shortcut. For better window snapping and management in macOS right now, I highly recommend Magnet, available on the Mac App Store. It’s got more options and keyboard shortcuts.

Menu bar items for native Mac tiling, and Magnet app preferences.
Native window controls via the Menu Bar (left) and Magnet’s options (right).

That all being said, Windows will have the better implementation of window snapping come this October.

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