macOS Sequoia Has New FaceTime Backgrounds Showcasing Apple Park

Apple in the second beta of macOS Sequoia 15.1 has added a set of new backgrounds for FaceTime calls that showcase features of Apple Park.

macos sequoia facetime backgrounds
There are nine backgrounds in all, featuring iconic locations around the company's circular headquarters in Cupertino, California, which should be familiar to anyone who has watched a recent Apple event.

For example, one shows ‌Apple Park‌'s rainbow arch, based on the company's rainbow apple logo and erected as a tribute to its late co-founder Steve Jobs, who helped conceptualize the spaceship-like design of the main building on the campus prior to his death.

In macOS Sequoia, there are other new built-in backgrounds that can be used for ‌FaceTime‌ and other video calls to blur out and hide what's behind you. These include different color gradients and the ability to use photos from your photo library.

Elsewhere, ‌FaceTime‌ has also gained the ability to preview what you're going to share in a video call when using screen sharing. Video calling apps will now give you a small preview of what will be shared before you okay the sharing process, which is useful to double check that you're not sharing information you don't want everyone to see.

macOS Sequoia 15.1 is currently in its second developer beta phase and is expected to arrive for all users with supporting Macs later this year, following the release of macOS Sequoia 15. Apple has split Apple Intelligence into a separate set of betas because these features will not be available in the initial launch version of ‌macOS Sequoia‌.

Related Forum: macOS Sequoia

Popular Stories

samsung crease less foldable display ces 2026%402x

Foldable iPhone's Crease-Free Display Tech Spotted at CES 2026

Tuesday January 6, 2026 3:04 am PST by
CES 2026 has just provided a first glimpse of the folding display technology that Apple is expected to use in its upcoming foldable iPhone. At the event, Samsung Display briefly showcased its new crease-less foldable OLED panel beside a Galaxy Z Fold 7, and according to SamMobile, which saw the test booth before it was abruptly removed, the new panel "has no crease at all" in comparison. The ...
iPhone Top Left Hole Punch Face ID Feature Purple

10 Reasons to Wait for This Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Thursday January 8, 2026 2:56 am PST by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
Apple Card iPhone 16 Pro Feature

Apple Card Will Move From Goldman Sachs to JPMorgan Chase

Wednesday January 7, 2026 12:57 pm PST by
JPMorgan Chase has reached a deal to take over operation of the Apple Card, reports The Wall Street Journal. Barring any "last minute hiccups," the deal should be announced shortly after over a year of negotiations. Reports began circulating over two years ago that current Apple Card issuer Goldman Sachs was looking to end its partnership with Apple as part of an effort to scale back on...
iOS 27 Mock Quick

Five New iPhone Features Rumored for iOS 27

Wednesday January 7, 2026 2:51 pm PST by
Though it's been just a few months since iOS 26 launched, we're already hearing rumors about the next-generation version of iOS, iOS 27. iOS 27 will be introduced at Apple's June WWDC 2026 event before it launches in September 2026. We don't know all of the details about iOS 27 yet, but we do have some information about what to expect. "Snow Leopard" Update iOS 27 will apparently focus...
Logitech MX Master 3S

Logitech Blames 'Inexcusable Mistake' After Certificate Expiry Breaks macOS Apps

Wednesday January 7, 2026 5:27 am PST by
Logitech users on macOS found themselves locked out of their mouse customizations yesterday after the company let a security certificate expire, breaking both its Logi Options+ and G HUB configuration apps. Logitech devices like its MX Master series mice and MX Keys keyboards stopped working properly as a result of the oversight, with users unable to access their custom scrolling setup,...
ChatGPT Health Integration Connectors Feature

OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Health With Apple Health Integration

Wednesday January 7, 2026 11:27 am PST by
OpenAI today announced the launch of ChatGPT Health, a dedicated section of ChatGPT where users can ask health-related questions completely separated from their main ChatGPT experience. For more personalized responses, users can connect various health data services such as Apple Health, Function, MyFitnessPal, Weight Watchers, AllTrails, Instacart, and Peloton. Last month, MacRumors discovere...
iphone 17 models

No iPhone 18 Launch This Year, Reports Suggest

Thursday January 1, 2026 8:43 am PST by
Apple is not expected to release a standard iPhone 18 model this year, according to a growing number of reports that suggest the company is planning a significant change to its long-standing annual iPhone launch cycle. Despite the immense success of the iPhone 17 in 2025, the iPhone 18 is not expected to arrive until the spring of 2027, leaving the iPhone 17 in the lineup as the latest...
AirPods Pro 3 Year of the Horse Feature

Apple Launches Year of the Horse AirPods Pro 3 for Lunar New Year

Monday January 5, 2026 11:28 am PST by
Apple has designed a limited edition version of the AirPods Pro 3 to celebrate Lunar New Year, and customers in select countries can purchase them starting today. The Year of the Horse Special Edition AirPods Pro 3 feature a unique horse emoji character that's otherwise unavailable. Customers in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore are able to buy the AirPods, and they'll be...

Top Rated Comments

Mrkevinfinnerty Avatar
18 months ago
Me on every single facetime call from here on in


Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
orbital~debris Avatar
18 months ago
Apple is great. But this, at first glance, seems weird – why pretend you're at Apple?
Wouldn't high quality backgrounds of different regions of Earth be more useful (maybe take inspiration from visionOS environments)?
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gleepskip Avatar
18 months ago

Apple is great. But this, at first glance, seems weird – why pretend you're at Apple?
Wouldn't high quality backgrounds of different regions of Earth be more useful (maybe take inspiration from visionOS environments)?
It's cringey.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iCyprus Avatar
18 months ago
Okay, this is ALL I ever wanted for my video calls.

Good call APPle.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mystery hill Avatar
18 months ago
They did this so they can work from home while appearing to be at the spaceship building.

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/07/19/apple-employees-fighting-return-to-work/
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
harmonthe3rd Avatar
18 months ago
I definitely will be using the background features. I think many people tend to forget that Apple used to charge for the MacOs. Tim gets so much backlash on the cost of other items. Prices for Apple products have stayed rather consistent for more than a decade.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)