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 Roundup: macOS Sequoia
Related Forum: macOS Sequoia

Popular Stories

iOS 26 on iPhone Feature

Here's When iOS 26 Rolls Out Today in Every Time Zone [Update: Out Now!]

Monday September 15, 2025 12:00 am PDT by
Update 10:06 a.m.: iOS 26 is rolling out now, though it may take a bit for all users to see it, so keep checking! Today's the day! Apple is about to release iOS 26, which will deliver the biggest redesign since iOS 7 and bring a range of new features and improvements to iPhones worldwide. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and Apple announced at last week's iPhone event that...
Tim Cook Rainbow

Apple Reportedly Plans to Launch These 10 Products in 'Coming Months'

Sunday September 14, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple's annual September event is now in the rearview mirror, with the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone Air, Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple Watch SE 3, and AirPods Pro 3 set to launch this Friday, September 19. As always, there is more to come. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple plans to release many products in the...
iOS 26 Battery Glass Feature

Apple Says Installing iOS 26 Might Impact Battery Life

Monday September 15, 2025 10:56 am PDT by
In the iOS 26 release notes, Apple is warning iPhone users that installing the new software might have a temporary impact on battery life, which is normal. A new support document explains that major iOS updates require background setup like indexing data and files for search, downloading new assets, and updating apps. Further, Apple says that new features could require more resources,...
iphone 17 lineup

iPhone 17 Models Launch on September 19 With These New Features

Friday September 12, 2025 7:58 am PDT by
Apple will launch its new iPhone 17 lineup and ultra-thin iPhone Air in stores on Friday, September 19, and the company has already shown off the new devices at its fall event, which ran with the the tagline "Awe dropping." The iPhone 17 series brings a host of new features and enhancements. Here's a rundown of the biggest upgrades and changes: iPhone 17 Display Changes The iPhone...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 Get iOS 26 Features With New Firmware Update

Monday September 15, 2025 10:50 am PDT by
Apple today released updated firmware for the AirPods Pro 2 and the AirPods 4, introducing support for the new AirPods features that are included in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe. The firmware has a build number of 8A356, and it replaces the current 7E93 firmware. With Apple's new software updates, the AirPods Pro 2 and the AirPods 4 support better audio quality for phone calls and...
apple n1 chip

Apple's New N1 Chip in iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone Air Has a Wi-Fi 7 Limitation

Saturday September 13, 2025 10:01 am PDT by
The latest iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air models are equipped with Apple's all-new N1 chip for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread connectivity. However, the chip has a Wi-Fi 7 bandwidth limitation. According to FCC documents reviewed by MacRumors, the N1 chip in all of the new iPhone models supports up to 160 MHz channel bandwidth for Wi-Fi 7, short of the...
iPhone 17 Pro Air Boxes

iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro Boxes Revealed

Sunday September 14, 2025 1:36 pm PDT by
T-Mobile President Jon Freier today shared real-world photos of Apple's boxes for the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 models, which launch on Friday. Image Credit: Jon Freier Apple has typically included iPhone box renders in its product environmental reports, but it did not do so for the latest models. However, Apple's iPhone Upgrade Program page does offer some images of the boxes, ...

Top Rated Comments

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


Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
orbital~debris Avatar
14 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
14 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
14 months ago
Okay, this is ALL I ever wanted for my video calls.

Good call APPle.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mystery hill Avatar
14 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
14 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)