Several macOS Monterey features will not work on Intel Macs

With the unveiling of macOS Monterey, Apple touted a flurry of new features coming to Mac this fall. However, a handful of those features will not work on Intel-based Macs.

On the macOS Monterey preview page, Apple has mentioned that select Monterey features will be available only on Mac computers with the M1 chip, reported by MacRumors. This leaves older Intel-based Macs that support Monterey in shade with no support for the following features:

• Portrait mode on FaceTime that blurs the background during video calls
• An interactive 3D globe of Earth in the Maps app
• Live Text to copy, translate or look up text within photos
• Detailed maps for roads, neighborhoods, trees, buildings, and more in the Maps app
• Text-to-speech in more languages, including Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish
• On-device keyboard dictation that performs all processing completely offline
• No limit on keyboard dictation (previously limited to 60 seconds)

Rene Ritchie, former Editorial Director of Mobile Nations, noted that Intel-based Macs lack the neural engine which is why the above-mentioned features are not supported on them.

It’s because Intel Macs don’t have the neural engine these features require. M1 is an A14X+. T2 is an A10 (pre-ANE). T1 was an S2 (watch SiP). Previous Intel Macs had nothing. These features all lean on the neural engine. https://t.co/jxqB7LsR2Q

— Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) June 9, 2021

There is no official comment from Apple on why these features are not available on Intel-based Macs. But of what we know the M1 chip is much faster than Intel’s silicon, with Apple’s neural engine inside.

Apple previewed macOS Monterey at WWDC 2021. The update brings features like FaceTime’s spatial audio and SharePlay, Quick Note, and more.