Today marks the official release of macOS Monterey which introduces some key changes that email marketers need to be aware of.

We are thrilled to announce that the latest Mail Designer 365 version is fully compatible with macOS 12, including all new M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBooks, so you can continue designing amazing HTML emails on your Mac.

Mail Designer 365 is fully compatible with macOS Monterey

For a full roundup of all the most important changes in Monterey, be sure to check out our guide below. In the meantime, update to the latest Mail Designer 365 version here.

Important changes in macOS Monterey - new feature roundup

Since the release of the first macOS 12 developer preview back in summer, there has been no end of excitement and speculation surrounding the official release, which is traditionally always in the fall.

As well as a new look Safari design and exciting new machine learning features like Live Text and Visual Lookup, macOS Monterey also rolls out some important privacy updates. Plus, say hello to a brand new generation of MacBook Pros. Read the official press release here.

As today marks the official release, here are some of the key changes for email marketers to be aware of in macOS Monterey...

Mail Privacy Protection

In the email world, by far the most widely talked about change in macOS 12, as well as iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, has been the addition of Mail Privacy Protection.

When a user activates Mail Privacy Protection, emails will be automatically opened by Apple Mail upon delivery and remote content will be downloaded privately in the background. This is intended to prevent marketers from building up profiles on their recipients based on open rate data.

Thanks to the choice of wording of the prompt, we're assuming that the vast majority of users who are shown this option when they upgrade their devices will choose to activate Mail Privacy Protection. This is set to cause disproportionately high open rates due to emails being opened in the background.

Mail Privacy Protection is set to change the way marketers analyse and assess open rates

Want to learn more? We've created a whole guide on what Mail Privacy Protection means for email marketing - including a practical checklist.

Hide My Email

Another feature which has been newly introduced to macOS and iOS is "Hide My Email" - part of the new, paid iCloud+ service. This feature allows users to automatically generate unique, random email addresses to use when creating accounts or filling out forms online.

Hide My Email allows users to create unique, random email addresses to help keep their main inbox tidy

The aim is to keep users' private email addresses concealed and give them back control of their email inboxes.

Although this is a paid add-on feature, we imagine that many iPhone, iPad, and Mac users will be upgrading to iCloud+, due to increased storage needs and will likely take advantage of this service.

What does this mean for me?

For email marketers, an increase in "dummy" or "burner" email addresses may make it more difficult to gather data and tailor email campaigns to subscribers - especially as users are able to delete these fake addresses at any time, without even unsubscribing.

Although a large volume of these burner email addresses may lead to an increased hard bounce rate for your campaigns, it's important to consider the reason why subscribers feel they can't sign up with their main email address. Can they trust your business? Is your email content of value?

This article by the team at Litmus goes into more detail about Hide My Email and how you can get prepared.

New M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pros

Joining last month's newly released iPhone 13 and iPad mini models, macOS Monterey also coincides with the release of two new MacBook Pro models. MacBook Pro 14" and 16" will be the first models to debut Apple's new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.

Thinking of upgrading to a new MacBook Pro? Mail Designer 365 is a universal app and supports both Intel and M1 Macs, meaning you can continue working seamlessly on your email designs.

Getting a new MacBook Pro? Read this guide first in order to safely back up your Mail Designer 365 templates.

Mail Designer 365 and macOS Monterey

If you're looking to upgrade your current Mac to macOS Monterey or considering purchasing a new MacBook Pro, you can rest assured in the knowledge that Mail Designer 365 is fully compatible with the latest macOS version. For existing Mail Designer 365 users, all updates are included in the lifetime of your plan. You can download the latest version here.

Not got a Mail Designer 365 plan yet? Check out all our plan options here.