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macOS Ventura: Here’s how the new Clock app can be useful on Mac

The Mac gains Apple’s Clock app in macOS Ventura, and it’s a surprisingly useful addition. The new app includes proper Mac integration, Siri control, and more.

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Clock… but for Mac!

The Clock app icon is like the analog clock that we know from iPhone and iPad. It shows the current time when placed on the Dock or in Launchpad, but there’s no seconds hand. The app icon in Finder does include a seconds hand, but it’s not a live clock. A seconds hand would be a nice touch, but it’s a better analog clock than the tiny one that can replace the digital time in the menu bar.

Familiar interface

The Clock app design is very similar to the iPad version and its more compact iPhone version. A single window gives you four tab options for world clock, alarm, stopwatch, and timer. The world clock scales best to Mac-sized displays, especially if you have multiple cities added, while the other sections adjust decently.

You can view time zones, set alarms, start a stopwatch, or run a timer on the Mac now — just like on iPhone and iPad. There’s even a new Mac widget for upcoming alarms. No major surprises to discover, and the Mac-adapted interface gets a passing grade.

Mac polish

Where the Clock app surprises and delights is around timers. If you set a timer, the countdown is automatically added to the menu bar at the top of your Mac. Clicking it opens the Clock app, and the countdown continues even if you quit the Clock app. I can see this new built-in feature being very useful for managing tasks and time while working on the Mac.

What happens when a timer or alarm goes off? The Clock app pushes a notification that persists until you dismiss it. The timer or alarm sound ring out, although it can be difficult to hear over playing music so be careful..

Mac Clock timer in menu bar

The other big utility with Clock being on the Mac is gaining new Siri commands. Siri on macOS Ventura can set alarms and start timers for the first time — arguably the first great feature for Siri on the Mac!

Unfortunately, the Clock app on the Mac suffers the same limitation as the iPhone and iPad version around timers; you can only set a single timer for now. Multiple timer support is still limited to HomePod and Apple Watch.

Mac Clock widget

Bringing the Clock app to the Mac might seem trivial at first, but having timers at all will likely be a welcome feature for macOS Ventura users. The new Weather app on Mac and iPad is also pretty good. macOS 13 Ventura is a free update for compatible Macs.

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Avatar for Zac Hall Zac Hall

Zac covers Apple news, hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and created SpaceExplored.com.