Windows Snap Layouts on a Mac: the equivalent

The closest thing to Windows Snap Layouts that is built into the Mac is the window tiling Apple added in macOS 15 Sequoia: drag a window to an edge or a corner, or point at its green button, and it takes a half or a quarter of the screen. What macOS does not have is the layout picker and the step where Windows offers your other open windows for the remaining spaces. On a Mac those come from a window manager.

What Snap Layouts does on Windows

It helps to name the parts, because macOS matches some and not others. This is how Microsoft describes Snap in Windows 11:

• Snap with the keyboard. The Windows key with an arrow key sends the window to a side of the screen.
• The layout picker. Pointing at a window's maximise button, or pressing the Windows key and Z, shows a set of layouts. You click the zone you want.
• Layouts at the top of the screen. Dragging a window towards the top of the screen shows the layouts so you can drop the window into one.
• Snap Assist. After the first window is placed, Windows shows your other open windows so you can pick one for each space that is left.

What macOS has built in

From macOS 15 Sequoia, the Mac tiles windows without any extra app:

• Drag a window to the left or right edge for a half, or into a corner for a quarter. A frame shows where it will land.
• Move the pointer over the green button at the top left of a window and a small panel offers tiling positions.
• The Window menu has the same positions as commands under Move & Resize, each with a keyboard shortcut shown beside it.

macOS 13 Ventura and macOS 14 Sonoma have none of this. They have Split View, which puts two windows side by side in full screen, and nothing for quarters.

One habit to unlearn: the green button is not a maximise button. A click on it takes the window into full screen, in a space of its own. To make a window fill the screen while staying on the desktop, use the fill command in the Window menu on macOS 15, or a window manager's maximise shortcut.

Windows to Mac, feature by feature

Getting the layout picker on a Mac

SnapForMac was built around this gap. Its Snap Layouts bar holds six layouts: two halves, wide and narrow, three columns, main and two stacked, four quarters, and centre with two sides. It opens in three ways, two of which will feel familiar:

1. A shortcut. Control, Option and Space opens the bar for the window in front. Every layout and zone shows a number, so you never need the mouse.
2. A drag to the top. Drag a window towards the top of the screen and the bar appears. The zone under the pointer lights up, a preview shows where the window will land, and you let go.
3. The menu bar. Click the SnapForMac icon in the menu bar, then Snap Layouts.

Once the first window is placed, the next empty zone lists your other open windows. Click one, or press its number, and it fills that zone. Then the same for any zone that is left. The Snap Layouts page shows the bar and each of the six layouts.

The bar can be used 5 times a day for free. SnapForMac Pro, a one-time purchase, has no daily limit. Snapping to halves and quarters by keyboard or by dragging is free without a limit.

What does not carry over

A Mac with a window manager gets close to Windows, not identical. These are the differences you will notice:

• Names, not pictures. Windows shows small pictures of your other windows. SnapForMac lists each window by its app name and title. Showing pictures of other apps' windows on a Mac needs the Screen Recording permission, and SnapForMac does not ask for it.
• Six set layouts. The layouts are fixed. You cannot draw your own.
• No saved groups. SnapForMac does not remember a set of snapped windows to bring back later. It does have pairs in Pro: two windows side by side that swap sides, resize together and come forward together when you click back into one of them.
• A permission to grant. On Windows snapping is part of the system. On a Mac, an app that moves other apps' windows needs the Accessibility permission. The guide to the macOS Accessibility permission explains what that allows.

Which route to take

If you are on macOS 15 or later and two windows in halves is all you did on Windows, start with what is built in. It costs nothing and there is nothing to install. The guide on macOS Sequoia tiling or a window manager goes through where it stops.

If you used the picker and Snap Assist all day, or your Mac runs macOS 13 or 14, a window manager is the way to get them. For layouts with three windows in particular, see how to split a Mac screen into three windows. SnapForMac needs macOS 13 Ventura or later; the download page has the requirements and the install steps.

Questions people ask

Does macOS have Snap Layouts?

Not under that name. macOS 15 Sequoia and later can tile a window to a half or a quarter by dragging it to an edge, from the green button or from the Window menu. There is no layout picker with window suggestions built in.

What is the Mac equivalent of the Windows key and Z?

macOS has no direct match. On macOS 15 the green button shows tiling positions when you point at it. In SnapForMac, Control, Option and Space opens a bar of six layouts for the window in front.

What is the Mac equivalent of the Windows key and an arrow?

On macOS 15 or later, the half commands under Move & Resize in the Window menu, which have their own shortcuts. With SnapForMac on macOS 13 or later, Control, Option and an arrow key snaps the window to that half.

Why does the green button not maximise a window like on Windows?

On a Mac the green button takes a window into full screen, in its own space. To fill the screen and stay on the desktop, use the fill command in the Window menu on macOS 15, or a window manager's maximise shortcut.

Does SnapForMac show previews of my other windows like Snap Assist?

It lists them by app name and window title, not as pictures. Pictures of other apps' windows would need the Screen Recording permission on a Mac, and SnapForMac does not ask for it.