Apple brings AirPlay 2 to Mac with the release of macOS High Sierra 10.13.6

Apple completed an update of its four major platforms — iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS — on Monday with the release of macOS High Sierra 10.13.6, delivering AirPlay 2 and various performance improvements to the Mac operating system.

The latest macOS revision introduces long-awaited compatibility with Apple's AirPlay 2 protocol, enabling multi-room audio streaming on Mac to compatible speakers. For now, it appears support is limited to iTunes, though future versions of the operating system could expand access to all system audio.

Unveiled at WWDC 2017, AirPlay 2 launched with iOS 11.4 in May, allowing users to stream music, movies and other audio to multiple speakers or Apple TV hardware running tvOS 11.4.

Currently, Apple's HomePod is the only speaker to benefit from AirPlay 2's simultaneous streaming capabilities, though major manufacturers like Bang & Olufsen, Denon, Marantz, and Sonos have promised support for existing hardware.

In addition to AirPlay 2, macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 incorporates unspecified stability and security improvements to Mac.

Bug fixes include an issue that prevented Photos from recognizing AVCHD media from certain cameras, as well as a problem that prevented Mail from moving Gmail messages to another account.

Today's release arrives one week after the last developer beta went out earlier this month. The update spent little over a month in testing and evaluation before release.

Users can download the 1.88GB macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 update from the Mac App Store for free.

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15 Comments

lkrupp

said about 5 years ago

Where's the frickin' Combo!? :disappointed:

Since you asked...

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1970?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

k129051

said about 5 years ago

AirPlay 2 can't really come to the system audio, at least the extended buffering enhancements because it's impossible for the system to buffer audio it doesn't know about. In contrast, iTunes which has the whole song file already can buffer ahead with AirPlay 2 long form audio.

You guys seem to be slipping with the quality of your articles lately!

kddpop

said about 5 years ago

Im confused.
I have been sending audio from iTunes to multiple targets for a long time.
Am misunderstanding what’s been added?

Mike Wuerthele

said about 5 years ago

k129051 said:

AirPlay 2 can't really come to the system audio, at least the extended buffering enhancements because it's impossible for the system to buffer audio it doesn't know about. In contrast, iTunes which has the whole song file already can buffer ahead with AirPlay 2 long form audio.

You guys seem to be slipping with the quality of your articles lately!

AirPlay 2 isn't just a dumb stream. Before the file even starts, the receiving device knows exactly how long it is, how the file is encoded, and how much data to expect. System audio beeps are very, very small.

So, yes. System audio is playable through AirPlay 2.

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