Window snapping used to mean installing a third-party app the day you set up a new Mac. That changed with macOS Sequoia, which added real window tiling to the system itself. Here is how the built-in version works, when a third-party tool still earns its place, and the one thing none of them do.
Native tiling in macOS Sequoia
Drag a window to the left or right edge of the screen and it snaps to that half. Drag it to a corner and it snaps to a quarter. Drag it to the top edge, near the menu bar, and it fills the screen. None of this needs a Space switch or a full-screen mode: the window stays on your regular desktop, Dock and menu bar included.
If you would rather not drag all the way to an edge, hold the Option key while dragging and macOS previews the tiling zones as you move the window, so you can drop it into a half or a quarter from anywhere on the screen. You can also hover the pointer over a window's green full-screen button to open a menu with the same tiling choices, or open the Window menu and use Move & Resize, which lists every position (left, right, the four corners, fill, center) alongside its keyboard shortcut.
Tiling with the keyboard
Every tiling position in the Move & Resize menu has a shortcut built on the Globe (fn) key, so you can tile the active window to a half or a corner without touching the mouse at all. The exact combinations are listed next to each command in the Window menu, and you can view or remap all of them in System Settings, under Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, then Window Management.
The margins setting
Open System Settings, then Desktop & Dock, and scroll down to the windows section. You will find toggles for whether dragging to a screen edge or to the menu bar triggers tiling at all, and a separate option for whether tiled windows keep a small margin between each other and the edge of the screen. Turn margins on if you like a sliver of desktop showing between windows, off if you want them touching edge to edge.
Third-party snapping tools
Rectangle is free and open source, and it is still the most recommended snapping app on the Mac: a large set of keyboard shortcuts for halves, thirds and corners, and it works the same way on older versions of macOS that never got native tiling.
Magnet is a paid App Store app with the same drag-to-edge idea and a polished menu bar interface, popular with people who want snapping to just work without any setup.
Moom goes further: alongside snapping, it lets you save a custom grid layout and recall it later with a click or a shortcut, which native tiling and the other two do not do. We go deeper on all three, plus how they compare to a restorer like Putback, in Putback compared with every Mac window tool.
Snapping arranges windows. It does not remember them.
Whichever way you tile, the arrangement only holds for the display setup you made it on. As soon as you unplug a monitor, or your dock drops the connection for a moment while your Mac sleeps, macOS has to move every window off the display that just disappeared. When the monitor comes back, your tiling is gone: nothing, built-in or third-party, remembers that the browser was tiled left and Slack was tiled right on that particular desk. We explain why macOS behaves this way in why your Mac windows move when you unplug a monitor.
This is not a knock on snapping tools; it is a different job. Putback does not snap or tile anything itself. It watches how your windows are arranged, tiled or not, and when your display setup changes it puts every window back exactly where it was, in about 0.4 seconds, with a separate memory for each setup. It pairs fine with Sequoia's native tiling, Rectangle, Magnet or Moom: they arrange the window in front of you right now, Putback makes sure that arrangement survives the next time you dock or undock. See how the switching side of this works in every way to switch between windows on a Mac, or the full-screen side in how to split screen on a Mac.
Questions, answered.
Does macOS have built-in window snapping?
Yes. Since macOS Sequoia (macOS 15), the system tiles windows natively: drag a window to a screen edge or corner and it snaps into a half or quarter, no third-party app required. Earlier versions of macOS only had Split View, which is more limited.
How do I snap two windows side by side?
Drag one window all the way to the left edge of the screen until it snaps to the left half, then drag a second window to the right edge. You can also use the Window menu's Move & Resize submenu, or the Globe (fn) key tiling shortcuts, to do the same thing without a mouse.
Why do my snapped windows move when I unplug my monitor?
Tiling only decides where a window sits on the screen you tiled it on. It does not survive a display change, because macOS has no memory of any window's position once a monitor disconnects and reconnects. We cover why in detail in why your Mac windows move when you unplug a monitor.
Do I still need Rectangle if I have Sequoia's built-in tiling?
Not for basic halves and quarters, no. Rectangle still earns its keep if you want thirds, sixths, a wider set of keyboard shortcuts, or you're on a Mac that has not moved to Sequoia yet. If native tiling covers what you need, you can skip it entirely.
Never rearrange your windows again
Keep whatever snapping tool you like. Putback makes sure the layout it creates survives your next dock, undock or display change.
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