Use Edge Light for Better Video Calls in macOS

[badtzmaru]

what an unfortunate name for this “feature” what you been doing? oh just edge lighting all night

 

[cougarmeat]

Sounds like another "Marketing" over true function decision Apple has been so fond of lately. Too bad the article didn't continue to explain how to turn the feature on "automatically." It just said it could be done.

 

[Agent007]

How long before the edge lighting is plastered with ads?

We are about to wake up @ProbablyDylan in the year 2364

View attachment 2589071View attachment 2589073View attachment 2589076

I absolutely love this episode. Makes me want to be cryogenically frozen right now. "Martini, straight up, with two olives...for the vitamins"

 

[turbineseaplane]

How long before the edge lighting is plastered with ads?


I absolutely love this episode. Makes me want to be cryogenically frozen right now. "Martini, straight up, with two olives...for the vitamins"

Great pull!
I too love this episode.

 

[thecombatwombat]

That's really cool. Not a game changer, but a neat idea.

Though I imagine the effectiveness varies a lot depending on what kind of display you have.

A small laptop it probably doesn't matter much at all. But like, on the same page that rumored 24 inch imac with very bright, OLED display (so it can independently brighten the edges effectively) it probably works really well, better than a ring light.

 

[ronno]

They stated this is meant to be used in darker conditions. It is not supposed to overpower room lighting or sunlight.

 

[TwoBytes]

It's made a subtle difference - depends on how dark your room is, but it's a nice idea.

 

[kagharaht]

I tried it and I still look ugly as sin...oh well.

 

[Quicksilver867]

Should be very friendly to an OLED display...

 

[swilcox69]

Tried it on my Apple Studio Display. Made no difference.

 

[StudioMacs]

I cannot get Edge Light to work on my ASD connected to an M3 MBP. It will only enable on the MBP display. Ideas?

Just a guess, but you may need to close the laptop lid and use the Studio Display as the only monitor (it would also require an external keyboard and mouse/trackpad. I don’t have this setup to test my recommendation since I’m using a Mac Studio.

 

[ZMacintosh]

Apple will turn the bezel into an actual LED light next.

 

[Roller]

Edge Light doesn't do anything for me under most lighting conditions. But playing with it got me to try the macOS webcam background replacement feature for the first time. It works much better (far fewer artifacts) than the one in Teams.

 

[code-m]

It’s a great idea on paper but the execution leaves much to be desired

New Mac hardware will have WRGB light strip build-in along the display edge to make this truly shine.

 

[mgymnop]

Useless but great that it uses Apple's Neural Engine hocus-pocus.

 

[kitKAC]

https://lightbuddy.app/

Same idea but works on Intel Macs as well.

https://rambo.codes/posts/2025-12-15-sherlocked-before-it-was-born-lightbuddy

 

[AnTaR3s]

Just tried it. It's awful for everybody with glasses 🤓 Too bad :/

 

[Shorty89]

They should do the same for the iPad pros

 

[Rigby]

A normal monitor doesn't produce enough light for this to matter much. I see a subtle effect when the room is pretty dark, but that's it. It's pretty much the same as opening an empty Textedit window or something in the background. At least you can adjust the color temperature.

 

[barnyard]

Now make it work on an Intel Mac.

 

[Kylo83]

the photo is not real, the camera quality on MacBook Pros is shameful, blurry and grainy, the notch wasnt needed for this tiny useless camera, windows laptops have thinner bezels with better cameras

 

[NT1440]

Another worthless feature no one asked for bloating the OS.

How much “bloat” do you really think this is contributing?

It’s a small QoL feature, not a deep OS level overhaul or update.

 

[Boeingfan]

I can see this being useful, I like this.

 

[dimon2242]

the photo is not real, the camera quality on MacBook Pros is shameful, blurry and grainy

I came here for this comment

 

[G725]

To all saying using this makes no difference, the feature can only help in low light situations. The display is not as bright as a spot light.