Last updated: July 29, 2026

How to split the screen on a Mac

There are four different ways to put two windows side by side on macOS, and they behave very differently. This guide covers all of them, when each one is the right choice, and the exact keys to press.

Method 1: Split View (full screen, two apps)

Split View has been in macOS since El Capitan. It puts two apps side by side in their own full-screen Space.

1. Hover over the green button in the top-left corner of a window.
2. Choose Tile Window to Left of Screen or Tile Window to Right of Screen.
3. Click any window on the other half to fill it.

Drag the black divider in the middle to change the split. To exit, press esc or hover at the top and click the green button again.

When to use it

Good for deep focus on exactly two apps — writing while referencing a document, for example. It hides the menu bar and Dock, which some people love and others find claustrophobic.

The catch

Split View creates a separate full-screen Space, so those two windows leave your main desktop. You cannot mix in a third window, and switching between Spaces adds an animation every time. It's an all-or-nothing mode rather than a layout tool.

Method 2: Built-in window tiling (macOS 15 Sequoia and later)

macOS 15 added real window tiling on the regular desktop — no full-screen Space required.

• Drag a window to the left or right edge of the screen and it fills that half. Drag to a corner for a quarter.
• Menu: Window → Move & Resize → Left / Right / Top / Bottom.
• Keyboard: hold fn ⌃ and press an arrow key.

When to use it

This is the right starting point if you're on macOS 15 or later and just want halves and quarters occasionally. It's built in, free, and requires no permissions.

The catch

It covers halves, quarters, and full screen — and that's it. No thirds, no two-thirds, no custom sizes, and no way to save a layout you use every day. The default shortcut also requires the fn key, which is awkward to reach mid-typing. If you're on macOS 13 or 14, this method doesn't exist at all.

Method 3: Resize windows by hand

Drag a window edge or corner. On macOS 26 Tahoe this got noticeably harder — the rounded corners mean the resize hit area is small and partly outside the visible window, which is a common complaint.

Two things that help: hold ⌥ while dragging an edge to resize from the center, and hold ⇧ to preserve proportions. Still, doing this dozens of times a day is exactly the problem window managers exist to solve.

Method 4: A window manager (thirds, custom layouts, one keystroke)

This is where the built-in options run out. A dedicated window manager adds:

• Thirds and two-thirds — essential on a widescreen display, where halves waste space.
• Size cycling — press the same shortcut repeatedly to move through 1/2 → 2/3 → 1/3 without learning three different keys.
• Custom layouts — save the arrangement you actually use (say, a 70% editor with a narrow chat column) and recall it with one key.
• Multi-display moves — send a window to the next display while keeping its relative position and size, even across different resolutions.
• Restore — put a window back exactly where it was before you tiled it.

Typical shortcuts in Tiles

Every one of these is remappable, and all actions are also available by dragging a window to a screen edge or from the menu bar.

Which method should you use?

Why do window managers need Accessibility permission?

macOS only lets an app move or resize another app's windows through the Accessibility API. That's the same permission screen readers use, and macOS requires you to grant it explicitly in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. A well-behaved window manager uses it only to set window positions and sizes — it does not read your screen contents or your keystrokes.

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