Hands-On: IPhone Mirroring In MacOS Sequoia Proves Apple Can Do Better With IPadOS

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How iPhone Mirroring works

Apple should emulate this experience on iPadOS

Many of the best iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia features slated for release this far aren’t available yet, even for beta testers. They’re part of Apple Intelligence — the suite of artificial intelligence and machine learning features coming to Apple devices in beta later this year. In light of that, the best macOS Sequoia feature you can try right now in the second developer beta is iPhone Mirroring. You can use a windowed version of your iPhone straight from your Mac, all over a wireless connection. It’s a useful feature that might change the way you use your iPhone and Mac together.

I was disappointed to learn that multiple Continuity and Universal Control features can’t be used at the same time. That means you can’t use Universal Clipboard with iPhone Mirroring, nor can you use Sidecar and iPhone Mirroring simultaneously. After using iPhone Mirroring for over a week, it’s hard not to get excited about this feature, even with the limitations. In fact, iPhone Mirroring works so well on the best Macs that I want Apple to apply some of its characteristics to iPadOS 18 in the future.

Setup and usability are seamless on iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia

In order for iPhone Mirroring to work, you need to have an iPhone with iOS 18 developer beta 2 installed and a Mac with macOS Sequoia developer beta 2 installed. You also need to have both devices signed into the same iCloud account, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth must be enabled. Due to the Apple Account limitation, you can’t use a macOS Sequoia virtual machine. When these new operating systems debut publicly in the fall, release-day versions should work with iPhone Mirroring — there won’t be a need to fiddle with developer betas.

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If your devices meet all those requirements, you can get started with iPhone Mirroring by clicking the new app icon in the Dock. If it’s not there, you can also find it in the Launchpad or your Applications folder. After that, you’ll be greeted with a setup screen that explains how iPhone Mirroring works. Essentially, once you finish the initial setup process, you’ll be able to access your iPhone wirelessly from your Mac any time it is nearby and locked. You can choose to require your Mac’s password to start using the feature — I highly reccommend this for security and privacy reasons. It takes about a minute to start using iPhone Mirroring for the first time.

The good

It’s convenient and there’s virtually zero latency

The best parts of iPhone Mirroring, ironically, have nothing to do with the basic concept of remotely accessing your iPhone through your Mac. It’s more about the new ways that your iPhone and Mac can work together. For example, after setting up iPhone Mirroring for the first time, you’ll receive iOS notifications in the macOS Notification Center — even if you’re not actively using iPhone Mirroring. This is a neat feature that probably should’ve been on the Mac much sooner. There are some apps you may not want to install on your Mac, but you can still keep tabs on them while keeping your focus on your computer.

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You can also drag-and-drop files and content between your Mac and iPhone when iPhone Mirroring is active. It’s like Universal Control on steroids, and will greatly simplify the experience of moving files between your Apple devices. AirDrop is fantastic, but drag-and-drop support with iPhone Mirroring might be better.

That’s without even mentioning the core experience of using iPhone Mirroring, which is excellent. I tested the feature with my Mac Mini and a Dell ultrawide monitor, and it really shined in this use case. I had plenty of space for my main workflows while keeping my iPhone in windowed view off to the side. This will surely be distracting for some, but useful and convenient for others. I already keep my iPhone unlocked on a MagSafe charging stand on my desk while working, and iPhone Mirroring helps me keep my focus on my main macOS screen. It’s also worth mentioning that there is barely any latency when using your iPhone wirelessly.

The bad

You can’t resize the iPhone — and it won’t work with Sidecar or Mac Virtual Display

iPhone Mirroring locked on macOS Sequoia.

Arguably, the worst part of iPhone Mirroring is that you can’t resize the window to make it bigger or smaller. The iOS window seems to reflect the same size and aspect ratio of your iPhone in real life, and this makes sense. iOS can’t be resized when it’s mirrored on other types of displays, either, like Apple TV. However, the consequence of this is that iPhone Mirroring may be unusuable on larger displays that are positioned far away from your eyes. I had to squint and get close to compensate for the abnormal macOS resolution on my ultrawide monitor, but suspect it will look a lot better on native Apple displays.

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Apple hasn’t figured out how to facilitate the use of multiple wireless Continuity and Universal Control features at the same time, as we’ve seen affect Apple Vision Pro features previously. It may be due to a technical or bandwidth limitation that simply can’t be overcome at the moment. Whatever the reason is, it makes iPhone Mirroring a bit disappointing. I was thrilled to use iPhone Mirroring with VR/AR hardware, like Vision Pro.

However, iPhone Mirroring and Mac Virtual Display don’t work at the same time. This is an ideal use case for the feature, since you can’t use Face ID on your iPhone while wearing Apple Vision Pro. It also may be difficult to enter an alphanumeric password on your iPhone using passthrough, basically ruling out use of iPhone and Vision Pro together. These same limitations apply to Sidecar and the iPad, too. You also can’t use Notification center or your iPhone’s camera and microphone with iPhone Mirroring — though those restrictions make a lot more sense. iPhone notifications are in the macOS Notification Center anyway, and remote camera and mic access work with Continuity Camera.

The bright side is that iPhone Mirroring does work with third-party wearable hardware, like smart glasses. It also works with Vision Pro, provided you use the $300 developer strap with a USB-C connection. Still, I can’t help thinking about what some of these wireless Apple ecosystem features might look like if they worked together.

Apple should emulate this experience on iPadOS

iPhone Mirroring proves that real mouse and pointer support works on iOS

After spending a week with iPhone Mirroring, I was left with one surprising takeaway — Apple absolutely needs to copy this on iPadOS in the feature. Hear me out — iPhone Mirroring proves that you can use a regular cursor and keyboard to navigate iOS. When you connect your iPhone to a Mac, you don’t get that weird circular iPadOS pointer that morphs into buttons and action items. You just get the standard macOS pointer we’ve been using for decades, plus the regular Mac keyboard. And it just works.

I’d go as far as to say that using the macOS pointer to navigate iOS in iPhone Mirroring feels better than using the native iPadOS pointer on the M4 iPad Pro. That’s true despite iPhone Mirroring using a wireless connection and the macOS pointer not being fully optimized for iOS. Perhaps the best iPads don’t actually need to run macOS. A real cursor paired with iPadOS as it stands today might be all that Apple’s tablet needs.

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It’s worth emphasizing that I really, really didn’t expect this to be my takeaway from iPhone Mirroring. But if you think about it, Apple officially proved that a normal desktop pointer will navigate iOS just fine. iPadOS doesn’t need the abnormal pointer Apple designed for it, and I think that it would be better with the macOS pointer. If it works wirelessly with iPhone Mirroring, it’ll work with an iPad and a Magic Keyboard. Sometimes new Apple features foreshadow others, and I’m hoping iPhone Mirroring previews a better iPadOS cursor that could debut in the future. Based on Apple’s treatment of iPadOS thus far, I won’t hold my breath.