New Drag and Drop is Just One of Various Real-World Reasons to Use iPhone Mirroring on Your Mac

The final piece of the iPhone Mirroring puzzle is now available with the release of iOS 18.1 and MacOS Sequoia 15.1. If you’re in the Apple ecosystem, iPhone Mirroring is a practical marvel on its own: if your iPhone is nearby but unusable, say in a bag or out of reach, use your Mac to connect to and control it.

However, a feature was not available at launch; Drag and drop between devices. You can now copy files and insert them into ongoing documents, just like you would between two windows on your Mac desktop.

Aside from the convenience of having the phone in my hand and drag-and-drop, I also found several reasons to use iPhone Mirroring. I actually find myself using this regularly iPhone 16 now this iOS 18 and MacOS Sequoia was released. Here are some situations where iPhone Mirroring can help you too.

Read more: How to Control Your iPhone from Your Mac Using iPhone Mirroring

iOS 18.1 and MacOS Sequoia 15.1 are available now and bring a number of other features such as: animated text messages and ability Customize your iPhone’s home screen — oh, and a slightly over-the-top technology known as: Apple Intelligence.

Watch this: iPhone Mirroring Comes to Macs with MacOS Sequoia

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When your iPhone is in your purse, purse, or other room

The easiest use case is when you want to access something on your phone, but it’s buried in a bag, you can’t reach it or you can’t stand up (or you can, but the snoozing cat or dog on your lap won’t). do not appreciate the interruption). Connecting via iPhone Mirroring is much more convenient.

However, this feature doesn’t work over long distances, like when you accidentally leave your iPhone at home and need to access it from work. iPhone Mirroring uses Apple’s Continuity technology to work; This means the iPhone and Mac must be within Bluetooth range of each other.

When you need to check in on an iPhone app

Missed your daily Duolingo login and your phone isn’t handy? If your Mac is, iPhone Mirroring can connect and keep your streak going.

Or maybe you should finish your work today Word difficulty, but it will be very obvious that you check your phone while working. The hidden iPhone Mirroring window can be easily closed or hidden if necessary.

When you want to use an application and not a web interface

Even today, some popular services work much better in apps than in web interfaces. Yes, we’re looking at you Instagram. Sharing from an app often involves more options or a better user experience. Since iPhone Mirroring gives you almost full access to the iPhone’s interface, you can share using the mouse pointer instead of your finger.

When you want to quickly transfer items between devices

I create a lot of screenshots for work and take even more photos personally; These are all in my Photos library. These images are then synced to my Mac via iCloud – although sometimes this appears at a pace accurately described as “when the phone gets close to it”. I find myself using AirDrop between devices when I need something on my Mac immediately; this works but is bulkier than I prefer.

But now I can drag and drop any file (not just images) between an iPhone and a Mac running iPhone Mirroring. This goes both ways: Drop a video or important PDF from the Mac Finder window onto the mirrored iPhone to transfer it to the phone.

When you don’t want to fill your Mac with unnecessary software

MacOS has a long legacy of supporting system extensions, startup items, and various background processes that you probably don’t realize are running most of the time. For example, some large application packages distribute these accessory files like a dropped Lego box. In most cases, the consumption of resources is negligible, but these parts still consume storage and processing power.

In contrast, iOS has always been built as a silo system, with each app having its own protected storage and tightly controlled ways to interact with other apps. You may want to install the mobile version of applications that you do not use often but need to keep with you and avoid application drift that occurs under MacOS.

iPhone Mirroring offers a way to continue using an app like this on your Mac without infecting MacOS with all the associated detritus that’s normally installed on it.

When you want to sign in to your bank’s app instead of doing it on a computer

Unfortunately, many of these recommendations focus on the “an app is better than a website” theme, and often there is no better example than banking sites.

It may be easier and more secure to access your bank accounts or investments by using iPhone Mirroring to sign in with the iOS app instead of a web browser on your Mac. You’ll still need to authenticate when you open the iPhone app (because you can’t use Face ID or Touch ID on the device), but this may be a more useful option.

When you want to access locked and hidden applications on your phone

In iOS 18, you can hide sensitive apps or require authentication (like Face ID) to open them. If you prefer to use them on your phone rather than through an app or web interface on your Mac, iPhone Mirroring lets you access them when the phone isn’t nearby.

When you do this, the iPhone Mirroring app requires authentication via Mac, as you’d expect. Enter your Mac’s sign-in password, use Touch ID, or authenticate on your connected Apple Watch to open locked apps or make the Incognito folder on the phone visible.

When you’re giving a presentation and want to show what’s on iPhone

Granted, this is a smaller subset of use cases, but if you need to show something on iPhone during an online or in-person presentation, iPhone Mirroring is a much easier option than other methods.

Aside from the overhead camera setup, the most common method was to connect the iPhone to the Mac with a cable and use QuickTime Player to display the phone’s screen. Then you still need to operate the phone with your hands.

Now with iPhone Mirroring, the phone can be connected wirelessly and managed using your Mac’s trackpad or mouse and keyboard.

The main limitation of this approach is that enabling it pauses the mirrored connection when you need to do something on the phone.

And there is a broadcast limitation that we would like to change

One unheralded feature among Apple devices is the ability to stream media from iPhone to Mac using AirPlay. Is it time to sit back and watch a movie or an episode of your favorite TV show? You can launch it on the iPhone and choose the larger-screen Mac as the target.

It would be nice to start a movie playing on the Mac’s screen, as iPhone Mirroring lets you control an iPhone that’s out of reach. But digital rights management eliminates this idea in the context of iPhone Mirroring. Even though you can open an app like TV and start a program, the image remains black.

This black screen also applies if you use AirPlay to cast with iPhone Mirroring enabled. The only way this will work is if you physically control the phone and stream to the Mac.

iPhone Mirroring is just one of the new features on iPhone and Mac with iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia. Don’t miss How can you color your texts in Messages? and how to work with it updated Control Center.