8 Real World Uses for iPhone Mirroring in iOS 18 and MacOS Sequoia
Is Apple’s new one iPhone Mirroring function in the latest versions of iOS and MacOS actually useful? No matter where your iPhone is (in another room, charging, or hidden in the bottom of a bag or pocket), you can view and control it from your Mac.
Besides the convenience of not having to answer the phone, I’ve found several reasons to use iPhone Mirroring. In fact, I find myself using it regularly on my iPhone 16 now that iOS 18 and MacOS Sequoia have been released. (And if you use the latest betasyou can experiment with one of the most interesting mirroring features: the ability to drag and drop items directly onto the phone and vice versa.)
Read more: How to control your iPhone from your Mac with iPhone Mirroring
iOS 18 and MacOS Sequoia are now available and offer a host of other features such as animated text messages and the ability to do so customize your iPhone home screen.
Check this out: iPhone Mirroring comes to Macs running MacOS Sequoia
When your iPhone is in a bag, purse or another room
The easiest use is when you want to access something on your phone, but it’s hidden in a bag, just out of reach, or you can’t get up (or you can, but the sleeping cat or dog is on your lap wouldn’t do that). I don’t appreciate the disruption). Connecting via iPhone Mirroring is much more convenient.
You can access your iPhone even when it’s in a bag or out of reach, using iPhone Mirroring on MacOS Sequoia and iOS 18.
However, this feature won’t work over long distances, such as if you accidentally left your iPhone at home and need to access it from work. iPhone Mirroring uses Apple’s Continuity technology, which means the iPhone and Mac must be within Bluetooth range of each other.
When you need to check in via an iPhone app
Missed your daily Duolingo check-in and your phone is not at hand? If your Mac is, iPhone Mirroring can connect and keep you going.
Or maybe you need to finish today’s Wordle challenge, but checking your phone while at work would be too obvious. The discreet iPhone Mirroring window can be easily covered or hidden if necessary.
Keep track of your Duolingo streak even when your phone isn’t nearby.
When you want to use an app, not a web interface
Even today, some popular services work much better in apps than as web interfaces. Yes, we’re looking at you, Instagram. Posting from an app often offers more options or a better user experience. Because iPhone Mirroring gives you almost complete access to the iPhone interface, you can post messages using a mouse pointer instead of a finger.
Apps like Instagram are more comprehensive than their web counterparts.
When you want to quickly transfer items between devices (coming soon)
I take a lot of screenshots for work and take even more photos for myself, all of which end up in my Photo Library. Those images are then synced to my Mac via iCloud, but sometimes it seems at a pace accurately described as “when the phone gets around to it.” When I need something on my Mac right away, I find myself using AirDrop between devices, which works but is more clunky than I’d like.
However, later this year we’ll be able to drag and drop all kinds of files (not just images) between an iPhone and the Mac running the iPhone Mirroring app. That goes both ways, too: drop a video or important PDF from a Mac Finder window onto the mirrored iPhone to transfer it to the phone. (You can play with it now on the latest version Beta versions of iOS 18.1 and MacOS Sequoia.)
Drag files from Mac to mirrored iPhone and vice versa.
If you don’t want to overload your Mac with software junk
MacOS has a long tradition of supporting system extensions, startup items, and various background processes that you probably don’t know are running most of the time. For example, some major application suites distribute these accessory files like a dropped box of Lego. In many cases, the resource demands are negligible, but these components still consume storage and processing power.
In contrast, iOS has always been built as a siled system, with each app having its own protected storage and strictly controlled routes for interacting with other apps. Especially for apps that you don’t use often but need to keep, you may want to install a mobile version and avoid the app creep that occurs under MacOS.
With iPhone Mirroring you can still use an app like this on your Mac, without infecting MacOS with all the associated garbage that is normally installed.
When you want to log in to your bank’s app instead of doing it on the computer
Unfortunately, several of these suggestions focus on the “an app is better than a website” theme, and there’s often no better example than banking sites.
It can be easier and more secure to access your bank accounts or investments by using iPhone Mirroring to log in with the iOS app instead of a web browser on your Mac. You’ll still need to authenticate the iPhone app when you open it (since you can’t use Face ID or Touch ID on the device), but that could be a more convenient option.
Use secure apps that are only on your phone, such as the Bank of America app.
When you want to access locked and hidden apps 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 allows you to access them when the phone is not nearby.
When you do that, the iPhone Mirroring app requires authentication via the Mac, as you’d expect. Enter your Mac’s login password, use Touch ID, or authenticate with your connected Apple Watch to open locked apps or reveal the hidden folder on the phone.
Access Hidden App folder via iPhone Mirroring.
When you are giving a presentation and want to show what is on the iPhone
Granted, this is a smaller subset of use cases, but if you need to demonstrate something on iPhone during an online or in-person presentation, iPhone Mirroring is a much easier option than other methods.
Besides mounting an overhead camera, the most common method was to connect the iPhone to a Mac with a cable and use QuickTime Player to view the phone’s screen. You still have to operate the phone with your hands.
With iPhone Mirroring, the phone can now be connected wirelessly and manipulated with your Mac’s trackpad or mouse and keyboard.
The main limitation of this approach is that if you need to perform something on the phone, activating it will pause the mirrored connection.
And one streaming limitation we’d like to see changed
An unannounced feature between Apple devices is the ability to stream media from an iPhone to a Mac using AirPlay. Time to sit back and watch a movie or catch an episode of your favorite TV show? You can launch it on the iPhone and choose the Mac – with its larger screen – as the destination.
Since iPhone Mirroring allows you to control an iPhone that is out of range, it would be nice to start a movie playing on the Mac’s screen. However, digital rights management destroys that idea in the context of iPhone Mirroring. Although you can open an app like TV and start a program, the screen remains black.
Netflix appears as a black screen when you try to use it via iPhone Mirroring.
That black screen also applies if you use AirPlay to stream while iPhone Mirroring is active. The only way this works is if you physically control the phone and stream it to the Mac.
iPhone Mirroring is just one new feature on iPhone and Mac with iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia. Don’t miss it how to spice up your texts in Messages and how to work with the updated Control Center.
