The iPhone Mirring is one of the best hidden features of iOS 18 and MacOS Sequoia

At the beginning, this feature to control your iphone From a mac let me scratch my head. After all, my phone is rarely out of reach. But that was not the goal, and now I use the iPhone Mirring every day.

When my hands are already on my Mac keyboard and my mouse, it is often easier to connect remotely to my iPhone and use it on my monitor. Mirroring also allows me to use applications like Instagram that work better on the phone than in a browser on my Mac. (I also detail Eight other reasons why you would like to use the iPhone Mirring.)

See also: What about Check someone else’s phone from a distance For family technological support? You can also do it using FaceTime.

The iPhone The mirror only works when the iPhone is locked and not used, undoubtedly for safety purposes, but also to prevent the competing interactions of two people. If the phone loads and in horizontal orientation, the standby mode is always active and you can switch between views without disturbing the mirror.

Here’s how to make it work on your devices.

What devices do the iPhorring iPhone?

You will need a Mac that can execute MacOS Sequoia, who includes:

• Imac: 2019 and later
• MacBook Air: 2020 and later
• MacBook Pro: 2018 and later
• Mac Studio: 2022 and later
• Mac Mini: 2018 and later
• Mac Pro: 2019 and later
• Imac Pro: 2017 and later

And on the iPhone, the following models will operate iOS 18:

• iPhone 11 and later
• iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max
• iPhone XR
• iPhone SE (2nd generation or later)

How to start the iPhone Mirring on iOS 18 and MacOS Sequoia

Make sure the two devices are connected to your Apple account (this is the new name of your Apple identifier in the future) System settings> Apple account (your name) on your Mac and Settings> Apple account (your name) on the iPhone. In addition, locking the phone if it is not already in sleep mode – the iPhone Mirring only works when the phone is not used.

Then, on a mac running macOS Sequoia, open the new iPhone iPhone application. You can search for it in Finder.

The launch of the application triggers the connection; Enter your Mac connection password or use ID Touch to start mirroring. The first time you connect, you will need to enter your device’s password and approve the connection to the iPhone.

If you are in a trusted environment, you can go around the security prompt by going to iPhone Mirring> Settings and choose Automatically authenticate.

Now you can browse your iPhone remotely remotely

There is a certain irony in the use of a mouse pointer to control the iPhone side the famous, but otherwise you point and click (or type, if you use a trackpad) to control the interface.

Being able to enter text on the iPhone in this way is a revelation if you type more quickly on a physical keyboard than with your thumbs. But there is more: the iphone mirroring application uses three keyboard shortcuts (or elements in the display menu) to browse quickly:

• CMD-1: Home screen
• CMD-2: Switcher application (identical to slide to display recent applications)
• CMD-3: Search for spotlights

You can hover the pointer just above the iPhone window to reveal a frame around the application that includes icons to activate the home screen and the application switch. Or, when you are in an application, a quick way to return to the home screen is to click once on the black or white bar at the bottom of the iPhone window – the one you slip when the phone is in your hand.

For the most part, you can do anything on your phone via an iPhone mirror that you can do by hand, which includes application execution, checking widgets and consultation notes or non -synchronized photos via iCloud. If you’ve locked or hidden from applications, you enter your macOS password or use the Mac ID touch sensor to authenticate instead of ID or ID Touch on the phone.

Some limitations apply. Anything that uses the accelerometer – FOLLOWING OF PASS, for example, or the applications that use it as controller, such as racing games – will not work because it requires physical movement of the phone. In addition, the orientation will run if you launch an application which must be in horizontal arrangement, but there is no control to switch between the portrait and the landscape while being connected to the iPhone.

The camera does not activate, so you cannot use it as a safety camera to keep an eye on your pets in the neighboring room or take video calls Facetime. Audio calls facetime can be part of Apple’s continuity framework, which makes iPhone calls to the Mac if you have the Call other devices activated in Settings> Applications> Telephone.

You can reposition and resize the iPhone Mirring window

To move the window elsewhere on the screen, slide the top of the frame. Or, use the MOVE & REMIDENSION options in the window menu to position it in sections such as the right edge or the upper left corner. To resize the iPhone window, go to See menu and choose Biggest (Cmd- +) or Smaller (CMD–); or choose Actual size (CMD-0) to return to the default value.

Manage iPhone notifications

Many notifications automatically go on several devices thanks to the use of a shared Apple account. The texts of the Messages application, for example, will appear on the iPhone and the Mac, unless you have configured one of them to delete notifications. But what about notifications for applications that only live on the iPhone?

When mirroring is active, these alerts appear in the upper right corner of the Mac screen with the rest of the notifications. You will recognize the iPhone specific to the iPhone because they are wooded with an iPhone badge. Because the Mac knows where they come from, click on an alert opens the associated application on the iPhone in the iPhone Mirroring application. (You will not be able to claim that you have not seen a notification because your phone has been put aside, sorry.)

Files slide and place

This feature can be the most useful part of the iPhone mirror. You can copy iPhone files to the Mac or Vice Versa by dragging them from one window to another. No need to wait for photos to synchronize images via iCloud or use an intermediary such as Dropbox or iCloud Drive.

On the iPhone, make sure there is an open target that will accept the file you want to drag – the iPhone Mirring does not treat the whole iPhone as an external hard drive. For example, open the messages app and slide an image to one of your conversations to add it as outgoing text. Or open the Files application and drag any type of document on a destination such as the iCloud reader. Before freeing the file, you can navigate the file hierarchy by stopping on the folders and even on the back button to access the previous folder. The file only copies when you release it.

Choose which iPhone is mirror

When I received my new iPhone 16 Pro, I had a surprise: the iPhone Mirring continued to connect to my previous iPhone. If you have bought a new iPhone, or maybe you have several iPhones signed on the same Apple account, it is not clear how to choose which device is reflected.

Indeed on the Mac, go to System settings> Desktop & Dock and scroll downwards Widgets section. There under iphone is a context menu that allows you to choose the device to be used for mirroring. (This option only appears if more than one iPhone is connected to your account.)

Once you’re done, here’s how to end the iPhone Mirring

There is no off -switching switch in the iPhone Mirring application to disconnect the phone, apart from leaving the application. If you want to interrupt the connection, the best way is to unlock the iPhone (assuming it is nearby where you can access it physically).

The application indicates that the iPhone is used. Log the phone and click the Ressayer button to resume mirror.

The iPhone Mirring is only one of the many new features of iOS 18. Make sure you check how to use new RCS and text formatting tools in messages and how to customize your home screen.