iPhone Mirroring Is the Best, Underrated Feature of iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia

How often have you reached for your phone to check something, only to get distracted by a social media app or an unfinished game? Or missed an important notification on your iPhone because it came from an app and your phone wasn’t nearby?

Now you can skip the need to physically move your attention to your iPhone and focus on what you set out to do.

One of the unexpected features of the recently released album iOS 18 and MacOS Sequoia is iPhone Mirroring, which lets you control your iPhone from your Mac as if you were holding the phone. There are all kinds of reasons you’d like to do this, and using this feature feels refreshingly straightforward.

iPhone Mirroring only works when the iPhone is locked and not in use, no doubt for security reasons but also to prevent interactions between two people. If the phone is charging and in landscape orientation, StandBy mode is still active and you can switch between views without interrupting the mirroring function.

Here’s how to get this feature working on your devices.

Which devices support iPhone Mirroring?

You’ll need a Mac that can run macOS Sequoia, which includes:

• iMac: 2019 and newer
• MacBook Air: 2020 and newer
• MacBook Pro: 2018 and newer
• Mac Studio: 2022 and later
• Mac mini: 2018 and newer
• Mac Pro: 2019 and newer
• iMac Pro: 2017 and newer

For iPhone, iOS 18 will run on the following models:

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

How to Start iPhone Mirroring on iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia

Make sure both devices are logged into your Apple account (this is the new name of your Apple ID from now on) System Settings > Apple Account (Your Name) on your Mac and Settings > Apple Account (Your Name) on your iPhone. Also lock your phone if it’s not already in sleep mode — iPhone screen mirroring only works when your phone is not in use.

Then, on your Mac running macOS Sequoia, open the new iPhone Mirroring app. You can search for it in Finder.

Launching the app triggers the connection; enter your Mac login password or use Touch ID to start mirroring. The first time you connect, you’ll need to enter your device’s passcode and approve the connection on your iPhone.

If you are in a trusted environment, you can bypass the security prompt by going to iPhone Copy > Settings and choosing Automatic authentication.

Now you can remotely control your iPhone

There’s a certain irony in the fact that you use a mouse pointer to control the famous iPhone touchscreen, but otherwise you’re still pointing and clicking (or tapping, if you’re using a trackpad) to control the interface.

The ability to enter text on an iPhone this way is a revelation if you type faster on a physical keyboard than you do with your thumbs. But that’s not all: the iPhone Mirroring app uses three keyboard shortcuts (or items in the View menu) for quick navigation:

• Command-1: Home Screen
• Command-2: App Switcher (Same as swiping up to show recent apps)
• Command-3: Spotlight Search

You can hover your cursor just above your iPhone window to reveal a frame around the app that contains icons for activating the Home screen and the app switcher. Or, when you’re in an app, a quick way to get back to the Home screen is to click once on the black or white bar at the bottom of your iPhone window — the one you swipe up when you hold your phone in your hand.

In most cases, you can do everything on your phone using iPhone Mirroring that you could do with it in your hand, including launching apps, checking widgets, and viewing notes or photos that aren’t synced via iCloud. If you’ve locked or hidden any apps, enter your macOS password or use your Mac’s Touch ID sensor to authenticate instead of Face ID or Touch ID on your phone.

There are some limitations. Anything that uses the accelerometer — like step tracking or apps that use it as a controller, like racing games — won’t work because it requires the phone to physically move. Also, the orientation will be rotated if you run an app that needs to be in landscape mode, but there’s no control over switching between portrait and landscape when it’s connected to an iPhone.

The camera is not activated, so you can’t use it as a security camera to keep an eye on your pets in the next room or to take FaceTime video calls. FaceTime audio calls can be made through Apple’s Continuity framework, which transfers calls from iPhone to Mac if you have Connections on other devices turned on in Settings > Applications > Phone.

You can change the position and size of the iPhone Mirroring window

To move a window to a different location on the screen, drag the top of the frame. You can also use the Move & Resize options in the Window menu to place it in sections, such as the right edge or top left corner. To resize a window on iPhone, go to View menu and select Greater (Command-+) or Smaller (Command-–); or select Actual size (Command-0) to return to default settings.

Handle notifications on iPhone

Many notifications automatically reach multiple devices by sharing an Apple account. For example, text messages in the Messages app will appear on both your iPhone and your Mac, unless you’ve set one to block notifications. But what about notifications from apps that are only available on your iPhone?

When mirroring is enabled, these alerts appear in the upper-right corner of your Mac screen along with your other notifications. You’ll recognize the iPhone-specific ones because they’re marked with an iPhone badge. Because your Mac knows where they’re coming from, tapping the alert opens the associated app on your iPhone in the iPhone Mirroring app. (You won’t be able to claim you didn’t see the notification because you put your phone down, sorry.)

Drag and drop files (coming soon)

When this feature arrives later this year, it could prove to be the most useful part of iPhone Mirroring. You’ll be able to copy files from your iPhone to your Mac and vice versa by dragging them from one window to the other. You don’t have to wait for Photos to sync your images via iCloud or use a middleman like Dropbox or iCloud Drive.

Once done, follow the steps below to finish mirroring your iPhone

There is no kill switch in the iPhone Mirroring app to disconnect your phone, other than closing the app. If you want to disconnect, the best way is to unlock your iPhone (assuming it’s nearby where you can physically access it).

The app indicates that the iPhone is in use. Lock the phone and click Retry to resume mirroring.

iPhone Mirroring is just one of many new features in iOS 18. Learn how to use the new RCS and text formatting tools in Messages, and how to customize your home screen.