This has actually been a part of iOS/iPadOS and MacOS for a quite a while. For details, see here. I use it regularly and find it incredibly useful.
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Hands-On With Universal Control in iPadOS 15.4 and macOS Monterey 12.3
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Bluetooth is not secure as someone having same iCloud accounts with 2 factor auth enabled. You need all this to make this feature work.
Hopefully it'll work if I sign my laptop into the work iCloud account as a secondary account. Not willing to run this beta yet, but will definitely be testing when I do.
Great video. Love the enthusiasm.
this feature looks beyond hot. I bet it is an absolute game changer for your workflow. Can’t wait….
this feature looks beyond hot. I bet it is an absolute game changer for your workflow. Can’t wait….
Okay, I've had time to test this on a second iPad. iPad to iPad does not work, but iPad to Mac to iPad does. So you can do multiple iPads, but unfortunately there also needs to be a Mac in the mix.
I was able to get two iPads to work together by putting a Mac in the mix and then closing the Mac, and the functionality remained until I locked the iPad, but it looks like for now you are going to need a Mac if you want to use more than 1 iPad with it.
hope this also works for intel chip Macs?
they dont force you to buy an M1 Mac to use this feature?
or that it breaks for intel Macs somewhere in a future release and force you to buy apple silicon
they dont force you to buy an M1 Mac to use this feature?
or that it breaks for intel Macs somewhere in a future release and force you to buy apple silicon
You can do this with Sidecar, which has been around for several years already. Universal Control is something completely different, and isn't for this type of workflow.
Use an iPad as a second display for a Mac - Apple Support
With Sidecar, you can use your iPad as a second display for your Mac.
support.apple.com
Thanks so much for your original quick reply and for checking this out! Not the best of news, but I really appreciate you investigating!
The keyboard will type on the device that the mouse is active on. The mouse will only be active and visible on one device at a time. Think of it as multiple monitors except it's across devices. And, I would think that distance between devices won't matter as long as they are on the same network.
Although it didn't work with tablets I've used Synergy in the past across platforms.
Synergy - Share one mouse & keyboard across computers
Synergy is an app that shares one mouse and one keyboard across multiple computers and monitors. Instant download, easy to setup in minutes.
symless.com
Universal Control is amazing technology.
I'm trying to figure out a real use case for it with my workflow. I don't often use an iPad as part of my work, although I have used Sidecar from time to time for a little additional real estate, or to keep Slack running in an extra window.
Since all of my files are already synced on iCloud, I'm not exactly sure how it helps me to drag items from here to there.
One thing I did notice: Connecting my old Magic Mouse to my iPad directly via Bluetooth, I can't scroll with a finger swipe. This is a known limitation since it's the older model. However, with the same model paid to my MacBook Pro and connected via UC, I can scroll with the mouse on the iPad.
Anyway, fun to be on the cutting edge here. Finally an interesting bit of tech.
I'm trying to figure out a real use case for it with my workflow. I don't often use an iPad as part of my work, although I have used Sidecar from time to time for a little additional real estate, or to keep Slack running in an extra window.
Since all of my files are already synced on iCloud, I'm not exactly sure how it helps me to drag items from here to there.
One thing I did notice: Connecting my old Magic Mouse to my iPad directly via Bluetooth, I can't scroll with a finger swipe. This is a known limitation since it's the older model. However, with the same model paid to my MacBook Pro and connected via UC, I can scroll with the mouse on the iPad.
Anyway, fun to be on the cutting edge here. Finally an interesting bit of tech.
You might not need this, most people probably won't get much benefit.
But for people who do processor intensive tasks and have multiple computers, they can now work across those multiple computers and tablets and not tie up system resources seamlessly.
I've got 2 computers and an iPad on my desk, one is my working computer where I run Photoshop or Final Cut, the second is a laptop I use to import and export and run insanely processor intensive stuff like AI noise reduction or AI sharpening software, iPad I use for email / messages. Basically for me I won't need to have 3 keyboards to swap between and I won't need to use Airdrop to move files between the computers which is really annoying.
Basically is going to be super useful for people who use a mobile device on location and a desktop to do actual work on, or have multiple computers it'll make it nice and seamless.
I normally wouldn’t say this, cause I think it’s fairly cliché, but the universal cross-control really is like ‘magic’. This is a huge step in the right direction for multitasking. And the fact that it took six months or longer, makes complete sense that this had to be integrated into a later version of a beta without being to broken.
I'm pretty sure it works with anything that can be used as a mouse or keyboard on either Mac or iPad. I've tried a third party BT keyboard connected to either iPad or Mac and both times it also worked with the device it wasn't connected with. Same with a Logitech mouse. That said, multitouch gestures like expose or mission control don't seem to transfer, not even from a iPad magic keyboard to the Mac. Scroll or pinch/zoom does work though.
I’m really excited for this. I sit all day in front of a 24” iMac and 12.9” iPad Pro. The iPad is docked to a Logi Base (it’s a 2nd gen Pro) and while Sidecar is nice as an extra screen, sometimes I just want to use my iPad as an iPad, and it’ll be a lot more comfortable to be able to do that without reaching up all the time.
That may be a compromise then, in order for all cursor input devices to work both ways, there may be a set of generic actions that must work, excluding multi-touch. Apple may be going to add that later if this UC feature catches on.
All procedures that are either highly destructive or completely useless, with nothing in between, typical Apple fashion fixing routines.I’m sure over the long haul it will be every bit as reliable as most Apple software that tries to interact across devices.
I can just hear tech-support now…
“are all 3 devices on at least version xx.xx?”
“Have you tried the betas to see if it fixes that?”
“Consider resetting your hardware”
“Have you logged out and back into iCloud?”
“Is Bluetooth on?”
I installed 12.3 b1 it on my Mac Mini and MBP. It works great, but with a big caveat that is somewhat of a deal breaker for me on my intended workflow. Unless I'm missing something, you can't both AirPlay Display while simultaniously receive input from the Mouse and Keyboard from the Mac you are AirPlaying to. I was going to use my desktop Mac Mini as an Extended Display and Universal Controller for my laptop, but it looks like you can only use one of those features at a time.
I'd love for someone to prove me wrong on this.
I'd love for someone to prove me wrong on this.
I've seen a lot of mentions for Synergy. I've used it in the past but for some reason I always kept coming back to this weird app called Teleport. It's open source now, and it's Mac only (This isn't a deal breaker for me), but for some reason I found Teleport much more reliable, although it's been only getting minor maintenance updates as of late.
This works a little like Sidecar but much better. I can also confirm this works on the First Gen IPad Pro!!!
Like the damn AirPods that keep connecting to my mac (which I never do) while I'm taking on the phone.I’m sure over the long haul it will be every bit as reliable as most Apple software that tries to interact across devices.
I can just hear tech-support now…
“are all 3 devices on at least version xx.xx?”
“Have you tried the betas to see if it fixes that?”
“Consider resetting your hardware”
“Have you logged out and back into iCloud?”
“Is Bluetooth on?”
I plan to disable it with extreme prejudice!