Apple Announces Universal Control as a feature of macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15, I wasn’t sure what to think. This seemed like an odd feature that no one had requested, but Apple might have realized it could be extremely useful. Its technical ambition impressed me. But would it be something I could use every day? I was skeptical.
It’s been about eight months since Universal Control arrived–remember, it was announced in June 2021 but gestated for nine months before being released in March of this year–and I’m finally ready to weigh in on Universal Control.
It’s great. It is one my favorite new features in the operating system. And most surprising of all, I’m using it in ways I had never, ever anticipated. Here’s why I’m thankful that Universal Control exists.
The iPad desk and combo
I’ve never been a multiple-monitor person, but this summer, I started inviting my iPad onto my desk. It started when I was trying to watch some live video–knowing me, probably a NASA TV space thing or a baseball game–and wrestling with using Picture-in-Picture on my Mac. It kept covering parts of my apps, and occasionally I’d forget it was being played in Safari and close the tab. Then I thought: Why not just place my iPad on my desk, and let the video play on there?
Apple
After I had put it there, it took just one trackpad movement for my pointer to break through my Mac display and appear over on my iPad. The iPad was so rarely on my desk that I hadn’t even considered that I could use Universal Control, but here it was. And it meant I didn’t need to pick my hands up from my keyboard tray to drive the apps on the iPad.
Sidecar has been a macOS feature for several years that allows you to turn your iPad into an additional display for your Mac. Universal Control, at least in my experience, is much more powerful. The majority of my iPad uses are apps that can run natively on the iPad. Sidecar can be turned on, and I can drag Safari over to the screen. Universal Control will bring up Safari and allow me to visit that webpage directly from my iPad.
Very quickly, I realized I could place my calendar, Twitter, Slack, or Discord over on that iPad and use it as an auxiliary display–and it was useful because the iPad still behaved like it did when I was using it on its own. It didn’t feel weird or artificial the way using Sidecar did.
Unexpected delight
Universal Control offers a number of amazing technologies. It’s sharing a keyboard and trackpad across multiple devices, yes, but it’s also sharing clipboards and even drag-and-drop across devices. Behind the scenes, Apple is taking advantage of all the continuity features it’s added to its operating systems over the years–AirDrop and Shared Clipboard chief among them. And, of course, this feature would never work if Apple hadn’t added pointer support in early 2020.
But knowing all of that didn’t prepare me for the moment of unexpected delight that I experienced recently. For the last few months, I’ve been updating my book about Apple’s Photos appThis requires me to compare Photos on Mac and Photos on iOS and iPadOS constantly. The entire process of comparing the Two different versions of Photos has been made easier by the fact that, essentially, I’m using two computers on my desk–one a Mac, one an iPad, both driven by my same keyboard and trackpad.
The magic moment arrived. The floating screenshot rectangle appeared on my iPad screen after I took a screenshot. To instantly open the screenshot editor, tap the floating rectangle. This will allow you to make changes, delete, save, or copy the image to the clipboard. The floating rectangle can be swiped away and the image will be saved to your photo library.
I had a thought. Could I? This was something Apple could have done. That image was needed on my Mac so that I could process it and insert the file into the book. There was no harm in trying. I moved my finger along my trackpad. The pointer appeared on the iPad. I clicked, then dragged the floating rectangle back to my Mac. I dropped it on my desktop.
It is your turn, reader. It just worked. Just as I had expected it to.
Drag and drop an iPad to a Mac? Yup.
Willis Lai/IDG
You can have friends with Macs
I needed to learn macOS Ventura this summer without breaking any of the macOS Monterey software that I used. It’s been an issue for me for decades since I started reviewing macOS twenty years ago.
Universal Control was my bridge to this summer’s MacBook Air. I simply plopped my MacBook Air on top of my Studio Display. Universal Control made it feel like I was using two separate computers running two operating systems. Although it may seem like a small thing, it made a big difference in my workflow.
Universal Control: A remarkable use
I was surprised to discover a use for Universal Control this week that I didn’t know about. One of my friends complained to me that it was difficult for me to test external display support with the current iPadOS beta. I couldn’t detach my trackpad, keyboard and keyboard from my Mac, so I tried to explain to him how frustrating it was. (I wanted to keep my current desk setup, but changed it so that my iPad Pro was driving my display instead of my Mac Studio.
A friend suggested to me that I give Universal Control a shot. After all, wasn’t the Mac Studio still running? Why would you disconnect the trackpad and keyboard?
I took out the cable connecting my Mac Studio to Studio Display, and instead plugged the iPad Pro in. So far, so good. Then I put my hand on my trackpad–still attached to my Mac–and imagined moving the pointer across to the far right edge of the Mac screen and popping it into the iPad.
It worked. And for the next few hours, I used my iPad with an external display–all driven by a keyboard and trackpad still attached to a Mac, connected via Universal Control.
I have no idea if Apple ever intended its feature to be used in this way, but I’ve got to give it to Universal Control. It does the job, and the more I use it, the more it fits with how I’m working. These days I keep an iPad next to my desk, and while it’s not on all the time, I’m using it far more than I expected–all thanks to Universal Control.
