iPhone Mirroring Has My Attention: Here’s How Apple Says This New Feature Will Work – CNET

You’ll soon be able to use your iPhone, even if you don’t physically have it in your hand. Apple calls this iPhone Mirroring and I’m already imagining all the ways I’ll be able to use it. With MacOS Sequoia, the forthcoming OS for Mac that Apple announced at its annual WWDC event, an existing feature called Continuity will pile on a new feature that will let you see and control what’s on your iPhone — remotely from your computer. 

Continuity for MacOS lets your various Apple devices seamlessly work together. You can already start a task on your iPad and continue it on your Mac, quickly share files between devices, unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch and more. Now, iPhone Mirroring will let you do more with your iPhone directly from your Mac, without having to reach over and pick up or unlock your device (my overused thumbs will be grateful).

The technology isn’t new (for example, Microsoft introduced a version of that years ago) and of course I won’t know exactly how it works until I get a chance to try it out myself. Neither of those facts dampens my interest in being able to save time by operating certain iPhone tasks from my laptop. But based on Apple’s kickoff presentation, here’s how the iPhone-maker says iPhone Mirroring will behave.

Read more: Apple Unveils iOS 18 for iPhone at WWDC 2024: Here’s What To Know

To access your iPhone on your Mac, you can click in your dock and a window will pop up, mirroring what’s on your iPhone, Apple said during WWDC. You can see your wallpaper. You can swipe through your home screen and check out all your apps.

But this isn’t just simple mirroring, because you can also control everything you see. You can open any app, and maneuver through it, just like you would on your phone. Using your Mac trackpad, you can swipe through Instagram or browse through your photos, and then use your computer’s keyboard to leave a comment on Reddit or type an email.

You’ll also see iPhone notifications on your Mac, alongside your computer notifications. You can interact with these notifications as expected. So for example, if you receive a notification for a message on Snapchat, you can click on that notification to open the app on your computer and check it out.

Now you might be wondering, what’s happening on your iPhone while all this is going on?

Well, your iPhone stays locked, so no one can access it or see what’s happening. If you’re using your iPhone in StandBy mode, which essentially turns your phone into a smart display with important information, it’ll stay in StandBy mode while you browse through it on your Mac.

You’ll also be able to use both of your devices as one. If you’ve got a video file in the Files app that you need to edit, you can grab it from your iPhone, drop it on to your computer and use it in something like Final Cut or iMovie to edit it.

I’ll continue to update this story as I learn more about iPhone Mirroring, especially once I have a chance to try it out for myself. While you’re here, check out all the new features coming to MacOS 15 Sequoia this fall, and all the ways iOS 18 is poised to change how you use your iPhone.

This post was originally published on Cnet