Sometimes , citizenry think it ’s the freehanded , headline lineament — likeApple Intelligence — that make an operating system great . But there ’s one raw feature film inmacOS Sequoiathat show the inverse is true — that a solicitation ofless glamorous , yet meaningful changescan have a much bigger impact .
I ’m talking about Apple ’s newiPhone Mirroringfeature . Or rather , one particular element of iPhone Mirroring : its unexampled drag - and - drib ability . Even in the few short day it ’s been usable , it ’s managed to improve my daily workflow and fix an payoff that ’s been tap me for years .
Apple ’s iPhone Mirroring was one of the honorable feature film announced at Apple’sWorldwide Developers Conference ( WWDC)earlier this year . It countenance you access a mock - up of your iPhone on your Mac ’s desktop , and gives you the ability to open up and interact with apps , type into your iPhone , and more .
But its most exciting element — drag - and - pearl — has been absent from all macOS Sequoia andiOS 18betas . Now , though , it ’s usable in themacOS 15.1and iOS 18.1 developer beta 5 , which have in mind I ’ve finally been able-bodied to try out something I ’ve been wait forward to since June .
The long-awaited solution
I take a wad of screenshots for workplace , whether they ’re to create tutorials or to illustrate stories I ’m writing . Day to day , I ’ll often use either Dropbox or AirDrop when deal work images from my iPhone to myMac or microcomputer , and that process functions well enough for the most part .
Yet these methods have their own matter , and neither one has ever really proved to be a satisfying solution . Dropbox is cumbrous and involves remember the single file from my Dropbox brochure before move it to wherever it need to go . AirDrop , meanwhile , start the single file that has been shared , which is n’t always what I need and think I have to take the extra step of repeatedly closing shared files . It ’s a small pain in the neck that make up over fourth dimension .
I ’ve been wanting a better answer for years , and iPhone Mirroring ’s drag - and - bead could be just what I ’ve been looking for .
With iPhone Mirroring ’s new drag - and - drib functionality , I can plainly hale screenshots from my iPhone ’s pic app right into my work pamphlet . There ’s no motivation for any redundant steps or annoying workarounds . In Apple ’s idiom , it just works .
And iPhone Mirroring has another trick up its arm compared to Dropbox and AirDrop : you may move images straight into an app you want to use . So , let ’s say I need to align some of those work screenshots before publishing them — I can just transfer them straightaway from my iPhone into an Adobe Photoshop document , quick for redaction . It does n’t get much more unlined than that .
Not without its problems
All that said , iPhone Mirroring is n’t consummate . The main problem is that your iPhone must be locked to be accessible from your Mac . That can be vexing if , say , I take a screenshot and want to instantly share it onto my Mac .
or else , I need to take a screenshot , shut away my iPhone , share the image , then repetition . While I could just move all the images in bulk once I ’ve finished taking them , if I have to take stacks of screenshots and move them all to unlike places on my Mac , the appendage gets a peck more dull . I get why my phone has to stay locked — the stage of iPhone Mirroring is to expend your phone when it ’s not mightily next to you , so you require to ensure no one can surreptitiously access it when your back is become — but that means it come with a few hitches like the one I just trace .
I have n’t really used iPhone Mirroring in the way Apple attest at WWDC — that is , drop a Indian file from my Mac into an app on my iPhone . While I think this is a cracking effectuation , it does n’t really fit my workflow . I do most of my serious work on my Mac or PC , not my iPhone , so I ’m mostly move file off my phone and onto my computer . Still , I can see how it will be a fantastic shaft for a lot of people .
Regardless , iPhone Mirroring ’s pull - and - drop feature has still managed to solve a long - standing issue I ’ve had when it comes to shifting file between my Mac and my iPhone . In the remnant , it ’s telling that such a small addition to iPhone Mirroring can make such a tumid , positive conflict to my twenty-four hours .
