How Universal Control works, Apple's new magic

Apple has added Universal Control to iPadOS 15.4 and macOS 12.3, a new feature that will allow you to use your Mac's keyboard and trackpad or mouse to control your iPad as well as pass files from one to another. We show you how it works.

It was one of the great novelties announced in the last Keynote of June 2021, and after several delays, this long-awaited function can now be used in the latest Betas launched by Apple. What Macs are compatible? Which iPad can it be used with? How does it work? What can I do and what not? We explain everything to you, as well as show you how it works on video.

What is UniversalControl

Announced at the launch of iOS 15 and macOS Monterey, Universal Control is a feature that lets you control your iPad with the keyboard and trackpad or mouse you use on your Mac. It's similar to how an extended desktop works when you use two monitors on your Mac., but with the peculiarity that each device will continue to run its operating system. that is, the iPad has iPadOS and the Mac continues with macOS, but when we move the cursor to the end of the screen of one we will see how it goes to the screen of the other as if they were a single device.

For practical purposes we can be working with our Mac and if we want to use the iPad as an additional device we will only have to put it next to the first one, and using the trackpad or mouse and the keyboard we can open applications, write, navigate... on both devicesas if they were one. We can also pass files from one to another by dragging them with the trackpad or mouse.

Minimum requirements

To use UniversalControl it is necessary that you have installed on your device iPadOS 15.4 (on the iPad) and macOS 12.3 (on the Mac). Not all iPad and Mac models are compatible with this new feature. The list of compatible devices is as follows:

  • MacBook Pro (2016 and later)
  • MacBook (2016 and later)
  • MacBook Air (2018 and later)
  • iMac (2017 and later)
  • ‌iMac‌ (5K Retina 27-inch Late 2015 and later)
  • ‌iMac‌ Pro, Mac mini (2018 and later)
  • Mac Pro (2019)
  • All ‌iPad Pro‌ models
  • iPad Air (3rd generation and later)
  • ‌iPad‌ (6th generation and later)
  • iPad mini (5th generation and later)

In addition to having the appropriate versions of iPadOS and macOS, and having the necessary hardware, WiFi and Bluetooth must be active on both devices, and Handoff must be enabled. The two devices must be close (maximum 9 meters) and they must have the same iCloud account with two-factor authentication enabled.

Configuration

You do not need to configure anything to start using Universal Control. From the moment we update our devices we can already enjoy this functionality. But we can customize some features from the settings of our Mac.

Configuration options are within the preferences of our Mac, in the Screen section. If we access the Advanced Settings in this section we will see three options that we can activate or deactivate.

  • Allow the curator and keyboard to be used on any nearby Mac or iPad. This is the main option, if we deactivate it Universal Control will stop working.
  • Move your cursor past the edge of a screen to connect to a nearby Mac or iPad. In order for Universal Control to be activated, we must go to the edge of the screen of our Mac and pretend that we want to cross it. From that moment Universal Control will start working with an iPad that is nearby and uses our iCloud account.
  • Automatically reconnect to any nearby Mac or iPad. If we activate it, it will not be necessary for us to move the cursor to the end of the screen, but it will be activated automatically when we have our iPad near the Mac.

Within the iPad we have no configuration options, only we can activate or deactivate the functionality within Settings>General>AirPlay and Handoff.

How UniversalControl works

We recommend that you watch the video at the beginning of the article to see how Universal Control works. As I said at the beginning, it is similar to having a second monitor and using the extended desktop function, but with one difference: the iPad does not have macOS, it continues with its own iPadOS. That is to say, the iPad is still the iPad, the Mac is still the Mac, only we can control both devices with the same keyboard and mouse. It doesn't just work with the MacBook's keyboard and mouse or trackpad, but with any keyboard and mouse that we have connected to it, either by cable or Bluetooth. It works with two Macs, or Mac and iPad, not iPad and iPad, and it's not compatible with the iPhone either.

iPad operation will be identical to if we linked the keyboard and the mouse to the same, the same gestures, the same functions. Only that they will really be linked to the Mac. If you were planning to buy a keyboard and mouse to work with the iPad at home, thanks to Universal Control you won't need it, with your Mac you have more than enough.

But there is more, because it is not only about controlling the device but you can also transfer files. Take a file from your Mac and drag it onto your iPad, and it will copy right where you left it. The reverse works the same, you can take files from your iPad to your Mac. When it is in the Mac-iPad sense there is an important limitation, and that is that the file must be dragged into an app that supports it. If you drag a photo it should be in the open Photos app, if it's a file, in the open Files app. If we do it from the iPad to the Mac there is no restriction, we can leave it on the desktop without the slightest problem.

Apple-style magic

With Universal Control we have recovered that magic that Apple offers us from time to time. The "It just works" (it just works) that many long for here is fulfilled again and with a vengeance. Taking into account that at the moment we are only facing a second Beta, the tests that I have been doing of this new functionality could not have been more satisfactory. No configuration required, almost transparent to the user and extremely useful on a day-to-day basis, this Universal Control is one of the best news we have had in terms of software in recent years.


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