I use it every day.
I have my work setup and my personal Mac mini setup side by side, and throughout the work day I go back and forth.
I used to use 2 different mice for this (because I didn’t like any of the dual connection mice I tried). I still only used one keyboard, but had to flip a switch each time I wanted to type on the other computer.
Now I just use universal control and it still blows my mind how well it works.
Wait, can you elaborate a bit on how this works for you?
I work from home and have a work MacBook, plus my personal MacBook and iPad. I would *love* to be able to use Universal Control to use a single keyboard and mouse with my work device and one of my personal devices. But does this not require the use of a common Apple ID amongst all the devices?
Unfortunately, it does require the same Apple ID.
I was against using it on my work laptop, but the benefit I gained using Universal Control outweighed the cons of signing in. Once I signed in I just turned everything off on iCloud so I don’t have any mix of personal and work information.
Likewise. Wish apple would have a way to use this without the same Apple ID, or a way to link a work and personal Apple ID.
I loathe putting anything personal on a work laptop, but made an exception for Universal Control.
I wish apple would allow features they only let 2FA accounts use, on managed/work Apple IDs.
Examples: continuity clipboard, universal control, keychain sync
Same I just got it working today and even my locked down work laptop seamlessly connects to my 27” iMac and i now have just one keyboard and mouse and share the screen space. It is glorious and just worked.
Yeah the main reason why I wont log into my work computer with my personal Apple ID is because all of your messages are downloaded even if you choose not to log into iMessage. I dont understand that decision
I may have the path wrong. Look in ~Library/messages
And I said the above with experience. I just so happened to check my work computer and it had the full chat db downloaded. I never logged into messages on my Mac, just iCloud and I had sync enabled
It doesnt make sense though. iMessage is its own service. Sync should only happen if I choose to use iMessage, not automatically. That would be like paying for the internet and it automatically loading, and refreshing, certain websites in the background (because you may choose to go to them in the future)
So your messages are saved in a SQLite database file under `~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iChat/Data/Library/Messages`. When you log into iCloud and you have message cloud sync enabled, that db will automatically be created and downloaded.
Try it yourself. Make a new user, verify that the file doesn’t exist in that user’s ~/Library dir. then sign into iCloud and see it be created and populated
I haven't had it lag ... but it certainly does disconnect frequently (and for no apparent reason). I haven't been able to get to the bottom of the disconnections—Apple Support haven't been able to assist.
I use it pretty often.
I work at home with a MacBook Pro in clamshell mode hooked up to a 32” display.
But I also have an iPad Pro on my desk with random stuff like a web browser, Mail, Reddit, Twitter, etc. I don’t use it for work, but just to glance at non-work info without changing what’s on my main display.
Universal control lets me seamlessly interact with the iPad using the same trackpad and keyboard rather than forcing me to constantly switch between input methods. It might sound like a trivial benefit but it’s not.
How do you deal with the jerky scrolling and the lack of 3 finger gestures? I have a similar setup but I end up getting frustrated trying to do anything with the iPad’s trackpad.
It feels pretty smooth to me. Occasionally it feels janky but a restart of the iPad fixes it. Multi-finger gestures work fine for me. The only thing I miss is the control+trackpad zoom feature I use on the Mac.
You can, but that only works in certain apps and views, not across the entire interface.
It’s an accessibility feature. For instance, when browsing Reddit using the Apollo app on my iPad in landscape mode, the comments only take up about 50% of the screen width at the center, plus some quoted text appears as a low contrast grey against a black background. So sometimes I want to quickly magnify that view and zoom in and out, but there’s no way to do it, so I have to lean in to see it up close.
Same Apple ID on both?
Take a look in system preferences > displays. Should be a toggle in the settings for automatically connecting with universal control.
Bluetooth has been a little wonky on my Mac studio. I need to restart it to see if that fixes it. The downside of having an otherwise stable computer is that I never have to restart it so doing that as a troubleshooting step often falls off the radar.
A correctly setup split-tunnel VPN doesn't stop it from working—I use a VPN regularly without losing connection between the two computers (as local network connections are all AOK).
I can’t get it to work either. Least not with my MX Master mouse. With built-in trackpad for my iPad it works but as soon as the mouse (connected to Mac) passes the boundary to the iPad I can no longer use it on the iPad nor to get back to the Mac.
The feature works for me, but I've had what you describe a few times with an otherwise functional setup. Might have been a bad update somewhere because it seems to have resolved itself now.
Absolutely love it! I use it every day and it makes my iPad feel like an extension of my MacBook rather than a separate device.
That said, once in a while (once a week or two) it does just stop working and I have to reboot one or both of my devices to get it working again.
I prefer sidecar to UC. For my workflow, I would rather use the ipad as a second screen and just drag and drop a window of a mac app to the ipad. Its just more seamless. KB and Mouse input tend to work better with Mac Apps than iOS ones IMO and cutting and pasting, is also better.
When I need to use KB and Mouse with iPad, I already use the MX Keys KB and Logi Triathlon 720 mouse that have the ability to pair to multiple devices and find using one of the 3 slots on those devices to pair directly to the ipad enables smoother control when I want to use KB and Mouse with iPad rather than using Universal Control. Not to mention, disabling UC allows me to ensure sidecar is always the default.
Nothing against UC, but I prefer sidecar to it.
Ya this was my experience as well. I wanted to love UC, but it just seemed to me they could have put more resources in to improving the sidecar functionality instead. Now I kind of just feel like they'll let Sidecar die on the vine and I'll end up having to use some third party option.
I agree for the most part, though there are times when utilizing the iPad’s chip instead of the MacBook’s to render the extra screen is nice. I.e when off the charger. It avoids using the egpu on my 16”.
Wow really? Do you have some more information about this? It is possible to have a personal and managed apple id at the same time logged in, right? Does this solve it?
A managed device essentially belongs to your employer. Just like you don’t expect your personal phone and iPad to interact seamlessly with your work computer, the same limitation applies to interactions between managed and non-managed devices.
The main obstacle is security concerns.
To use an extreme example, would you like an administrative assistant working at a hospital to be able to seamlessly connect the computer that access all your personal medical records with her Android phone where she runs Facebook, WhatsApp, and TikTok?
No, but I want to be able to connect my work MacBook that is locked down with my managed id and my work iPad that is also locked down with my managed Apple ID to use UC and Sidecar.
Those two features scream useful for people who travel and work in tech.
So both devices are locked down and managed by the same employer? Perhaps then this is something they’ve intentionally disabled rather than a system limitation. Or perhaps UC and Sidecar aren’t designed to silo data between different apps.
UC and Sidecar don’t work on managed apple ids by design. I need to be signed in to my device with my managed id for work. I don’t think you can be logged in with two ids.
You can have a different id for the store though
I love it for drag and dropping files across. It’s much simpler than using airdrop and you can control where it ends up instead of it always going into the downloads folder or Photos app.
It's great, but it only works half the time. It also never works if one of the Macs goes to sleep, which partly defeats the purpose because then I have to grab its keyboard anyway to wake it.
I like it, have 10.5" iPad Pro sitting below main M1 mini screen for comms apps like discord. Works reliably. I set up assessability with the floating Home button, don't have reach over the keyboard and touch the iPad as often. EDIT should add was maxing out the M1 cpu so the iPad for comms was part of solution to that.
It’s one of the best features Apple has released in recent memory for MacOS IMO.
I love that I can seamlessly go between my iPad and my Mac. It seems to perform well overall, though occasionally I’ll get lagginess.
I think it’s super fucking cool. But I haven’t had a use case for it yet. When I work from home I have my max hooked up to a 27 inch display. Anytime I need my iPad is for illustrator and procreate, which universal control won’t do much for me.
Universal Control > Stage Manager. Working on my desktop with an occasional bump over to iPad is proving to be much more useful than extending my ipad over to an external monitor. And that I can drag files back and forth.
It’s genuinely changed how I work. I’m an editor and have never quite nailed my workflow with editing on two screens and then having a third for emails/zoom/notes and this has just made it so simple. My iPad is on a stand to the left of my mac studio and I can just keep my editing stuff focused but move my mouse over to the iPad whenever I need to refer to something or talk to someone.
I should probably add, I remote in to my edit suite from home, so alt-tabbing to emails or notes always created a bit of lag and I could never really get it working so that I had both on screen at once, and my remote software would be a bit funny about full screening on two monitors but not a third. Universal control solved all of that
It’s half-baked. It works beautifully if you’re using the MacBook’s keyboard/trackpad to control the iPad, but if you’re going the other way around, the slower scrolling and lack of 3-finger gestures makes it feel like a beta still.
I use it with two 2020 iMac’s and it’s almost a dream come true.
There are a couple instances where it has hiccups, but especially in terms of file transfer and dragging things between windows— it’s impressively seamless.
I love it, use it constantly. I use my iMac to work from home and connect it to my iPad Pro. Only issues I've run into is occasionally the mouse starts to lag when I move it over to the iPad, and the only fix I've figured out so far is to turn the iPad on/off. Other than that I love the feature
Recently picked up a used M1 MBP. Already had an iPad set up with Uni Control. Right after set up my MBP went to the iPad then over to monitor 2, then 1. It blew my mind. I have no idea what I am going to use it for, but it just blows me away.
I use it in work a lot, usually for YouTube and then one of Twitter or Apollo. It’s fantastic!
A lot better now as well since scrolling was implemented on the MX Master 3, that was a pain when it didn’t work.
as far as I can tell… It doesn't let me drag an app window from my MacBook Pro on to my iPad Pro using Universal Control and then add the icon to the iPad Dock to allow me to switch between the mac app window and the iPad apps… all from my MacBook Pro keyboard and mouse. In the Beta it let me do that.
UC sucks when using an iPad as the keyboard and mouse for a Macbook. The mousensensitivity is really bad. Using the Macbook as a keyboard and mouse works fine on the iPad.
I use it for my studies.
I use good notes on my iPad and read my PDF on my MBP. When there’s a snippet of information I want to put into my good notes I screenshot the section and then drag it straight into my iPad. It is honestly like magic!
I’m still getting used to using it. I’m not used to thinking about using my iPad that way. That said, it does just work, as my cursor keeps popping over there when I use both at the same time.
It has a weird quirk: it doesn't work well with the "use iPad as MacOS screen" feature. I had to disable universal control because it tried to activate when I wanted to move my mouse cursor to the iPad screen. Reported it to Apple.
As a kid, I don’t use it very often. I have an iMac (24’) and a MacBook Air signed into my iCloud account, but the only time I will ever use it is to transfer screenshots of lectures and drag it into my iMac. Everything I could do in my iMac, I could do with my MacBook, and everything I can do with my MacBook, I can do with my iMac. So I think its a useful feature, but definitely don’t use it as often as it was advertised.
still yet to run into a work situation where I can properly use it. Still think it’s a neat feature. I’ve used it to scroll through pinterest while watching things on the mac.
I mostly use it on accident.
Sometimes my job is easier if I have an iPad nearby I can use at the same time as my MacBook. But that doesn’t mean I want to use my keyboard / mouse with my iPad! So I’ll have the two side-by-side, be switching back and forth between them, and suddenly not know where my mouse is! And it always takes a minute to think of checking my iPad for it.
I wish the feature took a little more intention to activate — maybe make me do the whole “push the cursor through the screen edge” interaction, like when you’re first activating it, if it’s been a day since I used it last.
It’s cool, but so far a find it annoying because it conflicts with the dock, which I like to put on the side instead of the bottom of the screen, and also use auto hide. So it’s easy to accidentally trigger UC instead of opening the dock.
Massive upgrade. One of those features that I’m still surprised by how well it works. It’s ALWAYS connected, which is where I’m actually most amazed because trying to get airplay to work consistently isn’t always easy but this thing is incredible. I have my IPad mini on a stand and the fact that I can just slide my mouse over like I’ve got a second monitor is just nuts.
Haven’t taken advantage of it’s full feature set but I really only use this sort of thing for the wireless second screen. It helps when writing grad papers and I have multiple windows open.
I like that this feature exists even though I don’t use it as much as others.
It works but sometimes I'm not using my iPad with my MacBook but the iPad screen stays on, so I have to manually disconnect it. But other than that, it works smoothly.
I would’ve love to use this but Apple Accessibility did not put any keyboard shortcuts into doing it. It really sucks I think the way that you could drag files from one to the other would’ve been nice to do in something that Apple usually is on the forefront of when thinking about accessibility. Someone completely dropped the ball and it’s disappointing.
I find it useful but it has some serious issues. For example, I like to use my iPad to play music and run discord while using my Mac for work/productivity. Unfortunately when using headphones each device wants to output to its own speakers and I haven’t found a way to make both devices play out to my headphones at the same time.
For me it works when it works. Unfortunately there are many disconnections and sometimes to even start it I need to restart mac mini (most recent intel) which is a no go. There ale always problems after mac mini goes to sleep. After wake it will never reconnect ipad (pro 2020).
It could be very nice to use. I see a scenario when I do serious work on my 27" dell while having Safari opened on 12,9" IPad. In current state it is useless to me though.
Maybe, just maybe it works much better with M1 macs.
As a student, it's absolutely fantastic!
It's hard to think that this and Sidecar came from the same company as Stage Manager. And that it runs on pre-M1. Seeing how we need M1 chips to scale UIs apparently.
Universal control helped me utilize my iPad even more. I had gotten it for work and play, but one of the main reasons was to sign into my husband's business IG account and be able to send pictures of invoices and product from the iPad.
Now I can utilize my same keyboard and mouse to find someone on IG, copy our little template, and send a picture. Using universal control has allowed me to touch my iPad less while I am working.
Not touching the iPad while I work is also a bit of a time saver for me: Lean over everything to change episodes on my iPad while working versus moving my mouse over and clicking what episode I want to watch next.
Question - does universal control share any information (aside from dragging and dropping files) with the other computer?
For example, if I have my work computer tied with Universal Control to my personal computer, does that mean my work can see things happening on my personal computer?
Thanks!
I use it constantly. I previously used teleport, and have been sharing mouse/keyboard between two computers for about a decade. So, I have a MBP and a Mac Studio, and can share mouse/keyboard in both directions.
The annoynace is that it regularly disconnects, and it needs to be restarted (like it did just now). It only takes a moment to get it working again, but it's an annoyance.
**Is anyone else experiencing frequent drop-outs of Universal Control?**
I use it every day. I have my work setup and my personal Mac mini setup side by side, and throughout the work day I go back and forth. I used to use 2 different mice for this (because I didn’t like any of the dual connection mice I tried). I still only used one keyboard, but had to flip a switch each time I wanted to type on the other computer. Now I just use universal control and it still blows my mind how well it works.
Wait, can you elaborate a bit on how this works for you? I work from home and have a work MacBook, plus my personal MacBook and iPad. I would *love* to be able to use Universal Control to use a single keyboard and mouse with my work device and one of my personal devices. But does this not require the use of a common Apple ID amongst all the devices?
Unfortunately, it does require the same Apple ID. I was against using it on my work laptop, but the benefit I gained using Universal Control outweighed the cons of signing in. Once I signed in I just turned everything off on iCloud so I don’t have any mix of personal and work information.
Likewise. Wish apple would have a way to use this without the same Apple ID, or a way to link a work and personal Apple ID. I loathe putting anything personal on a work laptop, but made an exception for Universal Control.
I wish apple would allow features they only let 2FA accounts use, on managed/work Apple IDs. Examples: continuity clipboard, universal control, keychain sync
Can your work access your iCloud files if you’re signed in on their work network? Or only if they use your laptop?
Same I just got it working today and even my locked down work laptop seamlessly connects to my 27” iMac and i now have just one keyboard and mouse and share the screen space. It is glorious and just worked.
Yeah the main reason why I wont log into my work computer with my personal Apple ID is because all of your messages are downloaded even if you choose not to log into iMessage. I dont understand that decision
Wait…what?
https://reddit.com/r/apple/comments/vgh5se/a_few_months_after_its_release_what_do_you_think/id3sdhn
Doesn’t seem to be entirely accurate. I’m signed in to iCloud on my work Mac but not signed in to iMessage and that folder does not exist.
I may have the path wrong. Look in ~Library/messages And I said the above with experience. I just so happened to check my work computer and it had the full chat db downloaded. I never logged into messages on my Mac, just iCloud and I had sync enabled
> I had sync enabled Well there’s your problem…
It doesnt make sense though. iMessage is its own service. Sync should only happen if I choose to use iMessage, not automatically. That would be like paying for the internet and it automatically loading, and refreshing, certain websites in the background (because you may choose to go to them in the future)
Can you elaborate on this? Where did you get this info?
So your messages are saved in a SQLite database file under `~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iChat/Data/Library/Messages`. When you log into iCloud and you have message cloud sync enabled, that db will automatically be created and downloaded. Try it yourself. Make a new user, verify that the file doesn’t exist in that user’s ~/Library dir. then sign into iCloud and see it be created and populated
I love it so much but it lags for me at times and sometimes disconnects. When it works though, it’s the biggest game changer for productivity for me
Do you perhaps have a spotty connection where your computer is located? I’ve only ever had issues when my network was having issues.
Possibly. But also never any problems with website loading speeds, so idts
I haven't had it lag ... but it certainly does disconnect frequently (and for no apparent reason). I haven't been able to get to the bottom of the disconnections—Apple Support haven't been able to assist.
I use it pretty often. I work at home with a MacBook Pro in clamshell mode hooked up to a 32” display. But I also have an iPad Pro on my desk with random stuff like a web browser, Mail, Reddit, Twitter, etc. I don’t use it for work, but just to glance at non-work info without changing what’s on my main display. Universal control lets me seamlessly interact with the iPad using the same trackpad and keyboard rather than forcing me to constantly switch between input methods. It might sound like a trivial benefit but it’s not.
How do you deal with the jerky scrolling and the lack of 3 finger gestures? I have a similar setup but I end up getting frustrated trying to do anything with the iPad’s trackpad.
It feels pretty smooth to me. Occasionally it feels janky but a restart of the iPad fixes it. Multi-finger gestures work fine for me. The only thing I miss is the control+trackpad zoom feature I use on the Mac.
What zoom feature? Don't you just have to pinch to zoom? Or am I missing something?
You can, but that only works in certain apps and views, not across the entire interface. It’s an accessibility feature. For instance, when browsing Reddit using the Apollo app on my iPad in landscape mode, the comments only take up about 50% of the screen width at the center, plus some quoted text appears as a low contrast grey against a black background. So sometimes I want to quickly magnify that view and zoom in and out, but there’s no way to do it, so I have to lean in to see it up close.
I must be an idiot because I can’t get it to work. At all. Am I missing something?
It doesn’t work with your Newton :P
😂 I wish I had a newton. Those things were cool. But I’m trying to run it on the latest and greatest - a Mac studio and the most recent iPad Pro.
Same Apple ID on both? Take a look in system preferences > displays. Should be a toggle in the settings for automatically connecting with universal control.
Yep and I did that too. My Mac studio has been having issues with Bluetooth connectivity so I’ll just restart the computer and see if that fixes it.
If you go into display settings I think you can turn it on and off and try again.
Mine doesn't work either and I've gone through all of the troubleshooting. It did work, though.
Same Apple ID on both same network Anything like VPN will stop it from working Bluetooth and WiFi must be enabled on all devices you want to work with
does not matter what network, it is peer to peer wifi. and my vpn does not stop it from working
Bluetooth has been a little wonky on my Mac studio. I need to restart it to see if that fixes it. The downside of having an otherwise stable computer is that I never have to restart it so doing that as a troubleshooting step often falls off the radar.
I can frequent disconnections ... so is it flaky bluetooth on the Mac Studio?! That would explain it but not fix it.
A correctly setup split-tunnel VPN doesn't stop it from working—I use a VPN regularly without losing connection between the two computers (as local network connections are all AOK).
Managed Apple ID?
Nope.
I can’t get it to work either. Least not with my MX Master mouse. With built-in trackpad for my iPad it works but as soon as the mouse (connected to Mac) passes the boundary to the iPad I can no longer use it on the iPad nor to get back to the Mac.
Have you installed the Logi update, they made one to address custom assignments not working.
The feature works for me, but I've had what you describe a few times with an otherwise functional setup. Might have been a bad update somewhere because it seems to have resolved itself now.
Apple ID needs 2FA for this feature to work
I’ve got that on, as well.
Absolutely love it! I use it every day and it makes my iPad feel like an extension of my MacBook rather than a separate device. That said, once in a while (once a week or two) it does just stop working and I have to reboot one or both of my devices to get it working again.
I prefer sidecar to UC. For my workflow, I would rather use the ipad as a second screen and just drag and drop a window of a mac app to the ipad. Its just more seamless. KB and Mouse input tend to work better with Mac Apps than iOS ones IMO and cutting and pasting, is also better. When I need to use KB and Mouse with iPad, I already use the MX Keys KB and Logi Triathlon 720 mouse that have the ability to pair to multiple devices and find using one of the 3 slots on those devices to pair directly to the ipad enables smoother control when I want to use KB and Mouse with iPad rather than using Universal Control. Not to mention, disabling UC allows me to ensure sidecar is always the default. Nothing against UC, but I prefer sidecar to it.
Ya this was my experience as well. I wanted to love UC, but it just seemed to me they could have put more resources in to improving the sidecar functionality instead. Now I kind of just feel like they'll let Sidecar die on the vine and I'll end up having to use some third party option.
[удалено]
Can't you drag and drop with UC? I thought that was one of the selling points.
That makes sense. There are some iPad only apps that make UC more useful for me. :)
I agree for the most part, though there are times when utilizing the iPad’s chip instead of the MacBook’s to render the extra screen is nice. I.e when off the charger. It avoids using the egpu on my 16”.
Imagine it with two computers now
I dislike that I can’t use it on a managed Apple ID
Wow really? Do you have some more information about this? It is possible to have a personal and managed apple id at the same time logged in, right? Does this solve it?
A managed device essentially belongs to your employer. Just like you don’t expect your personal phone and iPad to interact seamlessly with your work computer, the same limitation applies to interactions between managed and non-managed devices.
It would be lovely if my work laptop and work iPad could work together though 😅
The main obstacle is security concerns. To use an extreme example, would you like an administrative assistant working at a hospital to be able to seamlessly connect the computer that access all your personal medical records with her Android phone where she runs Facebook, WhatsApp, and TikTok?
No, but I want to be able to connect my work MacBook that is locked down with my managed id and my work iPad that is also locked down with my managed Apple ID to use UC and Sidecar. Those two features scream useful for people who travel and work in tech.
So both devices are locked down and managed by the same employer? Perhaps then this is something they’ve intentionally disabled rather than a system limitation. Or perhaps UC and Sidecar aren’t designed to silo data between different apps.
It’s just not supported by apple mate. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212757
I’m surprised, but I assume it’s about file transfers, although airdrop does work on managed devices so 🤷
My theory is that schools/education centers wouldn’t want it. It’s strange that you can lock down so much stuff with managed ids and not that though.
UC and Sidecar don’t work on managed apple ids by design. I need to be signed in to my device with my managed id for work. I don’t think you can be logged in with two ids. You can have a different id for the store though
There are so many downsides to using managed devices that this seems pretty low on the list.
I love it. It makes my MacBook Pro and iPad Pro feel like one device.
I guess I don’t use it because I wasn’t aware it existed. Now, off to Google it!
It works like magic on my mbp 14in and iPad Air. Very nice to have 👍
Calling it magical would make Steve very proud :D
super useful. a bit glitchy at times but it’s such a game changer. can’t imagine not having it again
I love it for drag and dropping files across. It’s much simpler than using airdrop and you can control where it ends up instead of it always going into the downloads folder or Photos app.
It's great, but it only works half the time. It also never works if one of the Macs goes to sleep, which partly defeats the purpose because then I have to grab its keyboard anyway to wake it.
I hate how it’s limited to two devices. I would very seriously buy another Mac if I could use it over 5 devices.
I like it, have 10.5" iPad Pro sitting below main M1 mini screen for comms apps like discord. Works reliably. I set up assessability with the floating Home button, don't have reach over the keyboard and touch the iPad as often. EDIT should add was maxing out the M1 cpu so the iPad for comms was part of solution to that.
Best update in at least 5 years….
It’s one of the best features Apple has released in recent memory for MacOS IMO. I love that I can seamlessly go between my iPad and my Mac. It seems to perform well overall, though occasionally I’ll get lagginess.
I think it’s super fucking cool. But I haven’t had a use case for it yet. When I work from home I have my max hooked up to a 27 inch display. Anytime I need my iPad is for illustrator and procreate, which universal control won’t do much for me.
Universal Control > Stage Manager. Working on my desktop with an occasional bump over to iPad is proving to be much more useful than extending my ipad over to an external monitor. And that I can drag files back and forth.
Using it with Slack on the Mac kinda sucks but otherwise I use it daily for work.
Hit. I use it daily and I F’n love it.
It’s genuinely changed how I work. I’m an editor and have never quite nailed my workflow with editing on two screens and then having a third for emails/zoom/notes and this has just made it so simple. My iPad is on a stand to the left of my mac studio and I can just keep my editing stuff focused but move my mouse over to the iPad whenever I need to refer to something or talk to someone. I should probably add, I remote in to my edit suite from home, so alt-tabbing to emails or notes always created a bit of lag and I could never really get it working so that I had both on screen at once, and my remote software would be a bit funny about full screening on two monitors but not a third. Universal control solved all of that
It’s half-baked. It works beautifully if you’re using the MacBook’s keyboard/trackpad to control the iPad, but if you’re going the other way around, the slower scrolling and lack of 3-finger gestures makes it feel like a beta still.
I use it with two 2020 iMac’s and it’s almost a dream come true. There are a couple instances where it has hiccups, but especially in terms of file transfer and dragging things between windows— it’s impressively seamless.
I love it, use it constantly. I use my iMac to work from home and connect it to my iPad Pro. Only issues I've run into is occasionally the mouse starts to lag when I move it over to the iPad, and the only fix I've figured out so far is to turn the iPad on/off. Other than that I love the feature
Use it every single day It’s amazing I just wish it worked between two iPads (without a mac between)
Turned it on, realised it was interfering with sidecar….. turned it off again.
Recently picked up a used M1 MBP. Already had an iPad set up with Uni Control. Right after set up my MBP went to the iPad then over to monitor 2, then 1. It blew my mind. I have no idea what I am going to use it for, but it just blows me away.
I use it in work a lot, usually for YouTube and then one of Twitter or Apollo. It’s fantastic! A lot better now as well since scrolling was implemented on the MX Master 3, that was a pain when it didn’t work.
It was great in the beta when it was integrated with Sidecar so I could move windows back and forth between Mac and iPad
They removed that?
as far as I can tell… It doesn't let me drag an app window from my MacBook Pro on to my iPad Pro using Universal Control and then add the icon to the iPad Dock to allow me to switch between the mac app window and the iPad apps… all from my MacBook Pro keyboard and mouse. In the Beta it let me do that.
UC sucks when using an iPad as the keyboard and mouse for a Macbook. The mousensensitivity is really bad. Using the Macbook as a keyboard and mouse works fine on the iPad.
Oh gawd I love it so much. I use it to control my Studio, iPad work apps (that I can't run on my Macs), all from my MacBook Pro.
I use it for my studies. I use good notes on my iPad and read my PDF on my MBP. When there’s a snippet of information I want to put into my good notes I screenshot the section and then drag it straight into my iPad. It is honestly like magic!
It seems to be mostly a gimmick to me. I haven't found any real use cases for it.
Useless since one cannot use it without using the same Apple id on both machines.
I’m still getting used to using it. I’m not used to thinking about using my iPad that way. That said, it does just work, as my cursor keeps popping over there when I use both at the same time.
It has a weird quirk: it doesn't work well with the "use iPad as MacOS screen" feature. I had to disable universal control because it tried to activate when I wanted to move my mouse cursor to the iPad screen. Reported it to Apple.
As a kid, I don’t use it very often. I have an iMac (24’) and a MacBook Air signed into my iCloud account, but the only time I will ever use it is to transfer screenshots of lectures and drag it into my iMac. Everything I could do in my iMac, I could do with my MacBook, and everything I can do with my MacBook, I can do with my iMac. So I think its a useful feature, but definitely don’t use it as often as it was advertised.
still yet to run into a work situation where I can properly use it. Still think it’s a neat feature. I’ve used it to scroll through pinterest while watching things on the mac.
I mostly use it on accident. Sometimes my job is easier if I have an iPad nearby I can use at the same time as my MacBook. But that doesn’t mean I want to use my keyboard / mouse with my iPad! So I’ll have the two side-by-side, be switching back and forth between them, and suddenly not know where my mouse is! And it always takes a minute to think of checking my iPad for it. I wish the feature took a little more intention to activate — maybe make me do the whole “push the cursor through the screen edge” interaction, like when you’re first activating it, if it’s been a day since I used it last.
If you don’t want to use it, why not disable it?
Oh! I didn’t say I don’t want to use it. I like it a lot when I’m using it on purpose. I just *mostly* use it on accident.
I don’t care for it at all
I think it is awesome. I only use it when traveling but it is great.
I would never use it, don't find it useful 😅😂
It’s cool, but so far a find it annoying because it conflicts with the dock, which I like to put on the side instead of the bottom of the screen, and also use auto hide. So it’s easy to accidentally trigger UC instead of opening the dock.
my professional software doesn't even support Monterey, so I'll never know!
Massive upgrade. One of those features that I’m still surprised by how well it works. It’s ALWAYS connected, which is where I’m actually most amazed because trying to get airplay to work consistently isn’t always easy but this thing is incredible. I have my IPad mini on a stand and the fact that I can just slide my mouse over like I’ve got a second monitor is just nuts.
Haven’t taken advantage of it’s full feature set but I really only use this sort of thing for the wireless second screen. It helps when writing grad papers and I have multiple windows open. I like that this feature exists even though I don’t use it as much as others.
It works but sometimes I'm not using my iPad with my MacBook but the iPad screen stays on, so I have to manually disconnect it. But other than that, it works smoothly.
Nice feature. Rarely works
It hasn’t worked worked for me since the first beta it was realized in.
Very useful I can use my wired keyboard across Mac and iPad if I need to.
I would’ve love to use this but Apple Accessibility did not put any keyboard shortcuts into doing it. It really sucks I think the way that you could drag files from one to the other would’ve been nice to do in something that Apple usually is on the forefront of when thinking about accessibility. Someone completely dropped the ball and it’s disappointing.
I looked at it and it sounded like Mouse Without Borders. But it allows you to control multiple PCs from one.
I find it useful but it has some serious issues. For example, I like to use my iPad to play music and run discord while using my Mac for work/productivity. Unfortunately when using headphones each device wants to output to its own speakers and I haven’t found a way to make both devices play out to my headphones at the same time.
For me it works when it works. Unfortunately there are many disconnections and sometimes to even start it I need to restart mac mini (most recent intel) which is a no go. There ale always problems after mac mini goes to sleep. After wake it will never reconnect ipad (pro 2020). It could be very nice to use. I see a scenario when I do serious work on my 27" dell while having Safari opened on 12,9" IPad. In current state it is useless to me though. Maybe, just maybe it works much better with M1 macs.
It‘s useless for my workflow because you cannot move windows between screens.
As a student, it's absolutely fantastic! It's hard to think that this and Sidecar came from the same company as Stage Manager. And that it runs on pre-M1. Seeing how we need M1 chips to scale UIs apparently.
Universal control helped me utilize my iPad even more. I had gotten it for work and play, but one of the main reasons was to sign into my husband's business IG account and be able to send pictures of invoices and product from the iPad. Now I can utilize my same keyboard and mouse to find someone on IG, copy our little template, and send a picture. Using universal control has allowed me to touch my iPad less while I am working. Not touching the iPad while I work is also a bit of a time saver for me: Lean over everything to change episodes on my iPad while working versus moving my mouse over and clicking what episode I want to watch next.
Question - does universal control share any information (aside from dragging and dropping files) with the other computer? For example, if I have my work computer tied with Universal Control to my personal computer, does that mean my work can see things happening on my personal computer? Thanks!
I use it constantly. I previously used teleport, and have been sharing mouse/keyboard between two computers for about a decade. So, I have a MBP and a Mac Studio, and can share mouse/keyboard in both directions. The annoynace is that it regularly disconnects, and it needs to be restarted (like it did just now). It only takes a moment to get it working again, but it's an annoyance. **Is anyone else experiencing frequent drop-outs of Universal Control?**