Apple just gave its brilliant iPhone Mirroring feature a handy upgrade in macOS Sequoia

But you’ll need both iOS 18 and macOS 15

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

WhenApplerevealedmacOS Sequoiaduring itsWWDC 2024event in June, one of the most intriguing features wasiPhone Mirroring, which lets you control your iPhone right from your Mac as long as you’re running macOS Sequoia andiOS 18. Now, Apple has updated the feature with a helpful addition that makes the whole process much more powerful.

As spotted by9to5Mac, thelatest public betasof Apple’s macOS and iOSoperating systemsallow you to enter ‘jiggle mode’ when controlling your iPhone from your Mac. To do so, you just need to click and hold on your iPhone’s Home Screen when using iPhone Mirroring – if done correctly, your app icons will start to jiggle slightly (hence the name).

What’s the point of all this? Well, jiggle mode is what lets you rearrange your app icons and widgets, something that wasn’t previously available in iPhone Mirroring. As well as that, you canadd a tint to your app icons, place new widgets, change widget sizes, switch between light and dark app icons, and more.

Being able to do all that on your Mac is a positive change for iPhone Mirroring. After all, iPhone Mirroring is designed to let youcontrolyour iPhone, not just view it. Without one of the key features for making your iOS Home Screen your own – whether that’s coloring all your icons or dropping  some important widgets into place – iPhone Mirroring would feel nerfed and restricted.

Instead of having to get up and find your iPhone (which may not be close to hand) just to add a new button to yourControl Center, you’ll now be able to do it all from the comfort of your Mac’s desk.

A helpful step forward

Adding this kind of functionality toiPhone Mirroringis a big step forward, as it reduces the times you need to switch back and forth between your devices. No one wants to keep picking up their iPhone because iPhone Mirroring on their Mac is lacking a feature, so this change should cut down the number of times you need to do that – and hints at more powerful functionality ahead.

Still, there are a few ways of controlling and editing your iPhone that you still can’t do on your Mac. You can’t alter your iPhone’s Lock Screen, nor can you access the Notification Center or Control Center. Hopefully those features will become available in a future beta update, although there are no signs of that so far.

Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.

Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.

If you want to take the new iPhone Mirroring for a spin, it’s available in theiOS 18.1 betaandmacOS Sequoia 15.1 beta. Right now, it’s unfortunately now available in the European Union.

You might also like

Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he’s learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That’s all his brain can hold. As well as TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at MacFormat magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.

Quordle today – hints and answers for Friday, November 8 (game #1019)

NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Friday, November 8 (game #250)

Your doctor may have an AI assistant taking notes during your next Zoom call