Universal Control is Apple’s most impressive new feature in years

Image: Apple

It has been a great month for Mac desktop setup aficionados. The Studio Display is Apple's first vaguely affordable monitor in more than a decade. I have been testing a new option that flips the idea of an external monitor on its head. If you can make Universal Control work in your setup, you should try it.

If you haven't heard of it, Universal Control lets you use your Mac's keyboard and mouse or trackpad to control your iPad, though I haven't been able to test that. It will jump to the iPad like it was another monitor hooked up to your Mac if you push your cursor to the side of your monitor. It's still an iPad, but it's not a Mac monitor. It's one that you can use with the keyboard and trackpad.

You have been able to use the iPad as a wired or wireless external Mac monitor for many years through official or third-party means. You don't have to take your hands off your Mac to use Universal Control. Multiplying between multiple OSes and devices is what it is called.

Screenshot by Sam Byford / The Verge

Why would you want to do that? It was a fair question. Since Apple decided to make good laptops again, I haven't been using iPadOS as much as a primary work operating system, but there are still things I prefer it for. It's best for focused use cases where you only need one or two things. If the Mac has a native app in the first place, social media and entertainment apps are usually better on the iPad. I mostly worked on my Mac Mini with my iPad Pro screen on the side, but I did occasionally switch to the YouTube app for research. It's okay to cut down on browser tabs.

Universal Control bridges the gap between the two operating systems, making it more than just a neat way to get around re-pairing. You can drag a file from your iPad to your Mac desktop. The copy and paste works perfectly. It means that if I do work on one machine, it can be done on the other. You don't need to set anything up, just put your iPad next to your Mac, and Universal Control will figure out what you're trying to do. It does not require Apple peripherals. I've been using it with my Magic Trackpad and a Happy Hacking Keyboard, all of which are connected over Mini USB.

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This must have been a huge challenge. Universal Control was announced at Apple's last Worldwide Developers Conference in June last year but hasn't been ready yet. The extra time seems to have worked well for me. Sidecar, Apple's feature that turns the iPad into a Mac monitor, has always been laggy and unreliable in my experience.

Screenshot by Sam Byford / The Verge

Universal Control in System Preferences is a feature that is still in the early stages of development. I haven't run into any major problems, but I had to turn it on and off a couple of times to get it to connect. Hopefully, that will be fixed soon enough so that Apple doesn't have to keep calling it a beta label.

Universal Control is an example of what Apple can do. This isn't an obvious feature or one that thousands of people will have been crying out for. It is a feature that is made possible by the fact that there are a lot of iPad and Macs out there that Apple has full control of the software for and a feature that will make a relatively small number of people very happy. Count me among them.