A confession to open with. Tom turned on iPhone Mirroring on his Mac for the first time recently — a feature that has been sitting in macOS for two years — and the Yankees score appeared in the menu bar at the top of the Mac screen, updating itself as the game went on, without a browser tab or an app open anywhere.
He had no idea that was even possible. Which is precisely why it's this issue's tip: it's one of the genuinely useful things Apple has built that almost nobody knows is there, because nothing ever tells you about it.
What iPhone Mirroring actually is
iPhone Mirroring puts your iPhone's screen on your Mac, in a window you can use with your mouse and keyboard. Your phone can stay in your bag, in another room, or on the charger — and it stays locked the whole time, so nobody walking past it can see or touch anything.
It's genuinely your iPhone, not a copy of it: your apps, your messages, your notes, your photos, all live. Anything you do on the Mac happens on the phone.
The most common reasons our clients end up liking it:
- Typing. Replying to a long message or filling in a form with a proper keyboard instead of two thumbs.
- The apps that never made it to the Mac. Plenty of banking, doorbell, camera, car and loyalty apps exist only on the iPhone. Now they're on your desk.
- Not picking up the phone. Once the iPhone is out of your hand, the other forty things on it stop pulling at you.
What you need
- A Mac with Apple silicon (an M1 chip or newer) or a Mac with the Apple T2 chip — broadly, most Macs from 2018 onwards.
- macOS Sequoia 15 or later on the Mac, and iOS 18 or later on the iPhone. The menu bar feature described below needs macOS Tahoe 26 or later.
- Both signed in to the same Apple Account, with two-factor authentication turned on.
- Wi-Fi and Bluetooth switched on for both, and a passcode set on the iPhone.
If you're not sure what your Mac has, that's an easy thing for us to check with you.
How to switch it on
- On the Mac, open the iPhone Mirroring app. It may already be in your Dock; if not, press ⌘ + Space and type iPhone Mirroring.
- Have your iPhone nearby and locked. Click Continue on the Mac.
- Unlock your iPhone when it asks — this once, to prove it's you.
- The Mac asks whether to let iPhone notifications through. Say yes if you'd like them; you can change your mind later.
- Choose whether the Mac should ask for permission each time or connect automatically. Automatic is more convenient; "ask every time" is the safer choice on a Mac other people use.
Your iPhone's Home Screen then appears on the Mac. Click to tap, swipe on the trackpad to scroll, and type with the Mac's keyboard.
To stop, quit the iPhone Mirroring app — or simply pick up your iPhone and unlock it, which ends the session on its own.
What you can do once it's connected
- Use any app on your iPhone from the Mac window, including the ones with no Mac version at all.
- Drag files across. Drag a document or photo from your Mac desktop into the iPhone window, or the other way round.
- Hear it through the Mac. Sound from the iPhone comes out of your Mac's speakers.
- Get iPhone notifications on the Mac, right alongside your Mac ones, marked with a small iPhone badge so you know which is which. Click one and it opens on the phone in front of you.
The part that started all this: Live Activities in the menu bar
A Live Activity is the thing on your iPhone that keeps updating on its own without you opening the app: the food delivery getting closer, the flight that says boarding, the Uber two minutes away, the ballgame score, the voice memo recording.
On macOS Tahoe 26 or later, once iPhone Mirroring has been set up on that Mac, those Live Activities appear in the Mac's menu bar all by themselves, all the time. It shows as a small icon at the top right of the screen, which widens into a compact readout when there's room.
- Click it to see the full detail.
- Double-click it to jump straight into that app on your iPhone through iPhone Mirroring.
Not everything crosses over. Rides, deliveries, flights and sports scores do. The iPhone's own timers and stopwatches don't — they stay on the phone. That catches people out, because a timer is the obvious thing to test with, and when it doesn't appear it looks as though the whole feature is broken. It isn't.
The nice surprise: for Live Activities, your iPhone doesn't even have to be near the Mac. It only needs to be switched on. The pizza can be tracked from the desk while the phone is upstairs.
If you'd rather not have them, it's one switch: System Settings → Notifications (on macOS 27, then Notifications from iPhone), and turn off Allow Live Activities from iPhone. The same screen has Allow notifications from iPhone. And if it's only one particular app that's noisy, you can leave the rest alone — on the iPhone, go to Settings → Notifications, pick the app, and turn off Show on Mac.
A few honest limits
- The camera and microphone aren't available through mirroring.
- Some streaming apps won't show their video in the window, for licensing reasons.
- It's one Mac and one iPhone at a time.
- It won't run while the Mac is using AirPlay, Sidecar, or sharing its internet connection.
Is it safe?
It's built by Apple and it's tied to your own Apple Account, with two-factor authentication required — someone else's Mac can't reach your iPhone. The phone stays locked throughout. The one thing worth thinking about is the Mac itself: if other people can get into your Mac account, they can get to your iPhone through it. If that describes your situation, choose ask for permission each time during setup, and keep your Mac's login password to yourself.
You can also cut the connection at any point from the iPhone: Settings → General → AirPlay & Continuity → iPhone Mirroring.