‘Universal Control’ is almost available – but not for everyone

Apple’s latest “Universal Control” feature (also known as Universal Control) lets you use your iPads and Macs with a single mouse, keyboard, or trackpad. In this article we briefly explain what this is and which models support this technology.

Which iPads and Macs support ‘Universal Control’?

The long-awaited “Universal Controls” feature should have been available with the release of macOS Monterey in October, but was delayed due to technical issues. Now the feature has been spotted in the beta (a test version) of macOS Monterey 12.3. This is the next major interim update for the Mac.

Universal Control lets your Apple devices work together even better. With the function, you use your Mac’s mouse to control your iPad, or vice versa. Apple reports that the following Macs support Universal Controls when running on macOS Monterey:

• MacBook Pro (2016 and later)
• MacBook (2016 and later)
• MacBook Air (2018 and later)
• iMac (2017 and later)
• iMac (5K Retina 27-inch)
• iMac Pro
• Mac mini (2018 and later)
• Mac Pro (2019)

On the following iPads we also find the universal control, provided they have had an update to iPadOS 15.4.

• iPad Pro
• iPad Air (3rd generation and newer)
• iPad (6th generation and newer)
• iPad mini (5th generation and newer)

Other functions of ‘Universal Control’

‘Universal Control’ automatically remembers which screen the cursor is on. This makes it even easier to split your screen in half and workflow to optimize. You can also easily share files with ‘drag and drop’. If the two devices are signed in to the same iCloud and come close to each other, they will connect automatically. We have explained how this link works exactly.

The universal control comes with macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15. These are the major updates for the fall of 2021 for the iPad and Mac. Are you curious about all the other features that have appeared? Check out our overview of new macOS Monterey features and the biggest iPadOS 15 features.