AppleInsider Staff
Apple on Tuesday elaborated on mouse support in iOS 13 and iPadOS, saying both USB and Bluetooth devices will be recognized by the operating systems. The company made it clear, however, that the feature is designed specifically for a subset of users who have difficulty interacting with touch screen interfaces.
According to reporter Steven Aquino, Apple emphasized that mouse support in iOS and iPadOS is an accessibility feature, not a nicety created for the general iPad user.
The feature is "[m]eant for users who literally cannot access their devices without a mouse, joystick, whatnot," Aquino said in a tweet.
More specifically, mouse support is designed as a stand-in for touch input, not traditional cursor control as found on Mac. Indeed, a short video posted to Twitter by developer Steve Troughton-Smith on Monday showed mouse input mimicking finger touch events in the first beta version of iPadOS.
"This is not your old desktop cursor as the primary input method," Apple said, according to Aquino.
That said, the company appreciates mainstream media coverage of its Accessibility work.
Apple confirmed both wired USB and Bluetooth mouse models will work in iOS and iPadOS, though the company has not compiled an official list of compatible devices, Aquino said. That includes Apple's own Magic Mouse. Interestingly, Troughton-Smith on Monday discovered the feature works, at least unofficially, with Apple's Magic Trackpad.
Apple told Aquino the "foundation" of mouse support in iOS and iPadOS goes back "a couple years."
Mouse integration can be enabled through the AssistiveTouch menu in iOS 13 and iPadOS, and will be available to users once those operating systems launch this fall.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Malcolm Owen
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Sponsored Content
38 Comments
Good, mouse support doesn’t belong on touch devices (except in exceptional circumstances). If you want to use a mouse then use macOS.
I think Apple is not ready yet to admit that in a vertical mode - the iPad being used in conjunction with a keyboard - iOS can’t rely on just touch anymore and needs a flat positioned pointer device with more accuracy, for improved productivity and usability.
Their hesitance is logical since iOS was initially conceived as a touch OS with all the design concepts and use cases behind it. As a company you need to protect that new way of computing and defend that believe as opposed to just adding it and risking the chance in building a three headed monkey.
I think Apple right now isn’t sure what do to work it yet. Times have changed. Steve Jobs said once that laptops with touch screens make no sense (“people don’t point at their monitors”). He was right, it didn’t make sense because a laptop is designed for use on a flat surface with an upright monitor.
Now the iPad has grown up and learned to stand up, with Apple designing a keyboard for this mode, it is time to admit the iPad has become a sort of laptop too. Hence going back to Steve Jobs statement: in this mode touching is not desirable, but a keyboard/mouse is.
This is why I feel Apple is potentially putting this under ‘accessibility’: they are not sure yet and want to test out a deliberately crippled version for a different use-case.
I bet iPadOS 14 will support mouse natively.
So this is a feature a lot of people begged Apple for and we only get 2 comments.... and one isn't in favor.
the current mouse support is useless.
Just tried using Bluetooth mice.
No right click support, no text selection feature (no hover support), no remote desktop support.
Pretty useless and does exactly finger can do, that is bad Apple
loads of crap excuses and can't implemented a good true pointer for iPad pro.
Steve Jobs observed that when people have a vertical screen in front of them, they didn't want to be poking it with their finger all the time. But when users put themselves in laptop mode (who cares what mode the device is in), Apple maintains its' dogma about the identity of an iPad as a touch device. I guess it's a way to do something sensible to respond to the user's needs instead of the company's identity, but without acknowledging that the creed has been broken.
I say it's about time, and when I'm in a spot where I need to use a physical keyboard for actual writing, I'll do my best to think it's a mouse. I'm the one who has an identity and a use case, not the machine I'm using.