Sidecar in macOS 27 finally allows you to use your finger to navigate macOS apps from your iPad's screen, without needing an Apple Pencil. Here's how it works, with one key limitation.
Sidecar is a feature of macOS that lets you extend your Mac's display onto an iPad's screen. For road warriors with a MacBook Pro, it was an invaluable way to get a multi-screen desktop while on the go.
While Sidecar has been around for quite a while, it hasn't really undergone that much of a change. For macOS 27 and iPadOS 27, that seemed to be the case at first glance.
However, Apple has implemented a function that it surprisingly hasn't included before. You can now directly interact with apps on your Mac desktop.
A touching change
In earlier versions of Sidecar, you could use your finger with your iPad-extended Mac desktop. This sounds obvious, but the implementation wasn't as intuitive as you'd think.
Sure, you could use multi-touch gestures for various functions, treating the iPad display like a Magic Trackpad. You could do things like copying and pasting by using three-finger gestures, and you could also pinch to zoom if you wanted.
However, you couldn't really interact with apps directly. You could not tap a button on your Mac desktop, go through menus, or do anything with an app interface at all using your fingers.
All of the UI elements of macOS apps can now be interacted with using your finger on an iPad screen with Sidecar.
You could interact with the apps, but only if you used a trackpad on a connected Magic Keyboard, a mouse, or an Apple Pencil. While the Apple Pencil would be a natural choice for imaging apps, users would be more inclined to use their Mac's peripherals instead.
With macOS 27 and iPadOS 27, that has changed. Surprisingly with no fanfare from Apple.
If you have Sidecar running, you can now tap bits of the interface, and it will work as if you have clicked a mouse. You can now select items in the macOS interface and in apps without resorting to some form of peripheral.
Yes, you can finger-paint in Mac's Pixelmator Pro using Sidecar. And you can change the tools too, without reaching for the Apple Pencil.
This makes things more intuitive from a productivity standpoint, since precious seconds aren't spent reaching for an implement.
It's not just mouse clicks, as dragging works too. You can now drag a selection box with a finger, much like clicking and dragging with a mouse.
This also extends to resizing windows with a drag of the finger, and even scrolling through lengthy sidebar items.
Everything else is (almost) still the same
While this is a major change to the way Sidecar works, it is pretty much the only one this time around.
Enabling Sidecar in the Display section of Settings works just like it did before. You tap the plus, select the iPad from the list, and it appears to the side of any existing monitors.
Setting up Sidecar hasn't changed in macOS 27.
Then, you select the iPad and under Use as, select either Extend display or Mirror, and you're off to the races.
Also unchanged is the ability to do so via the Screen Mirroring functions, though you will want to use the Settings method to enable the sidebar and Touch Bar functionality.
On the iPad itself, the Sidecar interface hasn't changed. There's still the sidebar handling essential functions like mimicking the function, Command, and Control keys, the on-screen keyboard, and other elements.
At the bottom, the virtual Touch Bar is available as usual.
What is a little frustrating is that, under testing, it can't be put into portrait mode, only landscape.
You can still see the rotating iPad representation in the Arrange Displays part of Display settings, but only when you're just sharing the keyboard and mouse. It does not rotate to portrait from landscape as an extended display.
This is a little annoyance, but like many other first-beta issues, it's something to be adjusted in future updates.
Finally!
As a productivity aid, Sidecar has always been useful. But, it always had the issue of neutering touch inputs with your fingers.
It always seemed odd that, for a company that prided itself on perfecting touch interfaces, it minimized their usage in Sidecar.
Of course, most people will use the keyboard and mouse or trackpad on their Mac or MacBook, with the Apple Pencil being a secondary interaction tool in this case. Yet finger-to-screen interactions were severely limited, aside from gestures.
With the change made to Sidecar, it's an update that rights a major wrong about the feature that should've been rectified much, much sooner.
