How to use your iPhone as a mouse for your Mac

The trackpad on Apple’s MacBook is brilliant in many ways. It offers flawless multi-touch gestures along with a smooth, precise, and responsive user experience. Apple also offers Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad separately for users who need them, especially for non-MacBook owners. Both are slightly different from each other while still providing superior capabilities, albeit at a higher price tag compared to other third-party providers like Logitech. 

Although the chances of trackpad malfunctioning on laptops are quite low, years of usage may slow down its performance or worse, stop working. Third-party peripherals work fine with Apple’s Macs. However, those in the company’s ecosystem benefit more as the devices seamlessly work with each other. In fact, you can now mirror your iPhone directly on a Mac. Additionally, your Mac can also be unlocked with a compatible Apple Watch.

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Unfortunately, one thing that you still can’t do natively is use your iPhone as a wireless mouse for your Mac. But, there’s a popular third-party app called Remote Mouse that lets you do this. This means that your iPhone can double up as a wireless mouse or a trackpad when you need a quick fix for a broken trackpad, a remote control for presentations from anywhere in the room, or a more ergonomic solution for your workflow. 

Steps to set up Remote Mouse

There are several scenarios where using your iPhone as a mouse can be helpful. While there are plenty of third-party apps, Remote Mouse is free to use with a one-time fee of $0.99 (roughly Rs 85) to remove ads and there is also a paid membership that costs $1.49 (roughly Rs 130) monthly. In this post, we show you how to set up things. 

1. Download the Remote Mouse app on your iPhone from the App Store. 

2. On your Mac, go to the Remote Mouse official website and download the corresponding client. 

3. Ensure that both the iPhone and Mac are connected to the same Wi-Fi network. 

4. Open the Remote Mouse app on your iPhone and grant access to connect it to other devices on your local network and Bluetooth. 

5. Provide the same access on your computer when prompted. 

6. Once done, open the Remote Mouse app on your iPhone and choose your Mac from the list of computers. 

7. You can start using your iPhone’s screen as a mouse. 

How to use an iPhone's screen as a mouse or trackpad for Mac

The Remote Mouse app is quite straightforward. 

– Move the cursor by swiping on your iPhone screen. 

– Scroll with two fingers in any direction to navigate web pages and documents. 

– There are also left-click and right-click options similar to the built-in trackpad. 

– Zoom in or zoom out by pinching or spreading your fingers.

– Dragging with three fingers allows selecting and moving things like text, widgets, and more.

– There’s also the ability to switch between apps from the Dock on the Mac.

The Remote Mouse app also packs several other features that require a paid subscription. These include the ability to switch apps, access to a number pad and media remote control for apps such as Keynote, PowerPoint etc. The free version should suffice for most users for basic requirements. 

If you own both an iPhone and a Mac, it’s worth exploring the former’s ability to work as a mouse or trackpad for your computer. It’s a simple solution that can come in handy in case of emergencies.