An Apple product manager said in a new interview this week that Universal Control is the result of years of work on the iPadOS platform to bridge the gap between iPad and Mac.
Vivek Bhardwaj, product manager for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, sheds light on the company’s thinking about “universal controls” in an interview on the AppStories podcast. Universal Controls, according to Bhardwaj, is to help create a more continuous experience between the iPad and Mac platforms, building on existing Continuity features such as the Universal Clipboard and the ability to unlock the Mac with the Apple Watch.
Bhardwaj said that in order to develop universal controls, Apple must first make iPadOS a separate platform, such as the ability to drag and drop files, photos, text and other functions in the system and support for using the trackpad on the iPad.
Also, to use Universal Control, the user must have at least one Mac, as it cannot be used between two or more iPads alone. Bhardwaj explained that it was designed with the iPad and Mac in mind, and there are quite a few Mac users who also own an iPad, but many customers don’t have two.
Apple released the official version update of iPadOS 15.4 on March 15, which introduced Universal Control, allowing multiple Macs and iPads to be controlled using the same mouse/trackpad and keyboard. This feature is currently only in beta, but it is already working. It is designed to use a single mouse/trackpad and keyboard for multiple Macs and iPads (iPads running iPadOS 15.4).