Key Takeaways
- New iOS and macOS betas let you rearrange your iPhone home screen via your Mac
- Jiggle mode is now accessible through iPhone mirroring, making it easier to organize your apps
- Rearranging your home screen is still likely to be a pain
Latest Beta macOS Sequoia and iOS18 Update New features added iPhone Mirroring You can now rearrange your iPhone home screen directly from your Mac. As first reported by 9to5Mac, while using iPhone Mirroring, you can do so by clicking and holding an app icon or widget. Jiggle Modeall the icons will start to shake, indicating that they can be repositioned.
Before this update, it was not possible to enable Shake mode Use iPhone Mirroring In other words, Your Mac Rearrange your iPhone Home Screen. With this update, you can now use your Mac trackpad or mouse to drag widgets and app icons to create the perfect Home Screen layout for your iPhone. This new feature was added to the latest beta. iOS18 Update, iOS18.1 Update, macOS 15and macOS 15.1It will be available as part of the official release. iOS18 Update and macOS Sequoia This fall. Unless you’re in the EU this feature will not be available at release time.
Related
I use mirroring to control my iPhone from my Mac and it’s surprisingly useful.
Controlling your iPhone from your Mac with iPhone mirroring is surprisingly convenient
What is iPhone Mirroring?
Control your iPhone directly from your Mac
apple
At WWDC 24, Apple New features coming to macOS Sequoia The first feature introduced is iPhone Mirroring. This continuity feature allows you to see a virtual version of your iPhone on your screen when you click on its icon on your Mac dock.
Your virtual iPhone works just like a real one: swipe across the screen and tap app icons to open them directly on your Mac, type messages on WhatsApp using your Mac keyboard, scroll through Instagram using your mouse or trackpad, and more.
You can interact with your virtual iPhone exactly like you would with a real iPhone: you can swipe across the screen or tap an app icon to launch it, and the app will open directly on your Mac.
Your Mac will mirror your iPhone’s notifications, and you can click on an app’s notification to open that app in iPhone mirroring. Your iPhone will remain locked while it’s mirrored, and when you turn it to the side, Standby mode which displays helpful information when using your iPhone via your Mac.
iPhone Mirroring makes managing your home screen a little easier
But old grievances will remain.
Braden Newell / Pocket-lint
Apple has always tried to provide a frictionless user experience, but when it comes to app transfers, it totally fails. Widgets Drag icons to reposition them on the Home screen. The way it’s done today is pretty much the same as it was in the early days of the iPhone: Tap and hold an app icon and all the icons will start to wiggle. You can then drag the icon around the screen to reposition it.
It sounds pretty simple, but anyone who has tried it knows that while you can control the position of the icon you want to move, the rest of the icons will often rearrange themselves and end up in an unwanted position or disappear completely onto another screen.
In the end, rearranging your home screen will likely remain a frustrating task, but being able to use your Mac via iPhone mirroring might make it a little less frustrating.
What you can do Rearrange your home screens Using an iPhone might make things a little easier: a mouse gives you a little more precision than dragging your finger, and also has the added benefit of not obscuring part of the screen with your finger as you drag.
But using a Mac doesn’t change the fact that when you move an icon, other icons automatically move to the position you least want. There’s also a handy trick for moving an icon to another screen on the iPhone: hold your finger on the icon and swipe left or right on the screen. If you’re using a Mac’s multi-touch trackpad, you can still do this, but it’s not as easy as you’d think. Rat .
In the end, rearranging your home screen will likely remain a frustrating task, but being able to use your Mac via iPhone mirroring might make it a little less frustrating.