Apple, please give us more control over iPhone Mirroring privacy

For me iPhone Mirroring has been one of the most useful enhancements to the Apple ecosystem in recent years, and it’s something I use every day.

However, while I completely understand Apple’s focus on privacy protection, in my experience the way it currently works is annoying…

iPhone Mirroring

I’m a fan of individual Apple devices, but one of the main reasons I’ve remained loyal to the company across a range of devices over the years is the strength of the company’s ecosystem.

Shared access to iCloud documents on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Continuation features like Universal Clipboard. Automatic synchronization of notes, photos, calendars, bookmarks, passwords, messages, and more. AirDrop. A personal hotspot … and much more.

For me, iPhone mirroring was an important addition to the ecosystem. As a Mac-first guy who spends several hours a day sitting at a desk, I actually keep iPhone Mirroring on all day. I’m just thankful that it’s easy to connect to just one device, and there are a few iPhone-only apps that I like to use on my Mac.

I suspected that this was an unusual usage pattern, almost unique to me, but when I checked with my colleagues, I’m not the only one doing this.

Apple’s privacy protections are understandable

iPhone Mirroring is a potentially very dangerous feature in situations like abusive relationships, so it’s no surprise that Apple has been extremely cautious when it comes to privacy.

You can only use iPhone Mirroring if the iPhone is locked. In my opinion, the main reason for this is to prevent the tests being performed and to be able to display an alert that the feature is active. It also displays a notification on the iPhone after that, stating that the feature you have has been used.

You can choose between asking for authentication every time the feature is used, or authenticating automatically. But even if you choose the latter, it will still require the iPhone passcode to be entered on the iPhone itself over and over again.

iPhone Mirroring is also more powerful when running in the background. I thought this was a measure to protect the battery, but it happens quite often when my iPhone is sitting on the MagSafe charger on my desk and my Mac is also running on power.

But I would like more control

All of this protection makes a lot of sense by default, but it can be annoying if the feature is used every day like it is. What I would like Apple to do is allow us more granular control over privacy protections.

What I like (as optional settings) is the ability to:

• Use the feature whether my iPhone is locked or not
• Always need Face ID rather than my passcode (unless my phone is rebooted)
• Never time out, unless my Mac goes to sleep.

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Image: 9to5Mac collage of images from Apple and J Lee on Unsplash