Apple has officially delayed its Universal Control feature for iPads and Macs until spring 2022.
The feature, which enables a single keyboard and mouse or trackpad to work across both Macs and iPads located within 10 feet of each other, was originally due to ship with Monterey and iOS 15 in the fall.
Apple did not mention the feature in its release notes for macOS Monterey 12.1 or iPadOS 15.2 earlier this month, and its Monterey page continued to say that it would be available later in the fall. However, fall ends on December 21.
The company has now updated the Monterey page to state that the feature will be available in the spring.
Apple promises an experience that lets users move their cursors from the Mac screen to the iPad screen and vice versa, and also drag content between Macs and iPads. They can also type on a Mac and have the words appear on their iPad. The feature will allow a single keyboard and mouse connect to multiple Macs or iPads.
Apple originally dabbled in Mac and iPad integration with the Sidecar feature launched with macOS Catalina in 2019. However, this stopped at extending a Mac's screen to an iPad.
The ability to drag content between Macs will be available on iMac Pros, MacBooks and MacBook Pros released in 2016 and later, iMacs released during or after 2017 (or 5K 27-in iMacs released in late 2015), MacBook Airs and Mac Minis dated 2018 and later, and 2019 Mac Pro models.
On the iPad side, users will need an iPad Pro, a third generation or later iPad Air, or an iPad that is sixth generation or newer. It will also work on iPad minis that are at least fifth generation units.
The service requires both devices to sign into iCloud using the same Apple ID, and each must have Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Apple's handoff feature turned on. It can also work over USB.
