Why I Never Use iPhone or iPad Apps on my Mac

Apple Silicon Macs run the same basic hardware as iPads and iPhones, which means you can run mobile apps right there on your Mac! It was one of the coolest promised features, but despite my initial excitement, I hardly ever use this option.

Too Many Developers Opt Out

Developers have the option to indicate that they don’t want their apps to be available on Macs, and remain only in the iPhone or iPad stores. There are many good reasons to opt out of this feature, such as an app that’s not suitable for keyboard and mouse controls or that a developer just doesn’t have the time and money to polish up their app for desktop use. It’s also understandable if there’s a native macOS version of the app, and they want users to buy that instead.

While I don’t have a problem with developers exercising their right not to be part of this feature, in practice, it means that most of the apps that I own never seem to allow me to run them on macOS. So, while I would probably have used this feature more, in my specific case, it just so happens that none of the apps that I ever want to use seem to qualify.

Mouse Controls Just Don’t Work That Well

If you’ve ever used a mouse on your iPad, you’ll know that trying to use an interface meant for touch input with a pointer can be weird at best and unusable at worst. At least when you use a mouse with iPadOS, you’re facing the same learning curve throughout the interface, but on macOS you’re switching between awkward touch-to-mouse kludges and conventional mouse usage all the time.

I love LumaFusion, and for a long time this was my go-to video editing app on both iPad and macOS, but it never felt quite natural to use this iPad app on my macBook, even with some excellent work from the developer to make their software more desktop friendly.

File Management Is a Pain

The file structure on macOS is very different to use compared to iPhones and iPads, and going back to my example of using LumaFusion, opening assets and saving or exporting files was never quite intuitive, as the app tried to carve a middle ground between the file structure it was designed for and the one macOS actually has. This only really affects apps where you’re opening and closing files all the time, but there are some amazing productivity apps on the iPad that need you to interact with files, and that just never feels right in my experience.

There’s Usually a Better macOS Alternative

LumaFusion was the rare exception where there really was no macOS equivalent app at the same price with the same features. However, more often than not, the app you might want to use has a native macOS version at the same price, or there’s an alternative app that does the same thing just as well. Not to mention that macOS has access to numerous open source programs that you’ll rarely find in the App Store on Apple’s mobile devices.

Games Are an Exception

Games are the one type of app where I do actually find myself playing them on my Mac from time to time, especially if that game has controller support. There’s no real difference in the experience between playing these games on my Mac versus my iPad when using a controller, so most issues I have mentioned aren’t relevant. Even some touch-based games work fine as long as they are designed for single-touch play. Some CRPGs, for example, work just as well with a mouse as they do with a single finger.

The New iOS Might Make This Moot

On my Windows computer, I can see and control my S22 Ultra Android phone while leaving it in my pocket or on charge. With iOS 18, Apple is offering something similar, with the ability to mirror your iPhone to your Mac. This will mean you don’t actually have to run iPhone apps natively on your Mac, should you happen to own an iPhone.

I still love that I have the option to run some mobile apps on my Mac, but it really does feel like a missed opportunity for both developers and Apple to extend existing apps to the whole Mac install base.