iPhone Mirroring is one of the best additions to iOS 18 and macOS 15 Sequoia, adding a whole new level of integration between your iPhone and your Mac. It's the feature I've used the most of all the new additions (much more so than Apple Intelligence), but I've come across a quirk of the mirroring system that makes it much less useful than I thought.
You see, you cannot simultaneously use iPhone Mirroring and your iPhone's internet hotspot feature. If you try to enable hotspot while mirroring, or vice versa, you get a pop-up telling you that you need both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled in order to use iPhone Mirroring. And that feels like a huge limitation in the software
I ran into a major example of this while on a recent train journey. I was hotspotting with my iPhone 16 Pro Max in my pocket, and wanted to check my notifications on my MacBook since that would mean far less fuss than trying to negotiate my laptop, the fold-down tray table and my jacket and bag by my feet to pull my phone out. I tried and failed to get iPhone Mirroring to work, so in the end I had to do the exact awkward shuffle of my belongings I had tried to avoid, since it was either that or give up the hotspot connection while in the middle of work.
Being able to squeeze your iPhone into your Mac would have been amazing here, as well as other common situations when working in public. I can imagine a lot of people wouldn't want to lay their iPhone out on a coffee shop table in view of potential passing thieves, and iPhone Mirroring would allow you to continue using it while keeping it secreted away. Unless you're willing to brave the in-store Wi-Fi though, you won't be able to do that.
This mirror needs a clean-up
It surprises me when I find a roadblock like this in Apple's Continuity features. Apple's one of the best in the business when it comes to giving you reasons to buy more of its products to use together in sweet harmony. Especially given that the portable MacBooks are far more prevalent than Apple's desktop iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio or Mac Pro, so Apple should have expected many of its customers might want to hotspot and iPhone Mirror at the same time.
Despite finding this irritating flaw in iPhone Mirroring's operation, I know am going to continue to use it. But I am also going to be crossing my fingers that this is something Apple can change in a future update, maybe even an intermediate one prior to iOS 19/macOS 16.
Right now, choosing between iPhone Mirroring and Wi-Fi hotspotting is an annoying smudge on what would otherwise be a shining example of why one of the best phones and one of the best laptops work even better together. And one that Apple probably shouldn't have let happen in the first place.
More from Tom's Guide
