Do You Use It? iPhone and iPad Apps on M-Series Macs

I tried PreSonus’ music notation app, Notion Mobile for awhile. Unfortunately, I found the results rather predictable. It was very clunky for any Mac desktop app, and terrible compared to their actual desktop app (which I’ve used for years). On my 12" iPad, it wasn’t nearly as easy to use as their earlier iOS app. It was neither one nor the other. I’ve just about quit using my iPad for notation now. If they actually replaced their desktop app with it, I would finally have to go with Sibelius or Finale.

I don’t use iPhone/iPad apps on my Mac today, but I can see a few cases where I might.

For example, I have some accounts with a bank whose business banking website is frankly clunky and archaic. On the other hand, its iOS/iPad apps are simple and efficient. While the website is much more comprehensive in terms of business capabilities, it is much easier to perform my most common workflows through the apps. It may be worth it for me to install one of the apps on my Mac.

Of course, that would be true for any iDevice app that has no direct equivalent on the Mac. For example, I note that Authy recently discontinued its Mac app. I don’t know if Authy’s iOS app works well on a Mac, but if so, perhaps it would be helpful to some users.

I use a couple:

Notion is an app I use for non-casual notes (I use the Notes app for stuff I want to look at later, etc.) I use this app pretty often.

StoryGraph is the app I use to track which books I read, want to read, etc.

I have a lot of Wyze devices and I use their iOS app on my Mac to see my cameras, turn on my sprinklers, control my router, and other features. When I first tried it years ago when Apple first started allowing that feature it was rather buggy (it could get stuck in the wrong orientation or quit) and not all aspects of the app worked, but for the last year or so it’s been very good. I don’t know if the company actually tests it on Macs or not, but the bugs seemed to be worked out and it’s amazing how well it works. I can even capture a photo from one of my Wyze cameras and it puts it onto the camera roll just like from iPhone (that didn’t use to work).

It’s not quite a full-fledged Mac app – you can’t resize the window, for instance – but that’s a minor quibble. It’s just great being able to access the same app on Mac as on my iDevices. I just wish it worked on Apple TV so I could see my camera feeds there!

I use the video editor Luma.

I like the concept but I have yet to find an iOS app that (a) is available on macOS and (b) is worth using on my Mac.

Overcast - not very often.

I also use the Wyze app to monitor my security cameras.

Another one I use is the WIXY1260 Online app for oldies music:

Ironically the one iPad app that I’d love to run on MacOS is Apple’s Logic Pro for iPad which, to my knowledge, can’t be run on a Mac.

Casey Liss’ Callsheet (though I added some sorely missing keyboard equivalents with Keyboard Maestro).

I did have Dark Noise installed for a while, too, but realized I never used it on my Macs.

Yep! I use the apps for my front door lock, my air conditioners, local radio station for streaming and the MLB app (which is very buggy, if it actually launches)!

I use the CLZ Books database (and occasionally CLZ Movies). The publisher had a MacOS version for some time, but abandoned it a few years ago in favor of a web-based interface. Being able to run the iPadOS version is a delight, though the interface isn’t as clean as the old Mac-native application.

Sometimes I’ve run Overcast as well, but not frequently. My kids have used a couple of games but I don’t recall which ones offhand.

Because I haven’t used an iPhone or iPad app since I first learned I could do it, this would have been Never, had the question not prompted me to load the iOS app for my smartlock/video doorbell, which I hadn’t thought about doing. It seems to work fine.

In tech terms, I’m a dinosaur. I much prefer my Mac (24", M3 2023 Mac) to my iPhone / any phone

• love the Mac versions of iMessage, WhatsApp, and Fantastical. In particular, for the former two the ability to quickly type a long message (when required) is a godsend for my goofy fingers. For some of the rest it depends on the “app” or often website vs App.

I use Yr (weather app) and Scanful (QR/barcode app) on my Mac, though the latter only very occasionally.

I voted ‘Regularly’ because although I don’t always open the Yr app on my Mac weekly (but sometimes I use it more), I have the widget permanently on the bottom right of my desktop.

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I’ve been using the Cisco Secure Client iPad app on my Mac because updates to the Mac native app were difficult to obtain. I used it to connect to our corporate WAN via VPN. We’re now deploying a SASE solution and I’m one of the pilot/beta users so I haven’t used the app for the past three months. By the end of the day, it’s a VPN tool and it worked so I was a happy camper.

I occasionally use Overcast and ESPN LA. I run them on whatever device happens to be the most convenient at the time, which is sometimes the computer.

Overcast several times/week for podcasts.

LumaFusion for video editing occasionally.

Wyze app for managing a security camera from time to time.

I voted 'Never but I know I could".

Which prompted a “Why not?” so I downloaded Luma (fantastic editor) and my Irish Times e-paper app, and of course to get bit meta… DiscourseHub which I read this site in normally.

I used to use Overcast on my Mac but replaced it with Apple Podcasts due to the recent UI changes in Overcast.

I also use Moonlight Mahjong, the only computer game I play on any platform.

Authy. Even before they discontinued the desktop version, it languished - it was the last Intel app on my M1 mac, and was intolerably and inexplicably slow. So I tried the iPad version as soon as I could, and never went back.

It has most of my two-factor authentication codes, so I need to use it frequently. Having it on my desktop is easier than rooting around for my iphone.

A few iOS-only audiogames. Quite impressive that it works at all, really. Also the stuff written in ChoiceScript (choiceofgames.com, etc) but now that I can play in an actual web browser on their site (and purchase for less, too) that’s my preferred option. This is never going to be a Mac-native experience, for obvious reasons. My primary Mac is still Intel, so I’ve still a strong bias toward native and web apps. The emulation is clunky even when it works, and I would never favour it even if it were the only option.

I’ve tried to use some LGTV WebOS remote control apps, but none worked well. I wanted to use the pathetic iRobot Roomba app, but it’s apparently forbidden.

I am also a dinosaur! I do what I can on a computer. But since mine is old I had no idea newer ones allowed us to run iOS apps. I look for actual Mac versions.

iMessage is a godsend for my oft-mistyped messages. Please tell me that still exists!

I missed Wyze offering viewing of cameras in a web browser and don’t take advantage of it as often as I should.

Diane

I’ve tried but all my iPad apps either are not supported or not allowed due to license restrictions.

I use Letterboxd’s app on my desktop pretty frequently. I like the UI, and like being able to keep track of my movie watching habits.

The app doesn’t scale well on my 4K display, but having the app icon on the dock and accessible just works for me.

Many of the apps I use are faster ways to accomplish what is normally done in a web browser. I had forgotten that this feature of MacOS existed, so this article was a great reminder to try it out.

There are, indeed, several apps I could see myself using this way–particularly since the version that gets installed on my Mac is designed for the iPad in some cases, and therefore makes better use of the larger screen.

I have one iOS app running on my Mac, but not by choice. SkySafari Pro (an astronomy app for viewing the sky) has been available in a Mac version for quite a while. They didn’t update the Mac version and now only have a iOS version - and that can be run on the Mac - and it works, but not very well. It took me a while to figure out that this had happened - they claimed they had a Mac version when in fact not. The iPad version works well and basically that is what I use most of the time now. I still have the older Mac version which still works.

I might actually have to try that. It would be good to do CLZ cataloging with a real keyboard.

One area – perhaps the only one – where this is completely ubiquitous and routine is iOS music apps; lots about this on e.g. the Audiobus forum. But I do also use the wonderful visual dictionary/thesaurus/random-word inspiration generator WordFlex a lot in the absence of a native desktop version.

I use the Classical KUSC app on my iMac every morning as I read the overnight news, incoming email, and such. Jennifer Miller Hammel provides a lovely mix of classical music to start the day.

Although not necessary but as a convenience, I use the ThermoWorks iOS app to connect to their node thermometer that keeps track of my swimming pool temperature.

Listening to a music stream via its IOS app on a Mac has one disadvantage: you cannot use Airplay to direct the output to multiple devices. You need to use the system Sound controls, which do not allow streaming to multiple devices without using an add-on like Airfoil from Rogue Amoeba. On the other hand, if there is an equivalent AAC or MP3 stream URL you can open that stream in the computer version of Apple Music, which does allow multiple Airplay devices.

In my situation, I have a Homepod Mini in my bedroom and a stereo Homepod setup in my Living Room. So, I run a stream (usually the jazz stream from KCSM) and have it play in my office, bedroom, and living room. I have playlists for the streams I listen to stored in Apple Music.

KUSC has a page on its website that shows the stream URLs for both AAC and MP3 streams.

I haven’t yet, but I’m tempted to see how iPad Minecraft (Bedrock Edition) runs on my Studio, since the normal Mac Minecraft is Java Edition.

Dave

Mojang (or maybe Microsoft as a way to give Windows an advantage?) has disallowed the iOS version of Minecraft from running on the Mac. Seems completely unnecessary given Windows will run the Bedrock version as well as Java.

@Diane D: Yes - iMessage is on my M3 Mac.

I just tried it for the first time. I tried to find standard Apple weather for the iPhone. I thought I did, but it immediately started trying to sell me a premium annual subscription. I didn’t even know that Apple had premium weather subscriptions. The view was apparently designed sort of for a Mac, but not that easy on the eyes.

Anyway, not sure I would use this feature. What’s an example of an app where it’s worthwhile to use it on the Mac?

Solaredge to monitor my solar panels. I’ve also tried the BlueSky app, but it’s too small.
The Mac Twitter app has been discontinued & you are now supposed to use the X iPad app (or the web interface).

Yep, I sometimes use the KUSC streaming URLs for AirPlay coverage through my home, but the app is nice for quick one-click access while I’m at my Mac with coffee and bialy in hand; plus, it displays the current piece and composer playing and offers access to other KUSC streams.

It’s great to have options.

I use a tide monitoring app and an iOS VPN client on my Mac. They both work well. I recall trying another iOS app. I was able to install it on my Mac but it wouldn’t open or work.

The one iOS app I semi-regularly use on my Apple Silicon Macs is Logeion, a Latin and Greek dictionary produced by the Classics department at the University of Chicago. It has an excellent web version, but I’m sometimes offline while traveling (either on airplanes, or at vacation rentals that are off the grid, or temporarily in a foreign country where I don’t need roaming). My work sometimes requires access to good Latin and Greek dictionaries, so in those circumstances, Logeion is amazing.

There are a few other iOS apps I’d use on my Mac if their publisher made them available: most notably, the Petit Robert dictionary of French, and its historical companion.

I think there are a couple other iOS apps I downloaded to my current M2 Mac just for a kick, but I don’t use them regularly.

That sounds similar to the Ideastream app which the local PBS station uses which also includes the classical FM station WCLV as well as NPR. The classical one lists the last few selections and shows cover art when available like in this example:

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Although I haven’t yet used this capability on my M1 MacBook Pro, I appreciate the fact that I can should the need arise.

This is the problem with reading about what’s new in the next OS. When I am ready to upgrade, a month later, I have forgotten. So thanks for the reminder. I voted for did not know.

I regularly use Calm (a meditation app). I’ve occasionally used Audible, but I normally use that on my iPhone.

I wish I could use Apple’s Health app on my Mac, but they’ve prevented that. It would be great if there was a macOS Health app, but why not let us run the iOS version until that happens?

The only Catalyst-derived app I am using from time to time is Weather.app. I tried some of them, but they are just not right when launched on Mac.

I use Reading List’s iPad version on my M2 MacBook Air. It’s a thorough, private book tracker. Much easier to type my reviews on my MBA’s keyboard, and then share via my iPad or iPhone.

Only drawback is the smaller type on macOS. When will Apple expand Dynamic Type from iOS to the Mac?

I, too, never knew I could do this. My security cameras are made by eufy. It’s always bothered me that they didn’t have a Mac app and their browser support isn’t very good. I just loaded their iOS app to my Mac and it works fine. I learn something new every day. Thanks @ace !

Control-scroll up/down is your friend.

Thanks for the link to this app – it’s exactly what I never knew I was looking for!

Zoom in/out is great – I use the two-finger pinch gesture on my trackpad – but it doesn’t enlarge the UI.

Hover text does, but it doubles the info on the screen. (And why does the link go to “en-asia”?)

With Sequoia I can just mirror my iPhone on my Mac so I just use them that way now! :D

I have some window blinds that have an associated app. While one can set scenes and schedule automations, the app doesn’t have shortcuts support nor does it have a Mac version. I installed the app (Bliss.app) on my MacStudio which is always running, and set up the automations there. Now my blinds open and close on my desired schedule!

That’s cool, but not quite the same, since I assume you can’t resize a mirrored window bigger than the size of the iPhone’s native screen (and please correct me if I’m wrong). The one iOS app I use on macOS Blink, which allows me to view the cameras outside my house at much larger sizes than I could just using it on my iPhone.

I’ve got a handful of iPhone apps that I really like that I find it convenient to run on my Mac: The Suunto app for mapping runs/syncing with my watch, RadarScope, the Red Cross Blood Donor app, the Anglican Daily Office app, and Apple’s Weather app. In most of these cases, I find these more convenient to use than the equivalent web site (if it exists). It is also really useful to be able to run certain iphone/ipad apps for large-group training situations, instead of having to mirror the device screen to the mac.

That’s an interesting issue indeed.

I have one specialized iPhone app that I routinely use on my Mac (in-house build, not publicly available). When I launch that iOS app on the Mac I cannot resize it. I can go fullscreen, however. And as it turns out, I can indeed get it to display in just one larger size using opt-green blob. So no free resizing (or changing the aspect ratio), but I can indeed get it to display larger than native iOS.

There is a missing option in your poll: “I would like to but I can’t make it work.”

I would very much like to use FileMaker Go on the Mac – or, rather, I don’t need to, because I own FileMaker Pro. But I would like to distribute databases that would run on the Mac without needing FileMaker Pro. This used to be possible with FileMaker’s developer tools, but this feature was removed years ago. So the only way to run a runtime version of a FileMaker database on a Mac is with FileMaker Go on the emulator.

But it won’t do it. As I understand the messages I’m getting (and maybe someone here understands this better than I do), it’s possible to transfer a paid app from iPhone to Mac to run in the emulation layer, but you can’t move a free app!

(And, before anyone asks, I have an M1 Mac. It ought to work.)

I’ll have to play with it, I haven’t noticed on my 32” monitor. :D

I use quite a few iOS/iPadOS apps on my M2 Mac. Mostly smart home apps and games. I’d use even more if devs would allow it. It is shocking to me how many smart home products feel like a mobile app is good enough. Sometimes I want to manage things on my Mac and get notifications, too. It’s been exceptionally handy to hsve this option on my new Mac.

Of course, I’d prefer apps specifically designed for use on the Mac, but if you as a dev don’t have the resources that allow for that, at least check the box to allow me to use your iOS/iPad app.

I’m yet another Wyze user who finds the app works well on my M1 Macs. I also use Resideo and TCC to control remote thermostats, Cielo Home to control remote heat pumps, Mobile Link to monitor a generator, and EcoNet to control a heat pump water heater. I’m very happy to have the option available!

I used it with the HBO Max app for a while to download streaming content for offline viewing on my MacBook Pro.

My wife and I periodically find ourselves overnighting in remote locations with limited connectivity and find it nice to have something to watch before bed. Unfortunately, HBO (as did Netflix) disabled the ability to run their iOS apps on macOS.

My trusty 3rd Gen iPad just doesn’t cut it anymore. :)

I use Libby almost every day to read books from my neighbourhood Library and on occasion I play some iPad games on my 15" Mac bookair.

I use just the SensorPush app, which collects data from a temperature/humidity sensor that, like my mac, lives in my house.

In general, i hate trying to do things on my iPhone screen if i don’t have to (and i don’t have an iPad).

Now this article has got me thinking that maybe i should try running the (terrible) KEF Control app, to configure my loudspeakers, and the Magicshine app, to configure my bicycle headlight.

It’s incredibly useful for some enterprise authentication apps I’m forced to use. Our company apparently never met a multi-factor authentication app it didn’t love, and most of the clients for them only run on iOS or (I assume Android, though I wouldn’t know about that).

Being able to remotely pop open my phone and poke a “yes, that was me” button, or type a two-digit confirmation code is so much handier than reaching for the device.

I use it for controlling my Mitsubishi heat pump and Zehnder balance ventilation.

AppRaven is the iOS app I use on my Mac. I can only use it once. Then it won’t open again until I delete it and re-install it.

I use the Focal & Naim app to control my Mu-So.

I wish I could use the Netflix app to download programming.

Myenergi to schedule charges to my EV though it’s becoming much less frequent now as my utility company auto schedules charging during its off peak tariff.

I use Calculator and AccuWeather all the time because they don’t seem to have true Mac versions and sometimes it’s handier to use them on the Mac (M2) than on the iPad or iPhone.

Off the top of my head:
Overcast
Good Sudoku (although I prefer it on a touch interface)
Gridwatch
Exoplanet
…Probably others. The last two would have been really nice to have when I was still teaching, but I retired a couple of years before the M-series Macs came out.

I do have some misgivings about iOS/iPadOS apps taking the place of more capable macOS apps.

Okay, wow - Just did a search for iOS apps on my Mac and came up with a long list. I guess I’ve played with a few, but can’t say I actually use them on the Mac.

One thing that stood out was that
LibreOffice
Blender
1Password
were identified as iOS apps, which seems like a mistake. I can imagine something odd happening with open source apps like Blender and LibreOffice, but 1Password?

While at work, I use the iPhone app to view my home security-camera’s app. I also occasionally use the Tesla Remote’s iPhone app since its interface makes it easier to change settings such as charging rate.

I started using the aircraft navigation app SkyDemon on my M1 Mac Mini as soon as I got that hardware, which was long before SkyDemon approved its use on desktops. I found it very useful and it ran reliably.

I tried when I first got an M1 but it was a terrible experience. The apps were so slow they were unusable. I haven’t tried since.

From a conversation with a developer, IOS apps do not automatically work on a Mac, but have to be enabled.

Interesting! Perhaps some FileMaker users here can comment, but I’d wonder if this is an intentional choice on FileMaker’s part or some sort of configuration issue.

I’m sure there is a way to outsmart this, but the Mac isn’t talking. :-) It’s even possible that Apple thinks, because I have FileMaker Pro on the Mac, that I don’t need FileMaker Go. And I don’t. But I need to know what my users will see – and I need to make this database run on the Mac now that Apple has killed the ability to make FileMaker runtimes. (Which I confess to having complained about a lot on this forum, but it is thirty years of my life that Apple invalidated!)

TP-Link Tapo — to control a smart plug from the Stream Deck.

I did at very first before they allowed developers to opt out. I still have the phone version of PCalc installed on my M1 Mac Mini. But I never used it after that first day when I ran it just to prove I could.

By now I either just use the website or they have a Mac app. And iPhone mirroring will make this pretty much moot anyway.

How about that—I had no idea. However, the only app I would be interested in using on my Mac doesn’t show up in my purchased apps, even though a lot of other free apps do, and a search comes up dry: Substack.app.

See my thread last year on sheet music management software for iPad. One of the main deciding features for MobileSheets over iGigBook Pro was that the dev enabled support for running on a Mac which vastly improved my workflow, since the Mac is also where I create most of my scores in the first place.

Just tried this for the first time… put some of my iPad games on the Studio … works great!

The MacOS and iOS versions of 1Password are separate downloads.

Yes, but I see the same thing, and I’m definitely using the Mac version of 1Password on my Mac. In the Get Info dialog, 1Password and the other oddities are identified as Application (Apple silicon), whereas normal apps are either Application (Universal) or Application (Intel). I wonder if 1Password is actually installing an Apple silicon-only version of itself and thus falls into that category.

Very interesting aspect (and possibly worthy of its own thread).

I too have 3 apps on my 14" MBP that claim to be of kind Apple silicon: Zoom, Dropbox, and Rosetta 2 Updater. On the other hand, interestingly enough, the one app I routinely use on the Mac that I know is an iPhone-only app is not listed as Apple Silicon. It instead reports to be of kind iOS.

Rosetta makes sense not being of kind Universal. I don’t know what makes Zoom and Dropbox special. For sure these are apps that have updated themselves, but that does not distinguish them from the dozens of other apps I have that also update themselves. And these are also not the only apps I have that will not run on Intel…

In System Information when I list all apps of kind iOS, to my surprise, not only that one iPhone app I downloaded from the MAS shows up, but also VLC which I am certain did not come via MAS but rather just a regular download from videolan.org. By the way, even though in System Information VLC reports as being of kind iOS, in a Finder Get Info window it will state Application (Apple silicon), just like Zoom or Dropbox.

No idea why this apparent inconsistency. I’m sure one of the Mac developers on this board will be able to shed light on the matter though.

[BTW, is it just me or is it odd that Apple would not capitalize silicon in Apple silicon? After all, it’s not Apple music either.]

Hmm. On my 2012 Mini, I have 1Password 7.9.11 (updated 7/26/2023) running on Catalina. Haven’t tried replacing it with a new copy from the website, but it lets me download a new installer. Maybe it senses what I’m running. Or maybe I’m misunderstanding the issue. Do that a lot.

On an Intel-based Mac from 2012, there’s no way you could run an iOS app (or an Apple silicon-only app), so I don’t think anything would identify itself as such. What we’re hitting is apps that are definitely not iOS apps showing up as such in certain places.

I just wanted to let you know in case you didn’t, that libbyapp.com is now available. I realize an ebook reading app is much better than a website, but I love using libbyapp.com to look up books and perhaps check them out. Then I can read them on my iPad. (It’s also possible to read the books in the website.) Libby used to work only on iOS devices, not desktops, so I was delighted when I stumbled onto the web app, as my ‘discovery’ of books is often at my desk, and I can quickly see if the book is at my library. Libby is fantastic (now it even searches across all my libraries if the book isn’t at the currently-set library)!
And thanks for teaching me something, because I hadn’t thought about loading the Libby iOS app on my Mac.

And why so many app developers refuse to check that little “enable” flag, I just don’t understand. Yes, there are a few (very few) apps which depend on a specific screen size. But if you’re not making a desktop version, why would you lock out potential users by keeping your app iOS-only? My church’s web app is not findable in the App Store, and that little trick to getting iOS apps onto Mac without the App Store was killed off a while ago. I’d love to be able to have church messaging on my desktop alongside all my other messages, so I could actually know somebody sent me one & be able to read and reply in a timely fashion. Forcing iOS apps not to install on Mx Macs is just short-sighted foolishness to me.

Developers may have valid reasons. The one I spoke to had written a weather app. It gathers info from various sources and presents it on the screen. He is concerned that if it was able to run on a Mac, people would leave it running all the time, hitting those websites every few minutes and potentially getting blocked by the web site.

The obvious reason is because you don’t want the burden of supporting a second platform.