Chapter 18. Continuity: iPhone Meets Mac

Apple products have always been designed to work together. Macs, phones, tablets, watches: similar software, design, wording, philosophy. That’s nice for you, of course, because you have less to learn and to troubleshoot. But it’s also nice for Apple, because it keeps you in velvet handcuffs; pretty soon, you’ve got too much invested in its own product “ecosystem” to consider wandering over to a rival.

Apple has taken this gadget symbiosis to an astonishing new extreme. If your Mac is running Yosemite or a later Mac OS version, it can be an accessory to your iPhone. Suddenly the Mac can be a speakerphone, using the iPhone as a wireless antenna. Suddenly the Mac can send and receive regular text messages. Suddenly AirDrop lets you drag files back and forth, wirelessly, from phone to computer. Suddenly you can copy material on the phone, and paste it on the Mac (or vice versa).

Apple’s name for this suite of symbiosis is Continuity. And once you’ve got it set up, the game changes in a big way.

Continuity Setup

For many people, all of this just works. For many others, there’s a certain degree of setting up and troubleshooting. These are the primary rules:

• You need a Mac running OS X Yosemite or later and an iPhone running iOS 8.1 or later.

• The Mac and the phone have to be signed into the same iCloud account. (That’s a security thing—it proves that you’re the owner of both machines and therefore unlikely to pose a risk to yourself.) On the Mac, you do that in System Preferences→iCloud. On the phone, you do that in Settings→iCloud. But you should also make sure that you’ve entered the same iCloud address in Settings→Messages and Settings→FaceTime.

• For some of these features, Bluetooth must be turned on. On the Mac, you can do that in System Preferences→Bluetooth. On the phone, it’s Settings→Bluetooth.

  The modern Bluetooth—called Bluetooth LE, or low energy—doesn’t drain your battery the way Bluetooth once did, so it’s fine to leave it on. But older Macs don’t have Bluetooth LE, so most Continuity features work only on 2012 and later Macs.

All right. Setup ready? Time to experience some integration!

Mac as Speakerphone

You can make and take phone calls on your Mac. The iPhone, sitting anywhere in your house, can be the cellular module for your Mac—even if that iPhone is asleep and locked.

When a call comes in to your iPhone’s number, your Mac plays whatever ringtone your phone is playing. And a notice appears on your Mac screen:

You can click to answer it (or decline it); your Mac’s microphone and speaker become your speakerphone.

You can place a call the same way. Just click any phone number you find on the Mac: in Contacts, in Safari, in an email message, and so on.

To make this work, Settings→Phone→Calls on Other Devices→Allow Calls on Other Devices must be turned on for each device you want to participate in this grand experiment. The iPhone and the Mac must be on the same Wi-Fi network, too.

Note

Actually, there’s a mind-blowing exception to that statement: Continuity over cellular. In this scenario, your Mac and iPhone don’t have to be on the same Wi-Fi network! Even if you left your phone at home, you can still make calls and send texts from your Mac, wherever you are in the country!

This amazing feature requires participation by the cellular carrier, and so far, T-Mobile is the only company offering it. (How do you know? Open Settings→Phone→ Wi-Fi Calling; if you see an option called Allow Calls on Other Devices, you’re golden.)

Once you’ve set things up as described, it just works. Even call-waiting works—if a second call comes in, your Mac notifies you and offers you the chance to put the first one on hold. And on the Mac, the Contacts app offers Ringtone and Texttone menus, so you can assign custom sounds that play when your Mac rings.

Crazy.

Tip

If you own a bunch of Apple machines, it might drive you crazy that they all now ring at once when a call comes in. Fortunately, you can turn off the ringing on each device that you’d rather be peaceful.

To make one of your iPads or iPod Touches stop ringing, turn off Settings→FaceTime→Calls from iPhone. To make a Mac stop ringing, open the FaceTime program; choose FaceTime→Preferences→Settings, and turn off Calls from iPhone.

Texting from the Mac

You can send and receive text messages (as well as picture, audio, and video messages) on your Mac, too.

We’re not talking about sending texts to other Apple people (with iCloud accounts). Those are called iMessages, and they’re a special, Apple-only kind of message (Standard Texting (SMS)). We’re talking about something much better: You can type any cellphone number and send a regular SMS text message to anyone. Or receive them when they’re sent to your iPhone number.

Or you can initiate the text conversation by clicking a phone number in Contacts, Calendar, or Safari to send an SMS message. Once again, your iPhone acts as a relay station between the cellular world and your Mac.

Here’s how to set it up.

First, as usual, the Mac and the phone must be on the same Wi-Fi network and signed into the same iCloud account. (Or the same cellular network, if it’s T-Mobile, as already described.)

Next, on the iPhone, open Settings→Messages. Tap Text Message Forwarding. Your Mac’s name appears. Turn on the switch.

Now, on the Mac, open Messages. (Its icon is probably popping out of your Dock at this moment, trying to get your attention.) When you open Messages, a code appears. You’re supposed to type it into the corresponding box on your phone:

This same code appears right now on any iPad or iPod Touch you own. They, too, will be able to send and receive texts, with your iPhone doing the relaying.

All of this is to prove, really and truly, that you’re the owner of both devices. You wouldn’t want some bad guy reading your text messages, would you?

That’s it—your gadgets are paired. You can now use Messages to send standard text messages to any cellphone. You can also click and hold on a phone number wherever it appears—in Contacts, in a Spotlight search result, in Safari, in Mail—and choose Send Message from there. And when a text message comes in, a standard Mac notification bubble appears at top right.

The beauty of all this is that your back-and-forths are kept in sync between the Mac and the phone. You can jump between them and continue the texting conversation. (You’ll note that, as usual, the bubbles containing your utterances are green. Blue is reserved for iMessages—that is, messages to other people with iCloud accounts.)

Instant Hotspot

As you know from Personal Hotspot (Tethering), paying your cell carrier another $20 or so every month entitles you to use the iPhone’s Personal Hotspot feature. That’s where the phone itself acts as a portable Wi-Fi hotspot, so that your laptop (or any other gadgets) can get online almost anywhere.

As you also know from Personal Hotspot (Tethering), it’s kind of a pain to get going. Each time you want your laptop to get online, you have to wake your iPhone, unlock it, open Settings, and turn on Personal Hotspot. Then you wait about 20 seconds, until the phone’s name shows up in your menu.

Not with Continuity.

Now, the phone can stay in your pocket. Its name appears in your menu, ready for choosing at any time—even if the phone is asleep and locked, and even if Personal Hotspot is turned off! Handily enough, the menu also shows the phone’s battery and signal status.

Once your Mac is online through your iPhone’s cellular connection, it tries to save you money by suspending data-intensive jobs like full backups and software updates. And it closes down the connection when you no longer need it, to save your iPhone’s battery.

As usual, this works only if the iPhone and Mac both have Bluetooth turned on and are signed into the same iCloud account.

Handoff

Handoff passes half-finished documents between the phone and the Mac, wirelessly and automatically.

For example, suppose you’ve been writing an email message on your iPhone (below, top). When you arrive home and sit down at the Mac, a new icon appears at the left end of the Mac’s Dock (previous page, middle). When you click it, the Mac’s Mail program opens, and the half-finished message is there for you to complete (bottom).

It doesn’t have to be an email message, either. If you were reading a web page or a Map on your phone, then that icon on the Mac opens the same web page or map. If you were working on a Reminder; a Calendar entry; a Contacts entry; a note in Notes; or a document in Keynote, Numbers, or Pages; you can open the same in-progress item on the Mac.

And all of it works in the other direction, too. If you’re working on something on the Mac, but you’re called away, an icon appears on the lower-left corner of your iPhone’s Lock screen that opens the same item (below, left).

Tip

There’s another way to find the Handoff icon: It’s in the app switcher on both devices. On the phone, for example, double-press the Home button—and notice the new strip at the bottom, identifying the document you’re handing off from the Mac (below, right). On the Mac, press -Tab to open the app switcher; there, too, is the icon for the app being handed off from the phone.

Here’s the setup: Once again, both gadgets must be signed into your iCloud account. Both must have Bluetooth turned on, and the Mac and phone have to be sitting within Bluetooth range of each other (about 30 feet).

On the Mac, open System Preferences→General; turn on Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices.

On the iPhone, the on/off switch is in Settings→General→Handoff.

Now try it out. Start an email message on your iPhone. Have a look at the Dock on your Mac: There, at the left end, pops the little icon of whatever program can finish the job.

Watch for the little lower-left icon on your screens to make it work.

AirDrop

AirDrop is pretty great. As described in The Share Sheet, it lets you shoot photos, videos, maps, Contacts cards, PDF files, Word documents, and all kinds of other stuff from one iPhone to another iPhone. Wirelessly. Without having to set up names, passwords, or permissions. Without even having an Internet connection.

What The Share Sheet didn’t cover, though, was how you can use AirDrop between a phone and a Mac.

From iPhone to Mac

Open whatever it is you want to send to the Mac: a photo, map, website, contact...anything with a button.

When you tap the Share button, you see the AirDrop panel—and, after a moment, the icons of any nearby Macs show up, too. Including yours (next page, left).

If the Mac’s icon doesn’t show up, it’s probably because its owner hasn’t made the Mac discoverable by AirDrop.

Instruct him to open the AirDrop window on his Mac. (Click AirDrop in the sidebar of any Finder window.) See the small blue control at the bottom? It governs who can “see” this Mac for AirDrop purposes: No One, Contacts Only (that is, people in the Mac’s address book), or Everyone.

Once that’s set up right, that Mac shows up in the iPhone’s AirDrop panel (“David” in the picture on the next page). Send away.

The receiving Mac displays a note like the one shown above at right.

Click Accept to download the incoming item to your Mac’s Downloads folder (or Decline to reject it).

Tip

If the phone and the Mac are both signed into the same iCloud account, then you don’t encounter that Accept/Decline thing. The file goes directly into your Downloads folder without asking. You do get a notification on the Mac that lets you know how many files arrived, and it offers an Open button.

Apple figures that, since you own both the phone and the Mac, the usual permission routine isn’t necessary. You’re probably not trying to send yourself some evil virus of death.

Universal Clipboard

Now, this is magic—and useful magic, at that. You can copy some text, a picture, or a video on your phone—and then, without any further steps, turn to your Mac and paste it. Or go the other way. Somehow, the contents of the Clipboard transfer themselves wirelessly between the two machines.

In this example, you copy something on the iPhone, in Safari (facing page, top)—and then paste it instantly in Mail on the Mac.

There’s no on/off switch, no extra steps, no visible sign of this feature in Settings or System Preferences. It just works. (Provided, of course, that you’ve obeyed the Three Laws of Continuity Setup: The Mac and phone have to be on the same Wi-Fi network, both have to have Bluetooth turned on, and both have to be signed into the same iCloud account.)

If you don’t paste within two minutes of copying, then whatever was already on the Clipboard gets restored, so you don’t get confused later.