So macOS 12.3 and iPadOS 15.4 have dropped, and Universal Control is available. I’ve only had a few minutes to play with it, but so far, I’m impressed!
It took awhile, but I finally figured out which edge of which monitor ‘connects’ the Mac to the iPad.
It is pretty cool.
Tried it briefly yesterday. Works pretty smooth!
The keyboard/trackpad remain connected to the Mac, so I still can’t use them on my iPad when the Mac is turned off?
Not working at all today…
Assumption: my company’s VPN / security software is blocking it (can test that later today)
I’m often out and about and have to work without an external screen, so I regularly use the iPad (2017, 10,5’) as external screen.
I’m now deciding between Sidecar and UC.
Sidecar gives you the Mac goodness (Keyboard Maestro, Typinatior and so on) while UC gives you touch control and app layouts that are made for the smaller screen.
UC is the new shiny and I will roll with it for a week to try, I guess.
I’m going to be curious in about 3 months to learn how many people are still using Universal Control at least weekly. I could be wrong, but I don’t see the number being very high.
I am having an odd issue with Universal Control - it works fine among 2 of my 3 Macs. But my iMac only intermittently works; at other times it does not recognize the other computer(s) nearby. Yet it does detect the other computers for purposes of Bluetooth/AirDrop. All computers are on the same local network.
Why might it be intermittent?
I kinda got it working after connecting my iMac to wifi, but the lag! Anyone else notice this? Sidecar seems way snappier, to be honest.
Maybe I spoke too soon - suddenly the lag was no longer noticable. Other issues though, e.g. Shift-key not recognized, language settings defaulted back to US English etc. Also, scroll wheel on mouse does nothing. Guess it might work better with all Apple accessories, perhaps.
I upgraded to an M1 Mac mini from a 2012 in part because I knew this feature was coming. Well, it was time to upgrade but knowing this was coming was a tipping point. In the past two weeks I’ve been trying to use the Mac more just as an experiment and to enjoy the new device, new operating system. But expecting to have the two side by side with this new feature and it’s been pretty fantastic in the first few hours of use.
Magic indeed!
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I tried to test this out last night without success. My MBA (M1) is stuck on macOS 12.1 and insists it’s up to date no matter how many times I click on “check for updates”.
This works fantastically for me. I have an Intel Mac, M1 Pro, iPad and this worked right away with all three.
I’ve never liked switching Bluetooth and this is a seamless solution. Worth the wait.
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I wonder about this, too. I tried it and it’s working great for me. But I can’t tell whether this is a true usability enhancement or just a nice bell/whistle that some niche case will find useful. I do use my iPad and Mac side-by-side a lot. So, I see the possibility that this becomes as useful to me as something like air drop: didn’t know I needed it but I sure love it and use it a lot.
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I’m expecting to use it infrequently, but its always “being there” has its own utility, since I can just decide to use it at the exact moment it will benefit me (e.g., I have a file to transfer and a chat open on the iPad.)
I don’t think I will ever develop a ritual to connect them at the start of the day or anything, as other solutions might require.
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Going to try this out later today. I think it’ll be one of those features that’s useless to 90% of people 90% of the time, but absolutely killer for the 10% that need it and the 10% of the time the rest of us need it. The comparison to AirDrop that @iPersuade made seems fitting to me as well.
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I think it will depend on whether you have a specific use case. My firm allows firm email on the iPad but not on macOS. So I can leave the iPad open and easily move back and forth between the iPad for my firm email and macOS for other work. After a couple of hours of use, it works well for me.
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This is unfortunately true… 
I’m finding it surprisingly useful. When it was first announced I did not think much of it. “I already have a mouse and keyboard that I can switch between devices” I thought. But that little bit of friction, needing to press a button on the keyboard/mouse was enough to key me from using it.
The ability to just keep using the original Magic Trackpad to swipe form Mac to iPad does, as others on this thread have said, seem magical. Of course, I thought that when I could copy and paste between devices as well. So maybe I’m easily impressed. 
My set up is three large and one small (from a Raspberry Pi project, as suggested by another on this forum) monitors, with ten spaces. My use case for the iPad is to now have Music, Calendar, and Messages on the iPad, so I always know where they are. And I do not need to switch spaces to use them.
Now it has just been a day. So we’ll see if I’m still doing this a month, or even a week, form now. But so far, I’m really liking it.
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I don’t see much use for me for Universal Control. When I use my iPad 12.9 next to my MBP its for using Sidecar. Sidecar and Universal Control don’t seem to play well together. If I have a window transferred from the Mac to the iPad using Sidecar, then I have to swipe off the left side of the screen to get to the iPad, and if I inadvertently swipe off the left side of the iPad then the iPad drops the Sidecar window back onto the Mac. It’s strange. Anyway, I’ve tried it and now turned off Universal Control.
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