macOS Monterey's Universal Control is now 'beta' as we near release

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

Universal Control
Universal Control (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • Apple's macOS Monterey Universal Control feature is now listed as beta.
  • The beta designation was added in macOS Monterey beta 12, but it still can't be used.

When Apple showed off macOS Monterey during its WWDC event earlier this year, Universal Control was one of the standout features. Being able to use a mouse and keyboard to control a nearby iPad looked and sounded amazing. And then things went dark. Four months later, we still can't test it even in the tenth macOS Monterey beta. Now, the feature itself has a beta tag of its own.

Spied by 9to5Mac after a little jiggery-pokery, the new feature can be enabled to a point. They saw a new beta label, with the feature itself housed within an 'Advanced' section of the Displays portion of System Preferences.

9to5Mac was able to notice these changes by forcibly enabling Universal Control on a Mac running macOS Monterey beta 10. Now when you go to the Display settings in the System Preferences app, there is a label indicating that Universal Control can be enabled, but as an unfinished feature that may not work as expected.

It isn't immediately clear whether Universal Control will get its debut when macOS Monterey is released — likely, soon. It's possible the device-switching feature will be live, but with the beta tag there to remind everyone that they should expect problems.

Apple is likely to confirm when macOS Monterey will be made available during its Unleashed event on Monday, an event that is also expected to see the debut of new mini-LED MacBook Pros. They're sure to be the best Mac's for people who need power on the move. It remains to be seen whether they'll have Universal Control at launch — a feature I absolutely cannot wait for!

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.