Apple is always playing up how your Mac and iPhone work great together, but that goes well beyond iCloud syncing and AirDrop. A few apps have come up with clever ways to make your iPhone and Mac work together for tasks such as sharing clipboards, typing in passwords and more. Here are some of our favourites.
Notifyr Sends Notifications from Your iPhone to Your Mac
If you don’t want to keep your phone next to you all the time, but you also don’t want to miss notifications, Notifyr is an app that sends your iPhone’s notifications over to your Mac. You just pair the two together once, download two sets of software, and from then on out all your iOS notifications will also show up on your home computer. You can even mute certain apps so they don’t show up on your Mac. The whole process is through Bluetooth Low Energy, so it doesn’t suck up too much battery.
Command-C Shares Clipboard Data Between Devices Instantly
You have a lot of different options for sharing text, images and links between your Mac and iPhone, but we like Command-C the most. With the Mac and iPhone app installed, you can instantly share everything on your clipboard between the two devices. You can also use URL schemes and bookmarklets to open up that clipboard data in any app you want. It’s a cool and geeky trick that enables all kinds of cool things, including Geeks with Junior’s guide for launching iPhone actions from your Mac using Alfred and Command-C.
Knock Unlocks Your Mac Using Your iPhone
Knock has a simple premise: instead of typing in your password to unlock your Mac, you tap on your phone. It’s a little goofy, yes, but it is a cool use of Bluetooth Low Energy that’s fun to show off to friends. When your iPhone is within a certain range of your Mac, just knock twice and it will log you in.
Type2Phone Shares Your Mac’s Keyboard with Your iPhone
Type2Phone does one very simple thing: it connects your computer’s keyboard to your phone. It does this by turning your computer’s keyboard into a Bluetooth keyboard that’s easy to connect to your iPhone. From there, you can use it just like you would any other keyboard. No, you’re not going to want to use Type2Phone all the time, but for those rare moments when you want a full keyboard on your iOS device it’s perfect.
Dialogue Answers iPhone Calls On Your Mac
Dialogue is an app that allows you to answer phone calls on your Mac. So, if you get an incoming call on your iPhone, you can answer it from your computer just like you would with something like Skype. It’s simple and works well if you’re not a fan of holding your phone up to your ear. Dialogue also does recording, but it’s a bit clunky and doesn’t work with Mavericks. Still, for taking calls on your computer, it works well.
Comments
4 responses to “Five Apps To Make Your iPhone And Mac Work Together Even Better”
@Thorin
Have you tried Dialogue yourself? It’s reviews are terrible in the app store. Keen to know if it actually works.
I tried before I realized it doesn’t work with mavericks. It sent a brain piercing screech through the speakers. Haven’t dared use it since.
I just installed it!
They have temporarily removed the record function as it doesn’t work well with mavericks.
Other than that it makes and receives calls just fine and I think it works a treat.
Hippo remote is a must have….
Thorin, you mentioned AirDrop in your introduction to make my Mac and iPhone work together. Sadly, this isn’t the case – if you have got it to work you should share your secret.
Command-C peaked my interest, is there an Android and/or Windows equivalent?