You can’t mirror your iPhone while mirroring your Mac on Apple Vision Pro

So close, yet so far. Ahead of WWDC 2024, I had hoped Apple would let you mirror your iPhone inside of the Vision Pro, just like how you can use your Mac on an enormous virtual display. Instead, we got iPhone Mirroring on macOS Sequoia. As the name implies, it will let you see everything on your iPhone from the comfort of your Mac.

But, I wondered, what if you mirrored a Mac that was mirroring an iPhone in the Vision Pro? It seems like the ideal workaround in theory, one that would solve the headset’s annoying inability to play nicely with your iPhone. But, unfortunately, it won’t work. We’ve heard from knowledgeable sources that Apple’s hardware only supports one of its Continuity mirroring features at the time. So if you’re sending your Mac’s screen to the Vision Pro, you won’t be able to mirror your iPhone at the same time.

We haven’t heard the exact reason for that limitation, but I’d wager it comes down to networking limitations. Mirroring a sharp and lag-free version of your Mac’s screen is difficult enough — juggling that alongside a perfectly rendered copy of your iPhone might be too tough for some Macs. Apple is already pushing beyond its current Continuity restrictions with visionOS 2, which will support higher resolution Mac mirroring, as well as the ability to virtualize an ultra-wide display. So perhaps there’s room for multi-device mirroring down the line.

It’s not hard to imagine Apple bringing the iPhone mirroring feature directly to the Vision Pro eventually, but ideally, it would also work alongside Mac mirroring in the headset.

Here are a few other tidbits we’ve learned about iPhone mirroring on macOS Sequoia while exploring WWDC:

• It requires both WiFi and Bluetooth to work, and the iPhone is projected at 60 fps.

• When you launch a game, the iPhone window flips into landscape view on your Mac. The game’s sound also appears to be synchronized well.

• Mirroring will use around the same amount of battery life on your iPhone as typical usage.

• If you unlock your iPhone directly, the mirrored window closes immediately on your Mac.

• You’ll eventually be able to drag and drop files and other content between your iPhone and Mac. This feature will also be available on third-party apps.

Catch up here for all the news out of Apple’s WWDC 2024.