Sidecar in – In macOS 27 and iPadOS 27, Sidecar changes the basic feel of using an iPad as a companion screen: you can now tap macOS app interface elements directly with your finger. The update keeps most setup and layout behavior the same, but it comes with one frustratin
When Sidecar finally turns an iPad into something you can actually touch—buttons, menus, selections—it’s more than a tweak. It’s a correction to a long-running awkwardness: in earlier versions. you could use finger gestures on the extended display. but you couldn’t really interact with the app interface itself.
Sidecar is a macOS feature that extends your Mac’s display onto an iPad’s screen. For road warriors using a MacBook Pro. it’s been a handy way to build a multi-screen setup while on the go. But for all the time Sidecar has existed, the core interaction model hadn’t moved much until macOS 27 and iPadOS 27.
The big change lands quietly. With Sidecar running on macOS 27, you can now tap elements of the macOS interface and interact with apps using your finger, and it works like a mouse click.
In earlier versions of Sidecar, your iPad-extended screen could act more like a gesture pad than a real input device. You could use multi-touch gestures—like three-finger gestures for copying and pasting, and pinch gestures for zooming. But tapping a button on the macOS desktop. navigating through menus. or using an app interface directly wasn’t really possible with your fingers.
Instead, direct app interaction depended on other peripherals. The earlier approach was basically: use your iPad like a trackpad for gestures. but rely on a connected Magic Keyboard trackpad. a mouse. or an Apple Pencil when you wanted to click through interfaces. An Apple Pencil may have felt natural for imaging work. but many people would understandably stick to the Mac’s own input methods.
Now that boundary is gone. With macOS 27 and iPadOS 27, the interface itself becomes touchable. Tap bits of the macOS UI and they respond as if you clicked. Select items without reaching for a peripheral. Drag works too—allowing a finger-driven selection box the same way you’d click and drag with a mouse. The same motion-based interaction extends to resizing windows with a finger drag, and even scrolling through lengthy sidebar items.
The practical payoff shows up in everyday workflows, not just in theory. The update even makes room for finger-style work in apps like Pixelmator Pro, where you can finger-paint and change tools without switching back to an Apple Pencil.
The rest of Sidecar still feels familiar. Enabling it in the Display section of Settings works like it did before. You tap the plus, select the iPad from the list, and it appears alongside existing monitors.
Setting up Sidecar on macOS 27 is unchanged in the sense that you still choose the iPad and. under Use as. select either Extend display or Mirror. You can also enable it via the Screen Mirroring functions. though the article notes you’ll want to use the Settings method if you specifically want the sidebar and Touch Bar functionality.
On the iPad itself, the Sidecar interface stays the same: the sidebar still handles essential functions like mimicking modifier keys such as Command, Control, and other elements, plus the on-screen keyboard and related controls. At the bottom, the virtual Touch Bar remains available as usual.
One limitation does stand out during testing. Sidecar can’t be put into portrait mode—only landscape. The rotating iPad representation still appears in the Arrange Displays area of Display settings. but only when you’re sharing the keyboard and mouse. It does not rotate to portrait from landscape when you’re extending the display. The limitation is described as a frustration, framed like a first-beta issue that should be adjusted in future updates.
That’s the tension in Sidecar’s story: for a company that clearly cares about touch. the feature previously restricted finger-to-screen interaction mostly to gestures. leaving direct UI control to mouse-like tools. Sidecar has been useful as a productivity aid for a long time—but it also “neutered” finger inputs in the places that matter most.
With macOS 27 and iPadOS 27, the change finally brings finger interaction where it was missing all along. You’re no longer stuck choosing between gestures on one side and peripheral-based clicking on the other. It’s the kind of update that doesn’t just add capability—it removes a daily friction that many people likely felt every time they needed to do something as simple as tapping a UI element.
MISRYOUM Sidecar macOS 27 iPadOS 27 Apple touch interface iPad as display productivity UI interaction Pixelmator Pro Touch Bar
So it finally lets you actually tap stuff… took forever.
Does this mean you can just ditch the pencil now? Cuz mine is always dying when I need it. Also wondering if it works with older iPads or just the newest ones.
Wait so I can tap buttons directly on the Mac desktop with my finger? I thought Sidecar was always like a display-only thing with gestures. If it’s mouse click level now that’s actually kinda huge, unless it’s only for macOS 27 beta or whatever.
Apple really took their sweet time. Next they’ll let you use the iPad as a full keyboard too, right? I don’t get why it couldn’t have been like this from day one, it’s literally touch. Also can it scroll normally or is it still gonna feel janky like before?