Mouse support on iPad & iPhone is still in the early days and is not enabled by default. It is hidden deep within the iPad & iPhone’s Accessibility settings. And even after attaching a mouse, either through a Bluetooth or wired connection, you have to deal with an ugly circular cursor mimicking a human fingerprint & a few more interface complications. The feature does not quite work as per the expectations until now, after all, it is an Accessibility feature. Keeping that in mind let us explore the feature
Connecting a Mouse to Your iPhone/iPad
Any type of mouse can be connected to the iPhone or iPad, including:
Connecting a Bluetooth Mouse
Before moving on make sure the Bluetooth mouse and the iPad/iPhone device are in the range, the Bluetooth has sufficient charge and not paired with any other device (if so, unpair it). Apple’s Magic Mouse 2 will work through a wired connection, but considering the awkward charging method, it is not going to work. The good news is that the 1st generation Magic Mouse works fine. Now on your iPhone or iPad: If the iPad/iPhone cannot be paired with the Bluetooth mouse, then restart the iPhone/iPad device & the Bluetooth mouse. Now once again try to pair then. Hopefully, now they will be paired. Moreover, there is no list of compatible mice with IOS 13/ iPadOS 13 is issued by Apple, the only way to know the compatibility is by trial and error.
Connecting a Wired Mouse
To set up a wired mouse to use with the iPad/iPhone is awkward than it to set up a Bluetooth mouse. Keep in mind that anything hooked up below a generic laser mouse will get you a message “Cannot use accessory, this accessory requires too much power”. Apple’s Camera Connection Kit, which is now called Apple’s Lightning to USB Camera adapter, is required to connect a wired mouse to the iPhone/iPad. This Lightning-to-USB accessory was designed for transferring images to your device’s storage from a digital camera. If iPad Pro used is one of the latest that have a USB Type-C connector, and the mouse, to be used, has an older USB Type-A mouse, then a USB-C to USB adapter will be used. And if the mouse, that will be used, is compatible with USB-C then just plug the mouse straight in. Basic instructions to follow are
Connecting a Wireless Mouse with a Dongle
Wireless mice with dongles use a small radio frequency to communicate over short distances. Since the mouse & the dongle are already paired out of the box, the instructions to connect a wireless mouse are the same as of wired mouse.
Configuring Your Mouse
The mouse attached to the iPhone/iPad would not work the way it will work on a Mac/PC. The mouse cursor itself is a big, grey circle cursor which is a mimic to a fingerprint. And you can only make it bigger & change its color. It is not easy to get the same precision of mouse that one can get with a desktop cursor, but it takes a lot of practice. Mouse has many more options to change like either button on a standard two-button mouse can be programmed to do a number of tasks, from the standard single-tap to a pinch action, and many others besides, then the Cursor section, tracking speed, There are many settings in AssistiveTouch and the Accessibility menus, but let us cover the basics.
Hide circular AssistiveTouch menu
The circular AssistiveTouch menu stays on the screen by default when AssistiveTouch is in use, although it can be moved around the display. Also, the menu for AssistiveTouch can be activated by right-clicking your mouse. The AssistiveTouch menu can be hidden There is a lot about this setup that will take some getting used to it.
Adjust the tracking speed, Drag Lock, Zoom Pan
The tracking speed for the mouse can be very fast or slow for the iPad/iPhone. Also, you may want to change the settings of Drag Lock & Zoom Pan. If you cannot cope with the speed, it can be easily changed
Customize the buttons on your mouse
Usually, the default buttons of the mouse are:
Left-click (Single-Tap for selection)Right-click (open AssistiveTouch menu)
These settings can also be customized. Follow the below steps to do so.
Cursor
With your pointing device connected, you should be able to see the “cursor” onscreen as a fingertip-sized circle. You can configure the cursor as per your liking.
Pointing Devices that Work with iOS 13/iPadOS
There is no list by Apple of compatible mice devices which are iOS/iPadOS compatible, the only way to find is to try it. iOS 13 & iPadOS 13 is a big step by Apple to allow the use of both wired and third-party wireless peripherals, with both mouse support and gamepad support arriving in the same update. This means that most generic USB and Bluetooth mice should just work. Apple’s Magic Trackpad 2 does work with iPhones and iPads, but only over a wired connection. The Magic Mouse 2 also works
The Mouse Support on iPad or iPhone
Make no mistake about it, mouse support on iPhone and iPad is first and foremost an accessibility feature. Currently, mouse support feels more like finger simulation than proper mouse control or it is better to say that it is not a computer mouse but it is a remote finger. Apple hasn’t made any changes to the way the operating system works when you’re using it with a mouse. iOS and iPadOS are each still a pure touch-based OS. The mouse cursor interacts with the screen in the way your finger does. You can tap, drag, but you cannot select batch items on the iPad/iPhone. Swipe gestures can also be performed by the mouse e.g. to open the Notification Center you will swipe down from the mouse. Mouse support provides a more accurate method of selecting and editing large chunks of text, even if it doesn’t work quite like a standard computer. This is the one area where the feature stood out the most, but that could just be down to how cumbersome touch-based text manipulation usually is. One example of this is in how text manipulation works with the mouse. On a regular computer, you would move your pointer over the text you want to select and then click and drag. But that doesn’t work on the mobile OS. You have to double click on a line of text that would highlight the entire section & then grab the paddles /markers on either side of the selected area to trim it down. It is a small issue and it is not very difficult to adjust to it, but it still feels more like touch simulation than proper mouse control. Some creatives might benefit from the added precision of a mouse when editing photos or working with vector graphics. Since many creative types purchase an iPad Pro for the Apple Pencil support, this isn’t such a big deal. If you remotely access other computers over the local network or internet, a mouse will make the experience feel a little more native. Unfortunately, you will still lack proper mouse button support, but you might be able to configure your mouse to mirror the input methods used by your favorite remote access tool. It’s unclear whether Apple will expand the concept in the future and equip its mobile OS’ with the ability to accept proper mouse inputs. This would undoubtedly push the iPad Pro further into laptop replacement territory, a path that Apple has been treading very carefully. Remember that Some swipe gestures are harder to pull off than others. Swiping up from the bottom of an app to close it, or open the lock screen, proved very difficult. I often clicked on the. It’s very good for navigating your phone and interacting with apps without using your hand directly, and as an Accessibility feature, that makes a lot of sense. Maybe that will change in the future, but for now, this feature is designed to fulfill the needs of Accessibility users, not to emulate a desktop.
A Good Start
Mouse support is perfect for its intended use as an accessibility tool. For productivity purposes, there aren’t too many advantages, but who knows what Apple has planned for the future. The company is slowly pushing the iPad and iPad Pro as a tablet that can perform many tasks you’d typically do on a laptop, without transforming it into a laptop-tablet hybrid.
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