How to do anything on your Mac, iPhone & iPad
Run iPhone and iPad apps and games on your Apple silicon Mac
EVER SINCE THE first Apple silicon Macs arrived in 2020, they’ve offered an additional benefit — the ability to run iPhone and iPad apps too with no messy conversion required. That’s because devices like your iPhone, iPad, and M1 and M2 Macs effectively run on identical architecture — the major difference being that while Mac apps are designed to be used with a mouse or trackpad and a keyboard, iPhone and iPad apps use touch–based taps, swipes, and other gestures.
To get around that, macOS has a feature called Touch Alternatives that “remaps” iPhone and iPad apps so they can be used with your Mac’s input devices. This should work with the overwhelming majority of iPhone and iPad apps, but there are exceptions. Developers can, if they wish, explicitly prevent their iPhone and iPad apps from running on Apple silicon — often because they already offer a perfectly good Mac version. For apps that aren’t available, try iMazing ($39.99, https://imazing.com). Read on to find out more.
HOW TO Run mobile apps on Mac
In the Mac App Store, try searching for an app. On the results page, click the iPhone & iPad Apps tab, then click an app. Under the app’s name you will see “Designed for iPad”, indicating that it is an iPadOS app.
You can download the app from here. You don’t need to do any additional work, as macOS–compatible iOS and iPadOS apps will simply work straight away once they are downloaded and installed.
You can also download iOS or iPadOS apps already tied to your iCloud account. Open the Mac App Store and click your account in the bottom left. Under Account, select iPhone & iPad Apps and pick an app to install.
