Mac Screen Mirroring: The Complete Guide (2026)

Updated August 2026 · 6 min read

Every mirroring path, and what actually ships

"Screen mirroring" covers several different features that people tend to lump together. Here is the honest map of what a Mac can and cannot send its display to.

Mirroring to a TV or Apple TV

This is the path AirPlay was designed for. On your Mac, click Control Center in the menu bar, choose Screen Mirroring, and pick your Apple TV or AirPlay-compatible television. Both devices need to be on the same network. You can mirror your display or extend it, and audio follows the video.

Mirroring to another Mac

Since macOS Monterey, a Mac can act as an AirPlay receiver. On the receiving Mac, open System Settings, go to General, then AirDrop & Handoff, and switch on AirPlay Receiver. The receiving Mac then appears in the sending Mac's Screen Mirroring menu.

This is the setting that confuses people most, because it is the one that comes up when you search for Mac-to-iPhone mirroring. It only works Mac to Mac.

Using an iPad as a second display

Sidecar turns a nearby iPad into either a mirrored or extended Mac display, wired or wireless. It is built into macOS and needs no third-party software. Sidecar has never supported iPhone, and Apple has given no indication that it will.

Mirroring a Mac to an iPhone

This is the gap. There is no Apple feature for it at all, and the three things people usually find while searching are all pointed the wrong way:

• AirPlay sends from an iPhone, it does not receive. An iPhone can never be an AirPlay display. See can you AirPlay from Mac to iPhone.
• Sidecar is iPad only.
• iPhone Mirroring, added in macOS Sequoia, shows your iPhone on your Mac. That is the opposite of what you want.

What works: a dedicated streaming app

Beam is built for exactly this direction. Two free apps: Beacon sits in your Mac's menu bar and captures the screen, and Beam on your iPhone displays it full screen with audio. On your own WiFi the stream goes directly between the two devices, with no cloud, no account and no internet connection needed. Setup is a one-time pairing and takes about a minute. Full walkthrough in the step-by-step guide.

If you need to reach your Mac while you are away from home, Beam Unlimited adds streaming over your own Tailscale network, still peer to peer with no Beam server in the middle. See the remote streaming guide.

Mirroring versus remote control

Worth separating, because the right tool depends on which one you actually want.

Mirroring means watching: your Mac screen appears on another device and you look at it. Remote control means operating: you click and type on the remote device and your Mac responds.

Beam is a viewer. It is optimised for smooth, low-latency video and audio, and it does not send input back to the Mac. If you want to actually drive your Mac from your phone, that is the remote desktop category, and tools like Jump Desktop, Screens or a plain VNC client are the right answer. Compared side by side in Beam vs Jump Desktop.

If what you want is your iPhone acting as an extra desktop you can drag windows onto, that is a third category again, covered in using an iPhone as a Mac monitor and in Beam vs Duet Display.

Frequently asked questions