Use Mac and iOS’s Continuity options

Make your Mac, iPhone, and iPad work better together with these features

COntinuity is a group of six features that are available in the latest versions of iOS and macOS, and which provide extra convenience in certain scenarios. Two of these features – Auto Unlock and Universal Clipboard – are new. With the former switched on, when you wake your Mac it checks for your Apple Watch nearby, and that the Watch is unlocked; if so, your Mac assumes it was you who woke it and skips its usual request for your password, taking you straight to your desktop. Universal Clipboard recognizes that you may in fact be using more than one of your devices at the same time, and so its purpose is to enable you to copy and paste text, images, or video from one device to another just by copying to the clipboard as you normally would.

The remaining four Handoff features were added to Apple’s operating systems some time ago. However, if you’ve been using a Mac that predates 2012, you won’t have had the luxury of enjoying them, due to a lack of Bluetooth 4.0 in those earlier models. All of the Continuity features require participating devices to be signed in to your iCloud account, as proof of your identity. Most features also need Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to be turned on. alan stonebridge

How to Use Continuity Start with Auto Unlock

Ensure your Mac’s Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are on, then that your Mac and Watch are signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID (go to  > System Prefs > iCloud on Mac, and the Watch app > General > Apple ID on phone).

More Auto Unlock

If you haven’t already, set up a passcode in the Watch app > Passcode on your iPhone. In  > System Prefs > Security & Privacy on your Mac, enable “Allow your Apple Watch to unlock…” and wait for it to activate.

REQUIRES An iCloud account, Apple devices that meet certain hardware and operating system requirements – see apple.co/2dNfcOn

you will learn How to configure and use the whole set of Continuity features

IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes