WWDC 2024 has come and gone, and one feature that deserves more praise is the new Remote Control for Screen Sharing feature coming to iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. For those who constantly act as free tech support for their family, friends, and coworkers, the new SharePlay feature is sure to be a godsend. Well, it may actually cause more people to ask for your help, but that’s okay. It’s a pretty awesome expansion to Screen Sharing, so let’s take a look.
Expanded Screen Sharing Helps Your Boss with That PDF with Remote Control
One of the neatest features to arrive in iPadOS 18 is an expansion to SharePlay. While it was iOS 15.1 that introduced Screen Share to FaceTime, this new feature will now allow users to not only show what’s on their screen, but they will be able to draw notes on their screen as well. That means those who are constantly helping a relative or a boss perform actions on an iPhone and iPad can finally give more detailed instructions.
This means that instead of screaming “CLICK THE EMAIL ICON” over a choppy FaceTime call until your throat hurts, you can instead share your screen and encircle the icons necessary,
As if this already wasn’t a blessing, users will also be able to request that they take control of a device. Essentially, you will be able to ask your Grandma if it’s okay to remotely take control of her iPad or iPhone, and you can fix the problem through your own device for them in real time (assuming it’s a software problem).
When you ask to control someone’s screen, a notification appears for them, so hopefully you won’t need to circle this for them. So that means when my Mom asks me how to use the new calculator in iPadOS 18, I can simply take control of her screen and show her rather than try to explain each and every interaction.
These features are arriving in iOS as well, meaning you’ll be able to have the same options when helping someone on an iPhone.
How To Get iPadOS 18
At the time of this writing, iPadOS 18 and iOS 18 are only available as Developer Beta versions. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend using these unless you’re comfortable running an operating system that is still under development. It likely contains bugs and glitches.
Nonetheless, you can check out our guide here if you’re keen on trying the latest iOS and iPadOS features. Just be sure to make a backup of your device before moving forward.
Expect Public Beta and more Developer Betas releases to arrive throughout the summer. Meanwhile, the official stable iPadOS 18 update is set to arrive this fall. You can check out our guide here to see what iPad models will support the new update, and you can also check here to see what we think are the coolest features to arrive with the new update.