How to use an iPad as a second display for your Mac

Sidecar turns an iPad into a second screen for a Mac. How to start it, how to move windows to it, what it is good for, and how it compares with Universal Control.

Guide · Updated 13 October 2026

Open Control Center on the Mac, click Screen Mirroring, and choose your iPad. It becomes a second display. Both devices need the same Apple Account, with Wi Fi, Bluetooth and Handoff on, or a cable between them.

Moving windows to the iPad

  • Drag a window off the edge of the Mac's screen onto the iPad.
  • Hover over the green button and choose Move to iPad.
  • Arrange where the iPad sits beside the Mac in System Settings, Displays.

Good uses

  • A chat, music or reference window you glance at.
  • Drawing with Apple Pencil in apps that support it.
  • A tool palette while the main screen holds the canvas.

Sidecar or Universal Control?

Sidecar makes the iPad a screen for the Mac. Universal Control keeps the iPad running its own apps and lets the Mac's keyboard and pointer control it. See Universal Control vs Sidecar.

ClutterFreeMac treats the iPad like any other display: it gets a strip of its own, or you can leave it out in Settings, Displays, so the windows you put there stay where you put them.

Questions

How do I move a window to my iPad with Sidecar?

Drag it off the edge of the Mac screen onto the iPad, or hover over the green button and choose Move to iPad.

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