Handoff features (e.g. Universal Control, Continuity Camera, AirPlay Receiver) also seem to work wired, and are much more reliable as a result

Posting this because it’s not well documented on Apple’s website, I’ve seen conflicting reports online, and it might help some folks. This is my anecdotal experience. These features are super useful but I’ve often run into some serious reliability issues with them when using them wirelessly.

Universal Control is the worst example of this. I’ve had zero luck getting it to stay connected for more than 10 minutes even though I have a solid WiFi connection. I plugged in a standard USB-C cable between my two computers and the problem has basically gone away. It connects instantly and doesn’t randomly drop anymore. This has made Universal Control actually usable for me.

Similarly, Continuity Camera works wired too. I’ve converted an old, barely functioning iPhone 11 into a full time webcam and mic for my Mac mini this way by keeping it connected via a Lightning cable. Works excellent.

Finally, Airplay Receiver works wired too. Sometimes when I’m working remotely I have both my personal MacBook Air and my work MacBook Pro in my bag, so I connect the two with a USB-C cable and I can use my Air as a secondary display by AirPlaying my Pro to the Air. This is particularly useful when you’re working somewhere with a large WiFi network, because the two computers can join different subnets and then not be able to “see“ each other on AirPlay, but a USB-C cable sorts that. Unfortunately this does not resolve the input lag that you see when using AirPlay but it is still workable. The Air also charges off the Pro (albeit very slowly) if the Pro is connected to power so battery isn’t an issue either.

For all 3 of these features I’ve noticed that unplugging the cable will immediately break the connection, which suggests to me that they’re not being done over WiFi/BT. Wanted to post this here for people who also have issues using these features. Wired makes a huge difference.